James Hetfield was influenced by many British bands, especially Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and groups from the New Wave of the British Heavy Metal. But it wasn’t only Metal that he used to listen, he also was a fan of Queen and over the years gave his opinion on the late Freddie Mercury as a singer.
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What is James Hetfield’s opinion on Freddie Mercury
Queen was a really important band for James Hetfield when growing up and in his opinion Freddie Mercury is among the greatest singers of all time. When Rolling Stone asked him to list who he considered the best singers, he placed Queen’s vocalist at No. 13, ahead of names like Johnny Cash, John Bush and Maynard James Keenan. In 1992 he had the chance to pay tribute to the singer when Metallica performed at Freddie Mercury’s tribute concert in 1992, and James joined the band and Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi on stage that night to sing “Stone Cold Crazy.”
“That band could do just about f-ing anything. They could go into – rinkydinkydink – some circus thing and then, you know, go into something mon-ster-ously f–ing heavy. Guitar orchestration was just amazing; y’know, wild ass guitar work, that’s kinda – I took from Queen – kinda, opened my actual style was the actual harmony and things like that, guitar orchestration type thing. Somebody said that I might have a chance to sing with the band which was – OK! Don’t ask me twice, motherf–er. I’ll be there … !” he said before that tribute show.
When asked if he knew all the words to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Hetfield said he could never sing like Freddie on that track. “Actually, I don’t think I do. I could sing along quite easily but if I was up there by myself goin’ – Umhuhhuhhuh-oohf – I wouldn’t even attempt that, my voice doesn’t go higher than a growl, so, you know…” A few years later, in 1998, the American band featured their version of “Stone Cold Crazy” on their covers album “Garage Inc.”
James Hetfield said Queen is a huge inspiration and that he also loves Brian May
“Queen has been a huge inspiration in the early days for me guitar-wise, especially Brian May. Just watching Brian May, there was a moment in the show (during) ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, it was like this Rock and Roll dream I was looking at. I was right on, right at the sound desk looking at him. Long ramp, he popped out of the middle just before his solo, there’s smoke, there’s a light behind him. His white hair, you know, this big white aura around him.”
“He rises up out of the stage and he is doing the solo and he is in a giant silver cape from the seventies look. Kirk and I just looked at each other like ‘Holy Shit! This is awesome! Total fan boys at that point. Then after the show (laughs), Brian May, he says ‘I’m wondering if Kirk likes what I’m playing”. Then Kirk and I looked at each other again and went ‘Huh? (In total shock)’.”
James Hetfield continued:
“We met his roadie and we were all hanging out, he had this guitar on his back. He said ‘I know some of your crew guys’ and this and that. And I’m thinking ‘What’s that on your back, It’s that ‘The Guitar’?’ He says ‘Oh yeah’. I said ‘Ok, is there any way possible that I can take a look at it?’ And he goes ‘Hey Bri, is that ok?’ and then Brian says ‘Oh sure, yeah’.”
“So he takes it out, opens it up and I’m jamming on Brian May’s ‘old girl’. (The) original guitar that him and his dad made when he was 18 years old and he still has it on tour and still plays it every night. It was spectacular. Then Brian leans on to me and he is taking selfies and it was like ‘Oh my God!’ Can’t wipe that smile off my face, it was extremely cool”.
“Then Kirk is like ‘My turn, my turn!” So we all got to play Brian’s guitar. Just a super, super memorable and redundantly unforgettable moment. Hopefully if I’m alive at 70, (I wanna be) that cool and that down to earth, just giving and loving life. He is so serene and a big inspiration as far as all that goes,” James Hetfield said on Metallica’s Youtube channel in 2017 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Brian May is often told that “Stone Cold Crazy” may have given birth to Thrash Metal
Curiously, Brian May has said that some people told him they believe “Stone Cold Crazy” may have been an inspiration for the creation of thrash metal because of its speed and heaviness. “I think so (It’s the heaviest Queen song). Stone Cold Crazy goes back a long way. It was one of the first songs we ever played together.”
“So it’s interesting that it never made it onto a record until the third album. That’s quite unusual, isn’t it? I think we were playing Stone Cold Crazy in our very first gigs. Freddie had written the lyrics with his old band, and the original riff was very different. It sounded like the riff in ‘Tear It Up’ (The Works – 1984). So that original version of Stone Cold Crazy sounded like a lot of other things which were around at the time, with quite an easygoing riff. It didn’t have much pace to it.”
He continued:
“But I thought: these lyrics are kind of frenetic, so the music should be frenetic as well. So I put this riff on it, which people are telling me is the birth of Thrash Metal or something! I don’t know about that. But was unusual at the time to play at that pace. That song was a bit of fun, really. I don’t think we regarded it as that serious, which is perhaps why it never made it onto an album until number three. But it’s nice and heavy. I still remember going in to do the definitive version of it. It was faster than ever – we just went for it! There’s a lot of adrenaline: let’s go for it! It really does burn. And I liked the sounds that we had in place by that time.”
“Stone Cold Crazy is a good example of us recording in a live atmosphere but in the studio. And we started to have it down by that point. Once you get a grip on that kind of stuff, you can fool yourself into thinking it’s live when you’re in the studio. So it doesn’t sound calculated – it sounds real and spontaneous. And we captured it. I think that’s all one take. It’s not like messing around doing take after take. We just did it. I’d say that’s when we started to master the studio,” Brian May told Guitar World in 2023.
I'm a Brazilian journalist who always loved Classic Rock and Heavy Metal music. That passion inspired me to create Rock and Roll Garage over 9 years ago.
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