Metallica achived fame only a few years after Iron Maiden and James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were big fans of the British band. In an interview for Metallica official channel back in 2017 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) Hetfield recalled the funny story of the fanboy moment he and Lars had when they saw Maiden bassist and main lyricist Steve Harris in 1981 in the streets of Los Angeles.
The story of Metallica members fanboy moment with Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris
“1981, hanging out in Hollywood, California driving around. It’s Ron McGovney (First Metallica bassist), me and Lars (Ulrich) in the back seat and seeing Steve Harris (Iron Maiden bassist and main lyricist), (we) found out were they stayed, seeing Steve Harris walking down the street and us, you know. Dorky shy metalheads (screaming) ‘Hey Steveeee’ and he actually turns around and starts walking towards and we are like ‘Ahhhh’ (In total shock).”
“It was our first brush with somebody kind of cool and famous. So that always stuck with me. Steve Harris, super down to earth and really cool guy, nothing has changed. I mean, he showed up at the show that we did and it’s really cool when other musicians are hanging out watching you do what you do. It takes you to another level, you gotta kind of go to ‘Olympic Metal’, ‘Medal! Whatever (laughs), you got Olympic mode, like you step it up. Our setlist was at least like 5 minutes faster, the set time. Lars was so nervous ‘Oh my god, Steve Harris is watching me! This part sounds too much like Iron Maiden?’ (Laughs).”
“Usually halfway through the show you figure ‘Okay, he is gone and he moved on to the next thing’, But no, the whole show was standing there, the whole show to the very end and not only he was there the whole time, he got in the vehicles with us (laughs), came to the hotel with us. Like, super cool guy and then we got to see them a couple days later and likewise, super hospitable there.”
James Hetfield listed Iron Maiden as one of his favorite bands of all time
In an interview with Colombian radio station Radioacktiva back in 2016 James Hetfield listed 4 bands that were some of his favorites of all time and one of them were Iron Maiden. “Early Iron Maiden albums. I love the new wave of the British Heavy Metal. That makes me feel good, it reminds me of youth,” James Hetfield told Colombian radio station Radioacktiva.
Rolling Stone magazine listed the 100 best singers of all time back in 2008 with the help of many famous musicians who voted for their favorite artists. Metallica singer and guitarist James Hetfield was one of the voters who listed the 20 best singers of all time in his opinion at the time.
Hetfield listed ex-Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno in the position number 8. He was Maiden’s voice on their two first studio albums “Iron Maiden” (1980) and “Killers” (1981).
One his favorites memories of buying an album was of when he bought a Maiden record
One of Hetfield’s favorite memories of buying an album, as he revealed in a video for Metallica’s Youtube channel in 2017, was when he bought Iron Maiden’s debut album (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage): “I bought this just because of this (The cover), because look at that, why would you not buy this? That dude (Mascot Eddie) look really menacing and evil.”
“So I bought that, I never even heard of them. So I bought and put it on, I’m glad I did because it’s a big inspiration for me in the early days.”