What was David Bowie’s opinion on Metallica

David Bowie was one of those artists who you couldn’t define what kind of songwriter or musician he really was since he was constantly changing everything about his ‘sound and vision’. He had no fear in trying new things and doing sometime he had never done before in his career.

He was a huge influence to countless artists all over the world and also managed to be one of the best-selling artists of all time. A prolific songwriter, Bowie released 26 studio albums during his career and sold an estimated amount of more than 100 million records sold worldwide.

He had a really broad musical taste and was always paying attention to what was happening in music. So he was aware of bands like Metallica, for example and he shared his opinion on them a few times.

What was David Bowie’s opinion on Metallica

The Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and the bassist Rob Trujillo were lucky enough to have seen David Bowie playing live once in Kansas City. They not only saw the show, they also had the opportunity to go backstage and meet him and it was when Bowie said he knew them for a long time and liked what they were doing.

Hammett recalled that in a blog post (reported by Metal Hammer), saying: “I also remember apologizing to him, saying, ‘Sorry David for nicking the title Leper Messiah (Which was part of the song ‘Ziggy Stardust’), and he was laughing. He came out (after the show), wearing sweats and a t-shirt, and said, ‘Hi how ya doing Kirk, hi Rob!’

“I couldn’t believe it! And then all the fanboy stuff came out, how he’d been an inspiration, blah blah blah. He said he’d known about us for a long time, liked our music and told us to carry on! Rob and I were beaming,” Kirk Hammett said.

David Bowie said “Lulu”, the album Lou Reed made with Metallica was a masterpiece

Bowie not only praised Metallica that time, he also said that the infamous album the group did with the late Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed was a masterpiece. Tha statement was shared by Lou Reed’s widow Laurie Anderson. She said that at her late husband’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

“One of (his) last projects was his album with Metallica. And this was really challenging, and I have a hard time with it. There are many struggles and so much radiance. And after Lou’s death, David Bowie made a big point of saying to me, ‘Listen, this is Lou’s greatest work. This is his masterpiece. Just wait, it will be like (Reed’s 1973 album) ‘Berlin’. It will take everyone a while to catch up,’” Laurie Anderson said.

The collaborative album between Reed and Metallica was released in 2011 and had 10 tracks. At the time, it peaked at number 36 on the Billboard 200.

David Bowie gave Hammett and Rob a ride after his show

Kirk Hammett and Rob Trujillo were at the same hotel as David Bowie in Kansas City when they had the chance to go see his show, so Hammett had the chance to see him earlier that day at the gym. When Hammett and Rob were deciding how they would go back from the show that night, the guitarist told his bandmate that they didn’t need a driver or car, they could just take a cab after the show was over. But as he recalled in an interview for The Metallica Report (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), it had been so long since he had to take a cab after a show that he didn’t recall how difficult it was to get one after a huge concert like Bowie’s. But then the most incredible thing happened, since Bowie’s tour bus appeared and gave them a ride.

“(Bowie was) playing in Kansas City and I said to Rob (Trujillo), ‘We don’t need a car or a driver, we just gonna take a cab. After the show, guess what? Try to find a cab after a show. That’s how long it’s been for me to be in that situation (I couldn’t remember how difficult it was). Afterwards Rob is looking at me, we can’t go to the parking lot, he is looking at me like ‘What are we gonna do?’ I’m sitting there thinking and as I’m thinking a tour bus comes up and I had seen David Bowie in the gym earlier that day. Tour bus comes up, stops, door opens up and Bowie goes ‘What are you guys doing?”

He continued:

“Wanna a ride to the hotel?’ I’m like ‘Oh my God, we don’t have our ride, we can’t catch a cab. Can we ride with you?’ And David is like ‘Yeah! Come on!’. We go on and we sit down, he is like with a baseball cap on, (he was) so funny, so goofy. People told me how funny and goofy David is and how much he is not like his public image. We spent like 15 to 20 minutes and all I could think of afterwards was fuck, he is nothing like his public image, his super serious public image.”

“Goofy, cracking jokes, can’t stop laughing, always has a smile on his face. We were talking about the dumbest stuff. We were talking about (the band) Dandy Warhols and how goofy the music was. It was crazy, we were just laughing the whole time. Rob (Trujillo) was like a statue, he couldn’t speak, I couldn’t break him out of it (laughs). It was hilarious seeing Rob (like that),” Kirk Hammett said.

“Master of Puppets” has a similar guitar riff to Bowie’s song “Andy Warhol”

Although many people might not expect that, Bowie was a huge influence on Metallica, especially on Hammett and the late bassist Cliff Burton. As the guitarist recalled in an interview with Mitch Lafon back in 2016 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), they loved the British artist. He even noted the song “Andy Warhol”, which was released on the album “Hunky Dory” in 1971, inspired one of the riffs of Metallica’s classic “Master of Puppets” released 15 years later.

“David Bowie (has been) a pretty huge influence on me and another people in the band as well. Cliff Burton and I, we used to listen to ‘Ziggy Stardust’ album a lot (during) ‘Ride The Lightning’ work. The title (of the song) ‘Leper Messiah is actually in the song ‘Ziggy Stardust’. If you wanna dig any further into in how much an influence he was, all you have to do is listen to the song ‘Andy Warhol’ and you will know what I’m talking about. That song was a heavy influence on Cliff Burton, that album ‘Hunky Dory’ was a big influence on Cliff Burton as well. If you listen to ‘Andy Warhol’ you will hear something in that song that will make you say ‘(It was) an influence on Metallica’. I’m not gonna say where, how, whatever, I’m gonna leave it up to you,” Kirk Hammett said.