Elton John has moved James Hetfield to tears when he described the Metallica mega-hit Nothing Else Matters as “one of the best songs ever written” in a recent interview.
The heavy metal legends appeared on Thursday’s (September 9) edition of The Howard Stern Show to talk about their new covers album The Metallica Blacklist, which celebrates 30 years since the release of their 1991 eponymous record (AKA The Black Album), with a massive 53-song tracklisting of high-profile artists all putting their own spin on tracks from the 1991 LP.
John covered Nothing Else Matters for the project and decided to crash Metallica’s interview with Stern via Zoom to tell them how much he enjoyed the opportunity.
“Listen, this is one of the best songs ever written, to me,” John declared. “It’s a song that never gets old. And playing on this track, I just couldn’t wait. The chord structure, the melodies, the time changes, it’s got drama written all over it.”
“I have to say, it was a no-brainer playing on this song,” he continued. “Metallica are probably the crème de la crème of those kind of bands. You can’t really define them. They’re not a heavy metal band. They’re a musical band. Their songs aren’t just heavy metal. They’re beautiful songs. This is such a melodic song — it’s fucking great, actually.”
As Elton spoke, Hetfield was visibly moved to tears, at one point the singer covered his face but the cameras still caught the shine in his eyes as he took in Elton’s words. Watch below.
Elton John and Metallica on The Howard Stern Show
Drummer Lars Ulrich did his best to sum up just how much the Rocket Man's words meant to himself and to his bandmates, saying: “To be able to hear what you just said, Elton, sitting next to James, who’s been, we’ve been doing this for 40 years together. The reaction that I could feel in his body language when you said it was one of the greatest songs ever written. I know how much that means to [Hetfield]. This is just incredible to hear.”
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