It was in 1984, I was on tour in America somewhere with my band. We had squeezed into our little van together with the equipment. It was raining, we were tired, we had been on the move for a long time. And suddenly – it must have been 3 or 4 in the morning – this music comes on the radio. I didn’t want to believe that something like that existed at all. This wonderful brutality, which was different from anything else, blew my brain away.
It was not a punk, it was not a heavy metal. But precise, explosive and violent. It was aggressive and intense and had wild, bizarre rhythm. And yet the goddamned song held everything together. In the end I already sang him, although he really did not use elements of a usual pop song. The number was called “Fight Fire with Fire” – and it opened the door to a natural force called Metallica.
When Metallica set off in 1981, they did not choose the common route to success. I don’t know if they wanted to be stars at the time and myriads wanted to sell plates, but if so, they didn’t make it particularly skillful. Did you think you could end up with “Kill ‘EM All”, your debut album, in the top 40 playlists of the American radio stations? And “(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth”, as a hit single, obviously had to be a sure-fire success: Five-minute bass solos are the free ticket for commercial success.
Flea: I can’t hear a metallica plate without having to think about Cliff
From the point of view of a bassist, the song is one of the highlights in the history of rock music. But ultimately, every cliff-burton solo was a soulful, psychedelic, headbanging statement that threw your world out of joint, electrified your brain and made a hall rock. They are wonderful music artifacts, played by a young man who was also a masterpiece as a person. I can’t hear a metallica plate without having to think of it. And it seems obvious that what he gave the band still lives on in Metallica.
The fact that Metallica has found a way into the world is a miracle. They have become a house brand without squinting at the mainstream. It is music by and for outsiders, and that they got through with it is simply sensational. When I hear Metallica, I always have the impression that they played because they can’t help it.
Something seems so gagged and tightened inside her that you have to let it out with a loud bang – an underground source of despair, a hell fire of pain and anger, but above all the love for the process that channeled these energies. For people who can be rocked by Metallica, the world is a less lonely place. It is an experience that opposes a verbal description, but I can only bow beforehand.
Metallica’s career is a large, heavy oceanic giant
The pain can be the muse for great art. He is an initiation rite for every artist – and he is an experience that touches us all as an observer. Everyone who was once at a metallica show and showed the devil horns was somewhat larger. Raising a few hours on the brutal beat of Metallica is certainly just as much health-promoting as mental training, group meditation or a love-in.
Metallica’s career is a large, heavy ocean leader and he brought it to the last place on earth. You started from zero and now rocked the world. You are radical! Your music is prohibited! And they are not finished on their way. Whatever you throw between your legs makes you even stronger. You are family. And they are still as intense today as they were at the beginning.