James Hetfield on the singer so good it “pissed him off”
It’s every singer’s goal to try and do better than the person who was singing before. Whether you’re singing hard rock or opera, there’s always a slight bit of competition whenever someone steps in front of a microphone, either to leave everyone else in the dust or get the attention of one of your musical heroes. Even though James Hetfield never claimed to have the greatest voice in the world, he said that listening to Ronnie James Dio’s perfect approach to singing was enough to piss him off.
For the first few years of Metallica’s development, though, Hetfield didn’t want to be the singer at all. While the first press photos showed him firmly behind the microphone, Hetfield thought he would be better suited to playing a background role, playing the driving rhythm guitars right up the middle and serving as the guitar engine behind the band.
When they couldn’t find anybody to take a spot in front of the microphone, Hetfield would blossom into one of the greatest singers of the thrash genre. From his punk-like beginnings on Kill ‘Em All to going to a vocal coach for The Black Album, Hetfield would be able to switch between his tender voice and trademark bark with ease, playing ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and ‘Master of Puppets’ without losing any power.
Before Metallica had even started, Dio had started teaching a clinic on how to sing hard rock. While many may have known him for being the one to fill Ozzy Osbourne’s shoes in Black Sabbath, Dio had already begun working on his vocal range in Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, writing songs that had fantastical elements to them on tracks like ‘Man on the Silver Mountain’ and ‘Stargazer’.
Even though this would be closer to power metal than thrash, Dio would be too big an icon for the band not to pay tribute to him after he passed away from stomach cancer. Working amongst a collection of Dio acolytes, Metallica would put together a medley of Dio favourites called ‘Ronnie Rising’, which would be included as part of a tribute album and select copies of their 2016 album Hardwired to Self Destruct.
As the band saw one singer after the next working on the tribute record, Hetfield began to grow resentful of the immense range Dio possessed, telling MusicRadar, “When we did the Ronnie Dio tribute record. We did this medley of a bunch of different Dio songs. I just realised how fucking amazing that guy was, and it pissed me off…He was just a natural singer. He had a range that had power all the way through it. And he just continues to challenge me, which is great.”
Then again, Hetfield has always treated his voice far differently than most other metal singers. Instead of using it as a lead instrument, many of the band’s greatest ragers involve him practically playing percussion with his voice, using a handful of notes or just singing the riff to tell his harrowing stories of war and human evil. Hetfield already had his stripes as a metal lord, but if he wants to be put through his paces, he’ll probably be putting on ‘Holy Diver’.
