‘Junior Dad’: The Metallica song that reduces Kirk Hammett to tears
By definition, a “diehard” is someone “who strongly opposes change or who continues to support something in spite of opposition”. This begs the question: who are the true diehard Metallica fans? Are they the original lightning-riders of the 1980s who stuck to their guns, opposed change, and chided their heroes for cutting their hair, going alternative, and “selling out?” Or are the real diehards the undeterred loyalists of Hetfield and Co, the ones who actually kinda liked St Anger and thought Lars had some good points during that whole Napster squabble?
No matter which side of the diehard fence you found yourself on back in 2011, just about everybody needed a moment to wrap their heads around Metallica’s Lulu album, an unlikely, spoken-word rock opera recorded in collaboration with the lord of New York City art rock, Lou Reed. In the aftermath of its release, opinions were aggressively split—as usual—with many fans and critics brutally panning the record and others calling it a triumph. For Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, though, another backlash of disappointment and frustration from the “core fan base” inspired zero regrets. In his experience, the Lulu project had produced a set of songs that struck a genuine emotional chord—if not for the wider world, then at least for him on a personal level.
“We like being challenged,” Hammett told The Verge in 2013. “We like going down new creative avenues in the name of Metallica.” When asked if he and his bandmates ever consider possible fan reactions or blowback when entering into a new project, Hammett had a quick response.
“No, because we’re doing it for ourselves, man,” he said. “Lulu is a really good example. I think that Lulu is some of the best stuff we’ve done. I mean the song ‘Junior Dad’ moves me to tears, and working with Lou Reed was such a cool, unique, and special thing for us. Maybe it’s not for everyone. Maybe it’s a challenge for our fans, but for us — Lars, James, Rob, and myself — we loved doing it, and it was such a great experience. We look back at it very positively.”
Inspired by a well-received joint performance of Reed’s ‘Sweet Jane’ at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th Anniversary concert in 2009, Lulu could have turned into a fairly basic money-grab project: a heavy, Metallica-sation of some other riffy old Reed songs, opening up both acts to a wider audience. Instead—in what turned out to be his final full-length studio album before his 2013 death—Lou Reed decided to invite the Metallica boys into much deeper waters, as Lulu became an 87-minute, two-disc concept album with spoken-word vocals and a narrative theme based around the plays of a 19th-century German playwright (Frank Wedekind).
Lou Reed fans, like Metallica fans, have suffered through no shortage of loyalty trials over the years (lest anyone forget Metal Machine Music). While some bristled at an artistic pairing with the ‘Enter Sandman’ dudes, many came around to the idea, ever willing to give their hero the space to take some chances.
The song that Kirk Hammett singled out, ‘Junior Dad’, is the nearly 20-minute closing track on Lulu. It’s a slow-burning epic that, ironically, deals largely with expectation and disappointment itself, specifically in the form of a father-son relationship.
It wasn’t clear at the time if Lou Reed was writing about his own father, whom he had a notoriously difficult relationship with, but Reed’s widow, Laurie Anderson, seemed to confirm so in 2015 when she mentioned ‘Junior Dad’ as an example of a song “being torn out of a body”.
Hammett and the rest of the guys in Metallica were moved by the lyrics, as well, finding their own points of reference in the song’s painful story and doing their best to create the proper sonic accompaniment. To date, ‘Junior Dad’ has around 350,000 streams on Spotify, a few shy of ‘Enter Sandman’s’ 1.5billion. But it’s a rewarding listen, whether you’re a Metallica fan, a Reed fan, or the guy who played guitar on it.
