The American icons that united James Hetfield and Axl Rose: “Wearing make-up and dressing cool”
In the world of hard rock, James Hetfield and Axl Rose seem to fit on two opposite ends of the musical spectrum.
As much as they both loved singing over the most badass riffs of all time, Hetfield was much more interested in putting in the work as a metal warlord, while Rose was strutting his stuff across the stage like a reimagining of Mick Jagger. But while both of them did have their moments where they came to blows on tour, they could at least find common ground somewhere in their record collections.
Because, really, all great rock and roll bands can find a common language if they have the right band to unite them. There’s a good chance that any musical rivalry between Oasis and anyone else can be snuffed out if someone brings up their love of The Beatles, and even Rose himself could be a bit more diplomatic when he was talking about some of his records by Queen or Elton John. Then again, Hetfield was the wrong kind of person to talk to about piano balladeers back in the day.
Though he’s a much more well-rounded listener today, a lot of Hetfield’s favourite music was about people who had gruffer voices. He and Lars Ulrich had already bonded over the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and unless it was the gnarliest voice that anyone had ever heard, like Cronos from Venom or the searing high notes of Rob Halford from Judas Priest, chances are he wasn’t going to be that interested. But Hetfield could at least see that Rose was something different coming from Los Angeles.
All glam bands were Metallica’s nemeses at the time, but Rose was a different kind of adversary. Both bands could go out on the road at the same time, but Hetfield had more of a problem with how Rose treated the crowd, often not showing up until much later than he was supposed to go on or cutting the band’s set short altogether. And for someone who had grown up listening to Aerosmith, Hetfield felt that musicians needed to be going the extra mile to be badass.
Aerosmith were practically road dogs throughout their career, and Hetfield fell in love the moment he heard records like Rocks, saying, “I would just like to close my eyes and imagine myself in my room as that teenager listening to Toys In The Attic and Rocks. Playing them to the grooves were worn out. Listening to every Brad and Joe lick toward the very end.” But for Rose, it was a lot more about the presentation whenever he saw what Steven Tyler could do whenever they performed live.
‘The Bad Boys from Boston’ already had a bit of a swagger to them, but looking at Rose’s dance moves, he was clearly lifting some tricks from what Tyler was doing, saying, “Aerosmith are a tradition that I grew up with. They were the only band that people who lived in my city in Indiana would accept wearing make-up and dressing cool.” And you can hear the band’s influence a lot more in how both bands played.
Slash was the true Aerosmith aficionado in Guns N’ Roses, and while you can hear the same kind of gritty rock and roll band that he wanted them to be on Appetite for Destruction, there are a few licks on the record that seem handed down from Aerosmith like ‘Paradise City’. And while Metallica is a bit more subtle with that kind of influence, it’s hard to listen to a song like ‘No Leaf Clover’ and not realise that they lifted the entire opening string arrangement from the main riff to ‘Last Child’.
But even if Rose and Hetfield saw rock and roll in two very different ways, they could at least admit when Aerosmith could blow away any band in their path. They weren’t ones to take any prisoners when they played, and that was the way that they were going to approach the stage whenever they made their own riffs. It’s one thing to play your hearts out, but what’s the point in playing unless you try and have every single audience member eating out of the palm of your hand?
