The one guitarist James Hetfield always wanted to be: “I wanted to be that guy”
Throughout his career, James Hetfield was known to frown on any non-Metallica activity going on in his band.
They may be friendly with other groups and try their best to maintain good relationships with their contemporaries, but there was no way that any kind of side project was allowed while the Metallica train kept running. Before Hetfield grew into his metal badass look of muttonchops and long hair, he admitted wanting to give away everything to join AC/DC.
Granted, every teenage kid who ever thought rock and roll was cool probably wanted to be in AC/DC at some point in their lives. Compared to the other dangerous-sounding rock and rollers that came out before them, the Aussie rockers made electrifying rock and roll still sound like a ton of fun.
It wasn’t the most complicated thing in the world, but seeing Angus and Malcolm Young trading licks is the kind of thing that teenagers hash out when they’re sitting in their garage. Their music was indebted to the sounds of artists like Little Richard and Bo Diddley, but they also were indirectly responsible for turning hard rock inside out.
Outside of their massive frontman, Bon Scott, in their early years, the Young brothers’ songwriting on albums like Highway to Hell was the beating heart of the group. Scott was the person you always wanted to hang out with, but the pure attitude behind ‘Beating Around the Bush’ is something that no one can be taught in the Unholy Manual of Rock And Roll.
That was always the magic trick AC/DC managed to pull off. They took the most straightforward ingredients in rock and roll and somehow made them sound impossible to imitate. There were no sprawling epics or complicated arrangements getting in the way, just riffs that hit like a sledgehammer and enough swagger to convince everyone in the room they could start a band of their own.
It looked deceptively simple, which probably explains why so many musicians spent years trying to bottle the same lightning.
Whereas most casual rock fans gravitated towards The Rolling Stones or even Led Zeppelin, Hetfield found his calling hearing AC/DC, telling Classic Rock, “I was a big Aerosmith fan, but I had no idea that AC/DC was that cool. I went [to see them] with my older brother, and I remember him pointing at Angus and saying, ‘That little guy running around was annoying’. But I wanted to be that guy.”
This is strange because if you look at Metallica’s stage setup, you aren’t going to see a lot of running. If anything, the most animated person at every Metallica show these days is either newcomer Robert Trujillo or Lars Ulrich, who does the best with what he can despite having to remain seated throughout 90% of the show.
There are more than a few ways that Hetfield has been able to shake things up whenever he plays. If you look at the era of Load, the band’s use of more swaggering riffs, like on ‘2X4’ and ‘Poor Twisted Me’, sounds like they’re going for AC/DC-sounding riffs through the filter of Southern-fried acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd.
That’s probably the biggest compliment Hetfield could pay the Young brothers. Metallica never wanted to become AC/DC, but they were more than happy to borrow the philosophy behind the riffs. Every great AC/DC song is built around a groove that feels unstoppable, and even when Metallica ventured away from breakneck thrash, that sense of momentum never disappeared.
If Angus could get the crowd jumping through his manic energy, Metallica could get there through raw precision every time they played. They managed to stand fairly still in their early days, but when you’re playing something as intense as ‘Master of Puppets’ every night, it’s more about keeping yourself balanced whenever you latch onto the riff.
