Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
No Result
View All Result
Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
Home Music

The Musician James Hetfield Calls a ‘Master Craftsman at Lyrics’

rmtsa by rmtsa
January 9, 2025
in Music
0
The Musician James Hetfield Calls a ‘Master Craftsman at Lyrics’
74
SHARES
1.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


You might also like

Watch Poppy Join Linkin Park for Classic Song During Tour Kickoff

LE SSERAFIM, J-Hope’s ‘Spaghetti’ Voted This Week’s Favorite New Music

Mumford & Sons ‘Band’ Together With Hozier

The James Hetfield influences are plentiful and they don’t all come from metal, with the Metallica frontman recently crediting a legendary gruff-voiced singer-songwriter as “a master craftsman” lyricist during an in-depth discussion about his writing approach on The Metallica Report podcast.

So which musician got the nod of respect from Papa Het? That would be Tom Waits, a 2011 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy winner who largely has enjoyed a cult success through his career.

You can count Hetfield as one of those championing Waits’ work, with the Metallica musician commenting, “As far as Tom Waits just being a master craftsman at lyrics, painting a picture in one sentence, it interests me and it takes work.”

As a lyricist to aspire to, Hetfield reveals though it’s a more natural talent for Waits. “I saw Tom kind of live it,” he explains. “That was his vocabulary as well. He could sit and speak like that. I can’t.”

In a separate interview from 1996 with Guitar World, Hetfield gave one of his first public shout outs of Waits while promoting the Load album. He commented, “I’ve been really focusing on lyricists — as opposed to people who just sit down and crank out some words for a song — who write fucking poems and then put music to them. I wanted to understand other people’s ideas about how to write lyrics. Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads are the coolest, and I dig all the Tom Waits stuff. I’ve even listened to some Leonard Cohen. I mean, I hate the fucking music, but his lyrics are very cool.”

About Tom Waits

Initially inspired by the folk movement of the ’60s, much of Waits’ early works had a more character-driven, descriptive storytelling type of approach. While he never attained much commercial success, he continued to draw critical raves with each record and his lyrical influence has been broad on a variety of musicians that have followed.

Waits’ songs have also been covered by some of the biggest names in music including Bruce Springsteen (“Jersey Girl”), Rod Stewart (“Downtown Train”), Ramones (“I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”), Eagles (“Ol’ ’55”) Hootie and the Blowfish (“I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love With You”) and Tori Amos (“Time”).

As stated, he’s a multiple Grammy winner most recently winning Best Alternative Album for his 1999 album Mule Variations. Neil Young inducted Waits into the Rock Hall in 2011 and with his wry wit, Waits commented, “They say that I have no hits and that I’m difficult to work with. And they say that like it’s a bad thing!”

How Does James Hetfield Approach Writing?

Within the discussion on The Metallica Report podcast, Hetfield dissects some of his fascination with words and how it translates to his songwriting.

“I see words that are interesting out of curiosity to me and I would say that coming from a graphics background, the way a word looks is almost more important. Like ‘Lux Aeterna,’ how cool is that? There’s an ‘x’ in it and then an ‘AE’ together?! How cool,” he beams.

“Having access to thesauruses and dictionaries and things like that today is so great,” he continues. “Somebody will send me something and I look at a word and I don’t know what that is, but I look it up and, ‘Hey, I got that.’ I will thumb through books just to see cool words, put ’em in a pile and figure out where they belong. It is like building a vehicle … collecting lots of words and they fit together. But what does it really mean? Is it enough for a subject matter?”

READ MORE: How James Hetfield Still Channels the Spirit of Cliff Burton

“But then I go see a band like Green Day and they have some simple ‘Know Your Enemy.’ It’s so hooky and great. It sticks, but that’s not really literary geniusness,” he laughs while acknowledging his made up word.

“And there are times I’ll make up a word just to get a point across. To me, putting words into a song is like another instrument. So if ‘and,’ ‘the,’ ‘if,’ if those things get in the way, just get rid of them. You just want the meaty words to get in there and get the point across.”

Check out more of the discussion from The Metallica Report Podcast below.

James Hetfield Discusses Writing and Lyrics on The Metallica Report Podcast

Metallica Albums Ranked

See how Metallica’s albums stack up from worst to best.

Gallery Credit: Chad Bowar, Joe DiVita



Source link

Tags: CallsCraftsmanHetfieldJamesLyricsMastermusician
Share30Tweet19
rmtsa

rmtsa

Recommended For You

Watch Poppy Join Linkin Park for Classic Song During Tour Kickoff

by rmtsa
October 27, 2025
0
Watch Poppy Join Linkin Park for Classic Song During Tour Kickoff

Last night (Oct. 25), Linkin Park kicked off the South American leg of their ongoing world tour (in support of 2024’s From Zero) at Vive Claro in Bogotá,...

Read more

LE SSERAFIM, J-Hope’s ‘Spaghetti’ Voted This Week’s Favorite New Music

by rmtsa
October 27, 2025
0
LE SSERAFIM, J-Hope’s ‘Spaghetti’ Voted This Week’s Favorite New Music

LE SSERAFIM’s new collaboration with BTS’ j-hope has topped this week’s new music poll. In a poll published Friday (Oct. 24) by Billboard, music fans chose the powerhouse...

Read more

Mumford & Sons ‘Band’ Together With Hozier

by rmtsa
October 26, 2025
0
Mumford & Sons ‘Band’ Together With Hozier

While in the midst of a world tour in support of their spring album RUSHMERE, Mumford & Sons have treated fans to a new song, “Rubber Band Man,”...

Read more

NBA YoungBoy Will Welcome His 13th Child Soon

by rmtsa
October 26, 2025
0
NBA YoungBoy Will Welcome His 13th Child Soon

YoungBoy Never Broke Again will soon be welcoming his 13th child.YB has a new lease on life after being pardoned by President Trump and reigniting his career on...

Read more

Slash Explains Axl Rose’s Viral Mic Toss at Last Week’s GN’R Show

by rmtsa
October 26, 2025
0
Slash Explains Axl Rose’s Viral Mic Toss at Last Week’s GN’R Show

Slash addressed the viral moment that stemmed from a technical mishap at last week's Guns N' Roses concert in Argentina, explaining that Axl Rose's frustrated microphone throw had nothing to do...

Read more
Next Post
15 Black Women Over 50 Who Give Zero F—ks About Aging

15 Black Women Over 50 Who Give Zero F—ks About Aging

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Browse by Category

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
DramaWired

Browse the Latest Entertainment News on DramaWired.com. Celebrity News, Movies, Music, Gossip, Comics, TV and More News.

CATEGORIES

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
No Result
View All Result

Recent News

  • LEGO’s THE GOONIES Pirate Ship Set Lets Fans Relive the Ultimate ‘80s Adventure — GeekTyrant
  • Does Alex Vesia Have Children? He & Wife Expecting a Baby Together – Hollywood Life
  • Next Gen NYC’s Gia Giudice on Teresa Reconciling With Joe & Melissa

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In