Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi and Metallica's James Hetfield met up with Guitar World for an interview that appeared in the August 1992 issue.

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So basically, the accident indirectly led you to develop this completely unique style.

IOMMI: Yeah. I thought I was finished, because I went to different specialists and they all said, "Forget it." Then a friend of mine bought me a record by jazz guitarist Django Rheinhardt and told me to have a listen. I said, "He's really good." Then he told me that Django was able to use only two fingers. It started me to thinking, "Well, he was able to do it. I'm gonna have a go at this." And that's what sort of started me on the way again.

HETFIELD: Did you ever think it would be cool to have another guitar player in the band?

IOMMI: I wouldn't mind it now, but my first experience with the slide player I mentioned earlier was so bad that it left a sour taste in my mouth. He was louder than me, and I felt like we were constantly competing with each other. Actually, Queen's Brian May has played with us.

HETFIELD: Oh, really?

IOMMI: He's the only other guitarist I've really played with. We've done a lot together over the years, and I've really enjoyed it.

James, it must be nice to have another guitar player in the band. Does Kirk offer suggestions when you get stuck for ideas?

HETFIELD: We're a weird pair. We're not as close as two guitar players in a band usually are. We know our limits with each other. He plays the solos. He can play solos and I can't. Actually, I can solo, but I tend to play your standard boxy, blues shit, which I dig. I play all the rhythm tracks, and most of the main melodic lines, and Kirk just comes in and does the solos.

Tony, what were your main responsibilities in Sabbath?

IOMMI: I usually wrote the riffs and Geezer wrote the words. We credited everybody because we didn't want to create any competition or ill-will in the band. We wanted everyone to share in the band's success equally. It went on like that for years until Ronnie came in. Unfortunately, my role began to grow. It just became accepted that I was responsible for booking the studios, producing the record, organizing everybody's life. It got pretty out of control.

HETFIELD: So you had a major role in producing Sabbath.

IOMMI: Yeah, but I wasn't really thrilled with the responsibility. The band would come to me and say: "We need a studio. Well, you know about it -- which one should we get?" And then they would say, "We don't want any outside people coming in. We'll do it ourselves." And "ourselves" always ended up meaning me. I didn't mind it at first. In fact, I enjoyed it to a point. But it's hard when you start getting too bogged down. All I wanted to do was play and be part of the band. I didn't necessarily want to sit at a mixing board all night. Ultimately, though, it's probably better to do it yourself than leave it up to a stranger.

James, how does Metallica function?

HETFIELD: We have two people trying to run the band -- me and Lars -- so we're arguing all the time. The other guys are just like, "Whatever, just put the thing out." Sometimes I think it would be a hell of a lot easier if there was just one of us, but we're a little too stubborn for that.

The latest Metallica record sounds great. It's a classic example of a band working well with an outside producer.

HETFIELD: It worked well because the roles were made very clear. We brought Bob• Rock in to create a great-sounding record, but we didn't want him messing with our songs. We wanted Bob to take care of the engineering so we could get a little looser with the songs. Still, Lars and I had a real difficult time staying out of his hair. Bob definitely got ruffled quite a few times, but I think he'd do it again.

Tony, are you meticulous in the studio?

IOMMI: Well, the first album went really quickly.

HETFIELD: Yeah, same with us. Our first album was recorded in no time. We had rehearsed all the songs a million times. And played them live a trillion times.

Is it true that the first Black Sabbath album was recorded in only eight hours?

IOMMI: Yes. On an eight-track machine.

HETFIELD: You beat us!

IOMMI: And the next album, Paranoid, was done in only a few days. That was a long time for us; we didn't know anything about studios. Having three or four days to do an album was a complete luxury. But it got worse. The longer we had, the longer it took. The more success you have, the more you start fussing over details, and it takes longer and longer.

HETFIELD: If you don't try everything, it's like, "We could've done that!" It's better to regret doing it than not doing it.

IOMMI: We also became very lazy and self-indulgent. We'd record in Miami or L.A., and everybody'd be down on the beach. "Should we go in today?" "No, definitely not. We'll go in tomorrow." It got like that. And then you end up taking six months, and you're not really doing anything apart from telling jokes. We fell into that trap a few times.

Tony, when guitarists began using speed-picking and tapping, did you feel any pressure to keep up with the times?

IOMMI: I felt that was good for them, but not for me. I'm not that sort of guitarist -- I'm from the old school. I think if I started doing it, it would sound corny.

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