“He's no musician. I heard them playing acoustic instruments, and they couldn't. It was appalling”: Roger Waters slams James Hetfield following controversial comments at The Sphere in Las Vegas
Waters tore into James Hetfield's musicianship and after the Metallica frontman dissed artists who use their platform for political statements
Former Pink Floyd bassist and vocalist Roger Waters has weighed in on James Hetfield’s comments at the Sphere in Las Vegas on October 10, in which he took shots at artists who use their platforms to make political statements.
“I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit, OK?” Hetfield said during the show. “We are here... no bullshit... we're here to forget about all the outside shit, OK? Metallica's agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!”
Though Hetfield didn’t mention any artists by name, the comments came just weeks after the recent Macklemore-Ed Sheeran debacle.
Waters has now torn into Hetfield on The Katie Halper Show, saying, “Can we stop talking about this prick? I’m so bored with him. He’s just showing that he’s a complete prick. He's got an IQ of about three, and why we're talking about him, I honestly don't know because he's a nobody and he'll always be. He may have a few hundred million dollars or whatever, but he's a prick.”
Waters took things a step further by claiming that Hetfield is “no musician. I heard them playing acoustic instruments and they couldn't. It was appalling.”
He continued, “It’s a shame this prick didn’t have somebody around him to explain that being kind is way more important than all that loud music and bouncing around and whatever.” Waters ended his rant with a call for Palestinian solidarity.
Recently, the Pink Floyd bassist blasted Ed Sheeran for his response to Macklemore’s removal from his tour following onstage pro-Palestinian and anti-ICE comments.
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Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology and how it is shaping the future of the music industry, and has a special interest in shining a spotlight on traditionally underrepresented artists and global guitar sounds. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Melissa Auf der Maur, Yvette Young, Danielle Haim, Fanny, and Karan Katiyar from Bloodywood, among others. When she's not writing, you'll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her Anglo-Maltese, art-rock band ĠENN.
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