Mrs. Smith – the electric guitar-shredding alter ego of actor and musician David Hanbury – has recorded a humorous cover version of Metallica's mega-hit, One.
The accompanying music video – in which Mrs. Smith is kidnapped by a mysterious Satan-worshipping “Scandinavian rock 'n' roll group”, and held to ransom for $5 million – sees the guitarist play with near-surgical precision, showcasing a beautifully dialed clean tone that's pretty close to that of ...And Justice For All, and serving up a solo so drenched in wah Kirk Hammett must be jealous.
Gear-wise, Mrs. Smith uses a pair of custom-painted Ibanez RG550s: a gold flake model with a maple fretboard and a Cosmic Black model with a rosewood fingerboard and custom cat eye inlay.
Explains Smith: “I've been performing One at my live show for years and when I started hearing all these fabulous covers come out I thought it would be a great time to finally record my version and create a video for it.
“I see it as a timeless masterpiece – One is to Metallica what Guernica is to Picasso!” she continues. “I could never improve on this iconic song, it’s perfect. I only tried to adapt it to tell my story. However, there is a glaring lack of wah in the guitar solo so I remedied that.”
Mrs. Smith is, of course, known for her prowess with a wah pedal, famously beating Kirk Hammett himself – the most wah-happy guitarist in the history of the instrument – in last year's Cry Baby Battle Royale.
During the face-off, Mrs. Smith ran her guitar through an impressive four wah pedals at once, beating Hammett's record of using three simultaneous wahs in Metallica's Hardwired.
Upon forfeiting, Hammett said: “I think I’ve just been out-wah’d, people – a moment in history has just occurred.” Mrs. Smith replied affectionately: “I learned it all from watching you.”
