METALLICA frontman James Hetfield says he was ‘inspired’ by late PANTERA guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott
Hetfield recently sat down with SiriusXM host Jose Mangin for the “Metal Ambassador” podcast, in which he discussed the musical influences that make up the group’s latest album, “72 Seasons” and much more. Including the relationship between METALLICA and PANTERA.
When it was brought up that late PANTERA guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was “a gigantic fan of METALLICA” and covered the band’s songs, James said: “Well, what a blessing to have been in his life and him in my life. And yeah, some of those early days, just traveling down there to the Dallas area and meeting with those guys and just hanging out. Yeah, Dimebag introduced me to the solid state amp, I remember. He had this fricking amazing crunch going on. I was, like, ‘What is that?’ You know? So, uh, yeah. [We] inspired each other. He inspired me as well. No doubt.”
Lars Ulrich commented on the “reunited” PANTERA a couple of months ago in a talk with Revolver. He said: “I think that the idea that they’re out celebrating the music and the magic of PANTERA is … I know there’s been a lot of talk in the community about whether people support that or not. But I’m the type of person, if Glenn Hughes wants to go out and play a DEEP PURPLE set, I’d support that.
“I’m always in favor of people following their musical and creative ambitions; so this reunion, I think, is good,” he added. “And obviously having Charlie up there is great. I saw a video from one of the Mexico shows that felt like they were in the pocket. It’ll be fun to have them out.”
Touching on his band’s long-standing relationship with the Abbott brothers, Ulrich said: “We met the brothers on the ‘Ride The Lightning‘ tour and became friends with them. This was in Dallas in — what — 1622 or something? It was about 400 years ago. We obviously loved both of them, and they had a posse down there, and we would see them whenever we came through Texas. We watched the band evolve over the years from more rock vibes into that creative, unique force that they became. So, we’ve had a relationship with them for decades and decades.”
