Monday, January 19, 2009

METALLICA AT THE ROCK HALL: NO DRAMA!

The guys from Metallica were on hand at the press conference announcing this year's inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How many other artists use their Rock Hall induction as part of the promotion for an album that has debuted at #1?  Probably only U2

Anyway, they were asked about something that I was wondering about: will they perform with former bass player Jason Newstead? James Hetfield said that they'd extended the invitation, and that the band wanted to avoid the weird drama that surrounded past inductees like Blondie and Van Halen

I've been listening to tons of Metallica lately, and I'm always blown away by how great their first four albums were. I've also been watching the doc Some Kind Of Monster, and it's interesting: their then-long-time-producer Bob Rock says that he doesn't think they'll ever have a permanent bassist to replace the late Cliff Burton: but he turned out to be wrong. Jason was probably the perfect replacement for Cliff, but Robert Trujilio is just as perfect for the band. I wonder if Robert will be included in the induction, and every member of every band isn't always included (i.e. only the original four members of Black Sabbath were inducted, not all 50-whatever people who have played with the band). I gotta think the band has told the Rock Hall that if Robert isn't included, they wouldn't play: I think the same thing happened with The Rolling Stones and Ron Wood

I wonder what will go through Jason's head, playing with the band he spend so many years in and walked away from.  I wonder if they would include Dave Mustaine: probably not, since he wasn't on any of the band's albums, although a lot of the songs that he co-wrote were on Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning. Still, it would be cool to see Metallica jam with Mustaine. 

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