In a recent chat with Primordial Radio, Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti shared his deep admiration for Metallica’s James Hetfield, praising his influence on both Tremonti’s career and the rock genre as a whole.
Talking about Metallica’s music, Tremonti highlighted the craftsmanship behind their songs. “Like I was saying it’s beautifully written. You could have a song like ‘Battery’ that has just this intro that draws you right in with how nicely it’s composed. Then all of a sudden it hits you over the head with something.”
Tremonti revealed how Metallica’s sound shaped his early years as a musician. “It did everything I wanted to do with music when I was listening to it when I was a kid. It made me want to pick up the guitar, it wanted me to practice my downstrokes like James Hetfield was doing.”
He also praised Hetfield’s vocals and called them some of the best in rock history. “I think James’s voice was especially on that record was just one of the greatest rock voices. It’s just my thing man. I think it was my thing and millions and millions of other people’s thing for some reason.”
In another interview with Guitar World, Tremonti reflected on the impact of ‘Master of Puppets’ on his career. Recalling the first time he heard ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium),’ he shared, “So I went up [to my brother] asking, ‘What’s this song about a sanitarium?!’ He gave me ‘Master of Puppets’ and I did not sleep that night. I was just blown away by what I was hearing.”
Before discovering Metallica, Tremonti’s playlist was far from metal. “Before that, I was listening to the Beastie Boys, Agent Orange… nothing metal. Hearing that album made me go out and carry on searching for the heaviest music I could find,” he explained.
Metallica’s ‘M72’ World Tour will carry on in 2025, keeping their signature ‘No Repeat Weekend’ format. This means that every set of two shows will feature entirely different setlists and support acts.
