Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett recently revealed a surprising emotional connection to one song in their catalog, admitting it’s often too difficult for him to listen to.
This confession occurred last month on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast during a discussion about the band’s 2011 album with Lou Reed, Lulu.
Hammett shared: “That album means so much to me for a number of reasons. The lyrics are amazing. It’s poetry from track to track. I’m a huge Lou Reed fan. To be able to hang out with him and work with him musically meant so much.
“And the track ‘Junior Dad.’ Ugh. I can’t listen to it, man. Brings me to tears,” he admitted. “And remember when Lou said, ‘I have a song for you and I want this to be on the album.’ And he played it for James [Hetfield] and I. And by the end of the song, I looked at James, and James looked at me and we both had tears in our eyes. And then Lou Reed came in and saw us both crying in the kitchen, and he was smiling and said, ‘I got you, didn’t I?’ I was like, ‘F**k Lou. Yeah, you got me. And you got him too.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Hammett also mentioned that Reed had a strong aversion to guitar solos.
He said: “I remember I started doing some wah-wah stuff and he just went up to the mic and said, ‘No,’ I was like, ‘What?’ And he goes, ‘No guitar solos.’ I’m like, ‘OK.’ And then I remember at one point I went to a Phrygian dominant, you know, it’s kind of Eastern sounding scale. And he went up to the mic and said, ‘No belly dancing music.’”
Lulu reached No. 36 on both the UK and US album charts. Three years after its release, it had sold just under 33,000 copies in the U.S., with global sales now hovering around 300,000.
