Bob Rock recalls his reaction to Metallica’s James “Like He Wanted to Kill Me”
Bob Rock who is the producer for Metallica also talks about ‘Enter Sandman’ and what he told James Hetfield’s reaction. He says “He wanted to kill me” with Gibson TV interview.
He is one of the most known producers in the music world. Bob Rock is work with Metallica over the few years and also their landmark 1991 self-titled album. The most famous works for the Black Album make history in the metal music genre. Rock’s final album with Metallica’s 2003 album “St. Anger.” He also talks with Gibson TV’s ‘Icons’ YouTube program and reveals details about those days.
Bob Rock starts with this:
“I remember when I heard ‘Sandman’ – I went, ‘Wow, that sounds pretty good.’ I looked out at Kirk [Hammett, guitar] and everybody was kind of rockin’ to it, and I went, ‘This might do well.’ I used to take notes when I was first starting producing; when we do pre-production in a room and you kind of go through the songs, and you kind of find the right tempo for the song, and you go through the arrangements and make some adjustments.”
Then continued how he introduced the band to the concept of using drop-D tuning on electric guitars:
“On my notepad, I’d write the key and the tempo, the chart and arrangement, and maybe six songs in, I noticed that every song is in E. And I’m going, like, ‘Why is everything in E?’… And James [Hetfield, guitar/vocals] looked at me like he wanted to kill me and said, ‘It’s the lowest note…’ I said, ‘So [Black] Sabbath de-tuned and Motley [Crue] de-tuned to D. Have you ever done that?’… ‘No.’ I said, ‘Well, just de-tune down to D.’ So they de-tuned down to D, and the next song was ‘Sad But True,’ and they just played it once and they were just, like, ‘Holy fuck.'”
Also, mention about Black Sabbath guitar tunes:
“Of course Sabbath de-tuned, but they never thought they [Metallica] could do that. Their experience was never like that, and that’s just totally by accident where it happened. And it’s only because I worked with Motley and [1989’s] ‘Dr. Feelgood’ is in D.”
You can watch the Bob Rock Gibson TV interview below.
