Metal
Roger Waters tears into James Hetfield and calls him a 'nobody' after Metallica’s Sphere speech
The Pink Floyd co‑founder attacked Hetfield over his comments about politics at gigs, branding him a “prick” and criticising Metallica during a fiery podcast appearance.
Roger Waters has called Metallica frontman James Hetfield a "little prick" after he took aim at entertainers who preach politics onstage.
Speaking during the band's Life Burns Faster residency at Las Vegas Sphere this month, the And Justice For All... singer said: "Unless you live in Vegas, you've come a long way to spend some time with Metallica.
"We're grateful for that - your travels, the money you spend, the time it took, thanks for coming to celebrate with us."
Taking aim at the artists who have used their platform to shout about their political beliefs, he went on: "And I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bulls***, OK? We are here...no bulls***...we're here to forget about all the outside s***, OK?"
He concluded: "Metallica's agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!"
The speech has left people divided with many believing it was in response to Ed Sheeran dropping Macklemore from his Loop Tour over his "Free Palestine" speech during his support slot in the US.
Now, Palestine supporter and activist Waters has waded in and taken aim at Hetfield.
Appearing on The Katie Halper Show podcast, Waters said: “Can we stop talking about this prick?
“I’m so bored with him. He’s just showing that he’s a complete prick. He’s got an IQ of about three, and why we’re talking about him, I honestly don’t know, because he’s a nobody.
“He may have a few hundred million dollars or whatever, but he’s a prick, and he’s no musician. I heard them playing acoustic instruments, and they couldn’t. It was appalling."
When Halper told Waters there was talk of Metallica's music being used to punish prisoners in Iraq during the war, he groaned: “People like Metallica, I couldn’t care less. And obviously I wish he had grown up with a mama or a dad or a friend or somebody in the family who [had] taken him to one side when he was little…."
He continued. “It’s a shame this prick didn’t have somebody around him to explain that being kind is way more important than all that loud music and bouncing around and whatever.”
Addressing the claims in a 2003 interview with The Guardian, Hetfield said: "We’ve been punishing our parents, our wives, our loved ones with this music for ever. Why should the Iraqis be any different?”
Waters also took aim at Ed Sheeran when he dropped Macklemore.
In a video message, he said: “I just have a little message for [Sheeran].
There are two kinds of people in this world. There’s people who do the right thing – the rapper Macklemore would be one of those people. And there’s people – many of them, sadly – little pricks like you who do the wrong thing. Goodbye.”
