Random Fascinating Facts From Making Of Metallica's 'Master Of Puppets' (13 items)

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  (#12) While Touring For The Record, The Band Considered Firing Lars Ulrich

  At the end of the ‘Damage Inc.’ tour, shortly before the tragic death of Cliff Burton in Sweden, Hetfield, Hammett, and Burton had discussed giving Lars Ulrich his walking papers. In his memoir, I’m The Man: The Story of That Guy From Anthrax, Scott Ian, whose band was on the road with Metallica, addressed the story:

  They said they couldn’t take being in the band with him anymore and were done putting up with him. Cliff explained the plan: "The three of us have agreed. When we get home from this tour we’re going to get rid of Lars, even if it means we can’t use the name Metallica anymore.’”
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  (#4) Cliff Burton Stole One Of Guitarist Kirk Hammett’s Solo Spots

  The second bass solo in the cinematic instrumental “Orion” was originally a guitar solo. Bassist Cliff Burton nabbed it, transposing some of the guitar lines to bass. As Hammett told Revolver:

  I remember recording it in the studio, and then I left to go back to the East Coast and meet a girl or something. Cliff went back to the studio and used that area to put his own solo on it. But he played, like, half of my licks that were in the original solo. It was the weirdest thing!
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  (#1) Rush's Geddy Lee Almost Produced The Album

  Before Flemming Rasmussen took over, Rush vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee was in talks to produce Master of Puppets. Lee met Metallica drummer and mouthpiece Lars Ulrich at an event in England and was friends with their management company, Q Prime.

  As Lee told Noisey:

  I remember going to see them in Toronto when they played at the Masonic Temple. That's when the original bass player [Cliff Burton] was still happening - you know, before that tragedy. And, you know, we talked about it, and I liked their band a lot at that time. But it just never came together.
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  (#13) Any Thoughts Of Firing Ulrich Ended When Cliff Burton Died

  After Cliff Burton's death, Metallica hired bassist Jason Newsted from the Arizona band Flotsam & Jetsam, and they immediately scheduled to make up the shows they had postponed. Metallica again hit the road with Anthrax. Their performances were explosive and the audiences’ reactions were more than favorable. Any past friction between the band and Ulrich was quickly forgotten.

  “I asked James what was going to happen with the Lars situation,” wrote Scott Ian in I’m the Man: The Story of That Guy From Anthrax. “‘We’re not going to do that now,’ he said. ‘We can’t lose two guys, we can’t do it.’”
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  (#5) Kate Bush, The Police, And Simon & Garfunkel Were In Regular Rotation When Metallica Wrote The Album

  No one would guess it from the ferocity and complexity of Master of Puppets, but Metallica spent a lot of downtime listening to non-metal music when they worked on the album. In part, Metallica didn’t want to hear anything that might influence the sound of the album. But also, the dudes have a soft spot for classic and artsy rock.

  "We'd discovered Kate Bush around that time,” Hammett told Revolver in 2017. “And we loved the Police. We listened to the Police all the time, because Cliff was a big fan of Stewart Copeland's drumming, and he loved the sound of his snare.”

  Ulrich added that Simon & Garfunkel received a lot of play, since everyone loved their melodies and harmonies.
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  (#7) The Track 'Leper Messiah' Was Inspired By David Bowie

  Even back in the mid-‘80s, the members of Metallica listened to a wide variety of music. So, it’s not surprising that one of the song titles from Master of Puppets came from a David Bowie track.

  Hammett shared the revelation Mitch Lefon in 2016 on the show One on One, pointing out “Leper Messiah,” which is about hypocritical televangelists, came from Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

  “‘Making love with his ego, Ziggy sucked up into his mind like a leper messiah.’ That’s the Bowie line right there,” Hammett said.

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