Nothing Else Matters
Metallica - Black Album
About the Song
On their controversial self-titled album which came to be known as the Black Album, “Nothing Else Matters” was perhaps the greatest example of the new Metallica sound that alienated core fans. Frontman James Hetfield had been taking classical guitar lessons and wanted to show off his fingerpicking skills in the introduction. The song grew out of an extension of a phone call James made with his girlfriend while on tour and he was picking his guitar while on the phone.
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It was a song for myself in my room on tour when I was bumming out about being away from home. It’s quite amazing, it’s a true testament to honesty and exposing yourself, putting your real self out there, and taking the risk, taking a gamble that someone’s either going to step on your heart with spikes on or they’re going to put their heart right next to it, and you never know until you try. That solidified, I think, that we were doing the right thing, writing from the heart about what we felt, and you can’t go wrong that way. -James Hetfield