Metallica – Master Of Puppets
I don't really think there's anything left to be said about this record. It would certainly make any metal top ten list of anybody on the planet. A fucking masterpiece, from start to finish. Having been so close to those guys, from literally the day they got to New York, and then being there when Kirk [Hammett] joined, to see the evolution of that band, in the room at The Music Building, rehearsing the songs that would become Kill 'Em All, to then hearing what they accomplished with writing Master Of Puppets, it actually seemed so natural to me. It seemed obvious that they would be able to do it. From day one, Metallica always seemed bigger than they actually were. Even when they were just a bunch of drunk dudes being idiots like everybody else, there was something about that band. As an outsider, you just knew it was going to happen for them. Even when it seemed next to impossible, when nobody gave a shit except for Jonny Z [Jon Zazula, Rock N' Roll Heaven record shop owner and Megaforce Records founder] in 1983. If you were into metal, you knew that that band was destined for greatness. There was an aura. There was this intangible thing. You knew those guys were going to be fucking massive.



And they took you on tour at that time.



Yes, in September '86 we did the whole UK tour and of course went up to Scandinavia and played a couple of shows and then there was the bus accident, on the way from Sweden to Denmark. Again, everybody knows that story but, yeah, we were there on tour together, all of us friends, out there enjoying the fact that the world was catching up to us. Being like, "Holy shit, this crazy music we've been playing now for three or four years, people are really starting to understand what we've been saying."