Billy Corgan has issued a cheeky call-out to James Hetfield while highlighting apparent similarities between a Smashing Pumpkins deep cut and a Metallica song that came out two years later.
On a new episode of the Everblack Podcast, Corgan speaks highly of Metallica’s resident electric guitar riffsmith, and discusses the suspicious sonic resemblance between Tales Of A Scorched Earth from 1995’s Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, and ’Tallica’s Fuel, which arrived on Reload two years later.
“Let me caveat this by saying that I love James Hetfield as a person, [and] I love Metallica,” Corgan stresses. “I saw them in 1984 and all that great stuff. James is probably the greatest riff writer outside of maybe Tony Iommi, James has written some of the greatest, most amazing riffs, and he’s still writing them.
“But,” he goes on, “if you listen to Tales Of A Scorched Earth and you listen to that Metallica song [Fuel], ‘Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.’ See – a little lightbulb went off in your brain… Now, which song came first?”
He has a point. The main riffs of the two songs have plenty in common, but both were timely compositions, replicating the gritty hard rock/metal sound that most bands of the mid-late ’90s were pedaling.
As such, Corgan clearly isn’t accusing Hetfield of stealing from him – unlike how Hammett openly admitted to stealing the Batman riff for 72 Seasons.
“I don’t think James would rip anything off from me,” Corgan expands. “But the first time I heard that song, I was, like, ‘That’s awfully close.’ But I love me some James. And I’d love somebody trying to get a troll headline out of that, some clickbait out of that.” We hear you, Billy.
Corgan adds that similarities between different riffs will always inevitably occur because of the guitar’s basic limitations. Echoing a lesson his father once taught him, he says: “My father used to say, ‘Look, there’s only 12 notes.’ So, that’s the great thing. We all rip each other off, and if it works, great.
“I’ve got no problem with that,” he concludes. “I mean, I’ve certainly ripped Metallica off plenty.”
Corgan has been in fine headline-grabbing form lately. Not too long ago, he bemoaned the “silly lists” compiling the greatest guitar players, saying he's always ranked lower than those “I could play circles around.”
