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Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
Entertainment
Merlin Alderslade

"Our label said, ‘You guys will be the next Metallica’, and that bummed me out." Stoner rock legend Brant Bjork on why he didn't want Kyuss to be megastars

Brant Bjork and Metallica.

Stoner rock icon Brant Bjork has discussed the unique legacy of Kyuss in a new interview with Metal Hammer. Speaking to Hammer in their latest issue, Bjork explains that Kyuss - widely considered one of the pioneering forces in the stoner rock and stoner metal genres - were saddled with high expectations as their status began to grow in the 90s.

“Our guy at the label would always say, ‘You guys will be the next Metallica’, and that bummed me out," Bjork says now. "I wanted to be this Kyuss! I felt like we fucking rocked and had hit the peak of our chemistry at the time, and Metallica were super-cool guys and really supportive, but seeing it all on that scale, it was just like, ‘This isn’t for me.’ If that’s the epitome of success in a rock band, it just seemed unrewarding. They got up and played the same things every night, said the same things... I could tell it’d become a travelling circus, a machine. I was still 20 years old, more attracted to what we were doing in terms of improvising onstage and being loose. I wanted Kyuss to go more in that direction.”

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