Metallica Producer Compares Working With Johnny Cash to James Hetfield: ‘James Isn’t the Middle-Finger Guy People See From the Outside’

“So for me, and most people, probably, working with Johnny Cash was completely fairytale stuff.”

Metallica producer Greg Fidelman compared the experience of working with Johnny Cash and James Hetfield, noting how both have a very strong presence but manifest it in different ways.

Before assuming the role of Metallica’s producer, Greg Fidelman enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Rick Rubin, in which he was working as a sound engineer. In addition to contributing to 2008’s “Death Magnetic” as part of that partnership, Fidelman also got the opportunity to work with Rubin on some of Johnny Cash’s career-reviving “American” album series. Asked in a recent interview on “The Metallica Report” podcast to compare the “amazing presences” that are Cash and James Hetfield, the producer reflected on his experience of working with The Man in Black (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):

“Yeah, he has that presence, very different, in my experience. Working with Johnny, he [had] an older, very grateful gentleman vibe, but still just [had] the legend, part of it. I suppose that the part of the person that’s the legend also [comes down to] the person that’s approaching the legend; what they have in their head.”

“So for me, and most people, probably, working with Johnny Cash was completely fairytale stuff. So I was a little apprehensive, and also, this is early on in my career. But, when I’d hear Johnny say, between the takes or something, ‘Hey, Greg, can you bring me another cup of tea?’ When I heard that over the speakers in the control room, I was definitely like, ‘Whoa, okay!'”

Asked whether he’d agree with the idea that James Hetfield has the same “very rare energy” as Johnny Cash, Fidelman said:

“I would agree, definitely. James is also obviously a lot younger than Johnny was when I met him, but James isn’t the middle-finger guy [people see from the outside]. I don’t know that James; I know *of* that James, but by the time I’m working with him, he’s already trying to not be something other than just a guy. I think he wouldn’t really like [it], but he’s more than that.”

“When James comes in, there’s a presence, but James has also become grateful, and tries to be very kind. James still has much more of a mercurial kind of personality, where the moods are clear and you know when they’re this, that, and the other. All good things, but that’s a different thing. James can be much harder to sort of dig into — he’s very easy to work with, for me, anyway — but just to understand what’s happening on the inside. There, sometimes it’s a little complicated.”