Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell has a few thoughts about Metallica covering his old band’s songs.
It goes without saying that Motörhead was a big influence on metal music and several bands that went on to achieve massive success, like Metallica. So what does Phil Campbell think of a band like Metallica performing covers of Motörhead songs?
Apparently he’s pretty cool with it!
Chatting to Ultimate Guitar about his new band, Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons, the guitarist was asked his thoughts about Metallica covering Motörhead’s ‘Overkill’, ‘Damage Case’, ‘Stone Dead Forever’, and ‘Too Late Too Late’ on their 1998 compilation album Garbage Inc. and said that he had “no idea how it came about” but he thought the covers “sounded good” and gave his old band some great “exposure” though he did wish they’d covered “something [he’d] written as well.”
Campbell then goes on to talk about how Motörhead was a big influence on Metallica back in the early days and has nothing but good things to say about the covers, even though he has no clue how it all happened.
“Metallica was influenced, especially by the early Motörhead stuff and they just recorded what they wanted. It was great.
“They did some Budgie songs too, I was always a fan of Budgie. I have no idea how it came about, you’d better ask Metallica that.”
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Outside of Metallica, Campbell also weighed in on what he thought about Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana when he first heard their music.
Like Metallica, the guitarist was full of praise for both bands, saying how impressed he was with Guns N’ Roses after being given a copy of Appetite For Destruction when it first came out: “It was pretty mind-blowing; all that fantastic singing, a bunch of really good songs, and good playing.
As for Nirvana, Campbell also liked them but only noticed them when they had hit the mainstream and were everywhere.
“Nirvana as well, although I didn’t notice Nirvana until they were pretty big. I was too busy doing whatever I was doing and listening to whatever,” says the Motörhead guitarist.
Check out ‘Son Of A Gun’ by Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons:
