After the release of ‘Master of Puppets’ in 1986, Metallica took the world by storm. The entire album was marvelous but what made it more special was the vocals of James Hetfield.
Hetfield grew up listening to rock and roll and eventually in 1981, he became a Metallica member after responding to Lars Ulrich’s advertisement and the rest is history. His vocals are one of the prominent reasons why Metallica is so big today.
Even vocalists such as Hetfield are artists on their list of favorites. Over his career, he has talked about multiple musicians who are great singers but there was only one singer he stated as the best of all time.
James Hetfield’s opinion on the best singer of all time
James Hetfield has witnessed the evolution of rock, metal, and heavy metal. By the time he joined Metallica, heavy metal was already a big thing. In fact, they were one of the most popular genres of the time.
Many bands had already gained great fanbase. Back in the 80s, many were fortunate enough to be successful and of course, the singer that Hetfield talks about is also from the same era.
When Rolling Stone asked about the 20 greatest singers in history to Hetfield in 2008, he talked about multiple artists such as Freddie Mercury, Steven Tyler, Robert Plant, Bon Scott, and Rob Halford, but the one that came to first place was the late legendary Ronnie James Dio, a former member of Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and Dio.
Unfortunately, the legendary singer passed away at the age of 67 due to stomach cancer in 2010. The world of music will forever remember him. Hetfield was lucky enough to meet him and even perform together in the 80s. In 2014, the band paid their tribute to Ronnie James Dio and performed his songs.
Hetfield was a great fan of Dio. During an interview with Music Radar in 2016, he talked about the moment when he asked Rio how he keeps his voice healthy.
“When we did the Ronnie Dio tribute record. We did this medley of a bunch of different Dio songs. I just realized how fucking amazing that guy was and it pissed me off. Because when I met him I said, ‘Hey, can I hear your warmup tape? What do you do. What’s your secret to all of this?’”
“And he said, ‘Well, I just have a little glass of wine and go out and sing.’ What?! Yeah right! But I don’t think he was BS’ing me. He was just a natural singer. He had a range that had power all the way through it. And he just continues to challenge me which is great,” James Hetfield said.