Kyuss bassist Scott Reeder recently revealed how he almost made his way into Metallica. Jason Newsted had left the band and they recorded “St. Anger” with producer Bob Rock doing all the bass parts. They were then looking for a bassist and set up an audition. One of them was Reeder.
Kyuss bassist opens up on almost joining Metallica
Speaking to Metal Hammer recently, Scott recalled the audition process. He was asked about how he got in touch with the band. Here is what he answered:
“At some point after Jason was out, Lars was hanging out with my old [Kyuss] bandmate, Josh Homme, and asked him who he thought should be the new bassist for Metallica. Josh pointed him my way. Metallica and Kyuss had toured together in Australia back in ’93, so they were familiar with where I was coming from. Anyway, I was working outside at the ranch when Lars called. My wife brought the phone out and thought it was a prank call from Maynard from Tool! Nope – it was actually Lars!”
He adds:
“They flew me up a week or two after the call. We sat around a table and talked for a while, and finally James said, ‘Well, let’s f***in’ play!’ They had me call ’em out – we did Fuel, ‘Creeping Death,’ ‘Master Of Puppets,’ ‘Enter Sandman,’ ‘The Unforgiven,’ ‘Fade To Black’… They had their Christmas party for the whole Metallica organization while I was up there, so that was fun! They took over a bowling alley and raged! The next day, it was back to work on St. Anger overdubs. There was a certain song for which James asked us all for lyrical input… Everyone wandered off and scribbled down whatever lines or phrases came to mind. After a while we got together and presented it all to James. He gathered his thoughts, and cut his vocals right next to me on the couch in the control room! That was pretty crazy.”
He was also asked about how he found out that he didn’t get the role, Scott replied:
“The three guys called me together to let me off the hook a few weeks later. They hadn’t made their final decision yet – I suspect that they were clear that Rob was their frontrunner. Around a half hour after that call, I got a call from James, just making sure I was alright. I told him I was stoked to have even been considered! I said, ‘This was like the Metal Olympics or something, and I got the silver medal – it’s all good!'”
The interviewer asked Scott about how he reacted to “St. Anger.” It is quite interesting given their reputation.
He offered:
“Well, it’s the one album that I don’t own. They played me some of it when I was up there. I thought Lars was pulling my leg about the snare sound for a minute, but he was pretty excited about it; if there’s one thing I learned from my time in Kyuss, it’s that there are no rules!”
Here is what he said regarding the lack of solos on it, he said:
“Man, Kirk is a lead guitar virtuoso! To me, it was like having Luciano Pavarotti in the band, and asking him to pipe down!”
