Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett called Guns N’ Roses a ‘nostalgia act’ in a new Los Angeles Times interview.
“Unfortunately,” he told the Times, “they’ve turned into somewhat of a nostalgia act, which to me is kind of sad.”
“I don’t want to think we’re trying to stay young by writing new stuff, but it makes us feel relevant,” added frontman James Hetfield. “It makes us feel like we’re still progressing.”
Of course, veteran acts have turned away from recording new material in recent years for any number of reasons, including dwindling overall sales across the record industry and the always difficult prospect of living up to one’s own previous work. That’s a struggle Metallica are intimately familiar with, but they insist owning their own label — and the challenges of figuring out how to best take advantage of the new digital landscape — have energized them during their Hardwired era.
“I mean, God,” added James Hetfield. “If you love what you do, why stop doing it?”
