In 1983, Metallica embarked on their first major tour – the “Kill ‘Em All for One” Tour – in support of the British metal band Raven. At the time, Metallica were still fine tuning their sound and had recently fired guitarist Dave Mustaine, replacing him with Kirk Hammett.
Simultaneously, the band was also toying with the idea of replacing frontman James Hetfield. While they had no intentions of kicking him out of the band, they considered finding a new singer while letting Hetfield remain on guitar duties.
Now, in a new interview with Guitar World, Raven members John and Mark Gallagher recalled touring with Metallica and revealed that they slightly encouraged the band to keep Hetfield as their vocalist.
“They were a little fractured at the time, saying, ‘We need to get a good singer,’” Mark said. “That was the whole thing. We were like, ‘What’s the matter with James Hetfield? He’s doing pretty good.’ They said, ‘That’s just temporary.’ I think they were looking at John Bush [of Armored Saint] to be the singer.”
Mark continued, “But even though they were a young band, they were ahead of what most bands would be at that point, as far as the time they put into it. It definitely had something. It had that hard edge, which was cool.”
Luckily, Metallica stuck with Hetfield on vocals, and the rest is history.
