Metallica frontman James Hetfield grew up on Queen and Black Sabbath riffs, and he got to play with both of his heroes at once, but under tragic circumstances. Hetfield played with the surviving Queen members and Black Sabbath riff lord Tony Iommi to honor the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury – and on Queen’s heaviest song, “Stone Cold Crazy”, of course. The power of having three of the greatest rock bands of all time on stage could not be denied.
Fans could see that Hetfield was living his childhood dreams up there. Although Hetfield looked like he didn’t quite know what to do without a guitar in his hands, the fire and lightning that the Man of Metal brought to the performance made it one for the ages. Queen could feel it was a special moment, with Brian May’s big smile looking over at Hetfield at 1:09, saying it all. The Music Man has to say that this collab is one that just keeps getting better every time you watch it!
Hetfield, Iommi and Queen performed for charity at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on April 20, 1992, at Wembley Stadium in London. Fans were loving the epic collab and added comments such as “Bro! You know for a fact James was beyond honored to be on stage with those guys. He absolutely killed it” and “I know there’s not even a possible comparison with Freddie, but Hetfield’s voice here is really really good.”
Another killer performance of “Stone Cold Crazy” came when Metallica covered it at the Arenes de Nimes historic Roman amphitheatre in France. Hetfield and the boys kicked off the segment by leading the crowd in the iconic Wizard of Oz chant from their deep cut “The Frayed Ends of Sanity.” They then segued into a high-octane version of the Queen cover, with Hetfield saying with his hand over his heart: “This is the part of the set that we get to play a cover song from a band that inspired us to play music.”
“Stone Cold Crazy” is a deep cut from Queen’s third studio album, 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack. The songwriting credit is shared by all four Queen members, and the band as a whole is also credited as co-producer alongside Roy Thomas Baker. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that “Stone Cold Crazy” was originally written and performed by Freddie Mercury with his earlier band Wreckage. Queen guitarist Brian May noted that Freddie’s original version of the song was more chill. However, Queen changed the main riff and turned the song into a hard-hitting, high tempo heavy metal cut. Critics have since credited “Stone Cold Crazy” as a major influence in the development of thrash metal. Metallica recorded a notable cover of the song, including it on the B-side of their biggest hit single “Enter Sandman,” and later on their covers album Garage Inc.