Billy Corgan recently recalled a story from the late nineties when he was hanging out with Pantera backstage, just as Metallica had their moment with the ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ albums. Corgan shared with SiriusXM what he said to Pantera that stopped them in their tracks:
“And [Pantera] were just going on and on about Metallica. Not in a negative way, more like a confused, like, ‘I love Metallica, but I don’t get it, and they’re not metal, and what’s going on?’ And I literally said, and this is a true story; I don’t think I’ve ever told this story in public. I raised my hands, and I knew them well enough that they would listen to me. I mean, that’s saying something.”
At the time of Metallica’s rise, everyone was confused about whether they were still a metal band, with their new sound that was more mainstream, and so was Pantera, so Billy pulled them aside backstage and said:
“I said, ‘You know what? Shut the f*ck up.’ And they looked at me like, ‘Did you just tell us to shut the f*ck up?’ I said, ‘Shut the f*ck up.’ Okay, so the room goes silent, and I go, ‘Listen, set aside Metallica for a second. Okay? You guys right now are the best metal band on the f*cking planet, okay? Shut the f*ck up. Worry about Pantera. Just worry about Pantera. Metallica will work it out.'”
Corgan added that as the guys were about to get mad, they realized that he was hyping them up, so they handed him a drink:
“And they did, right? And I said, ‘You focus on Pantera. You just focus on being the greatest metal band on the f*cking planet.’ And they all looked at each other, and they were like, ‘Okay, he’s complimenting us.’ And then it was like, ‘Okay, drink this horrible poison, you f*cking alternative weirdo.'”
You can watch Billy Corgan’s interview with SiriusXM and listen to ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ below.
