According to Billy Corgan, Metallica’s ‘Fuel’ sounds like Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Tales of a Scorched Earth.’
“ Well, let me caveat this by saying that I love James Hetfield as a person,” the singer said while discussing with Australia’s Everblack podcast whether they have ever performed ‘Tales of a Scorched Earth’ live. “I love Metallica; I saw them in 1984 and all that great stuff. And James is probably the greatest riff writer outside of maybe [Black Sabbath’s] Tony Iommi.”
He continued, “James has written some of the greatest, most amazing riffs, and he’s still writing them. But if you listen to ‘Tales of a Scorched Earth’ and you listen to that Metallica song [‘Fuel’ from 1997’s ‘Reload’ album], ‘Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.’ See — a little lightbulb went off in your brain… Now, which song came first?”
The interviewer pointed out that ‘Tales of a Scorched Earth’ came out two years before ‘Fuel.’ Corgan replied, “God bless you… Now, I don’t think James would rip anything off from me, but the first time I heard that song, I was, like, ‘That’s awfully close.’ But I love me some James. And I’d love somebody trying to get a troll headline out that, some clickbait out of that.”
“My father used to say, ‘Look, there’s only 12 notes.’ So, that’s the great thing. We all rip each other off, and if it works, great. I’ve got no problem with that. I mean, I’ve certainly ripped Metallica off plenty, so…” Corgan also added.
In 2010, Corgan called Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’ one of his favorite metal albums, telling Music Radar, “[It’s] the perfect combo of blitzing riffs matched with the beginnings of Hetfield finding that melodies weren’t just something in the way of his robotic right hand. This is smart metal at its greatest level.”
Corgan also previously shared that Metallica’s ‘Fade to Black’ helped him cope with his grandmother’s death from cancer. He said it created a strong bond between him and the band.
