It’s a brave rock star who puts the boot into one of the world’s biggest bands, but that hasn’t stopped Matt Healy, motormouthed frontman with British art-poppers The 1975, from calling Metallica “my worst band of all time.”
In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Healy was asked if he was a fan of Kate Bush (he was) or fellow Stranger Things soundtrackers Metallica, to which he replied: “I fucking hate Metallica. My worst band of all time.”
Healy didn’t expand on just what it is about James Hetfield and co that gets his back up, but at least he’s consistent. In a 2020 podcast he conducted for The Face, Healy said that while he was “always a big metal fan”, he never liked Metallica.
Instead, he namechecked Converge, Glassjaw Poison The Well and Swedish punk provocateurs Refused, who he called “my favourite heavy metal band of all time.” He also ’fessed up to being in the AFI fanclub, which definitely gets him some mid-00s goth-punk points if nothing else.
While The 1975 are a pretty big deal these days, notching up their sixth consecutive UK No.1 with recent album Being Funny In A Foreign Language, they’ve got a long way to go before catching up with Metallica and their 125 million album sales. James Hetfield has, unsurprisingly, yet to comment.
