METALLICA's JAMES HETFIELD On BLACK SABBATH's TONY IOMMI: 'He Is The One That Has Inspired Me The Most Out Of Any Guitar Player'

In the latest episode of the "James Hetfield's Riff Life" show on SiriusXM's Maximum Metallica, the METALICA frontman praised BLACK SABBATH's Tony Iommi as the one of the most influential and oft-imitated guitarists in the history of music. James said: "Tony Iommi is the riff lord, in my mind, and he is the one that has inspired me the most out of any guitar player for my rhythm guitar playing and songwriting."

Hetfield continued: "Yeah, the 'Children Of The Grave' riff — obviously, Tony is the riff lord and everyone starts the song together on the one riff…. Basically, Tony plays off that riff, goes in to hit the big giant chords, which opens the song up. I really love the drum overdub that they did to help with that percussion of the riff and the real cool ghostly guitar sounds at the very, very end."

"James Hetfield's Riff Life" features METALLICA frontman James Hetfield sharing riffs, bands and artists that have inspired and entertained him through his career on SiriusXM's Maximum Metallica. New episode airs today at 6:00 p.m. ET and will be available on the SiriusXM app.

In a 1992 interview with Guitar World, Hetfield said that he "discovered BLACK SABBATH by digging through" his older brother's record collection. "Their album covers really drew me in," he said. "I immediately thought, 'I gotta put this on.' And when I did, I couldn't believe it. It was, like, 'Whoa! Heavy as shit.' SABBATH was everything that the '60s weren't. Their music was so cool because it was completely anti-hippie. I hated THE BEATLES, JETHRO TULL, LOVE and all that other happy shit."

Two decades ago, Hetfield told Rolling Stone magazine that he was surprised at how choked up he had gotten while honoring BLACK SABBATH at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in March 2006 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Hetfield — dressed in black jeans and a black shirt amid a sea of tuxedos — fought back tears as he recalled a young James, nine years old, stealing SABBATH records from his older brother. "Those monstrous riffs lived inside of him and spoke the feelings he could never put into words, sending chills of inspiration through him," Hetfield said. "They helped crack the shell he was stuck in. Also, scaring his mom and sister was an extra bonus. And now, as the former nine-year-old speaks to you here, as an adult musician — I know those two words really don't go together — I realize that without their defining sound, there would be no METALLICA, especially with one James Hetfield. Never have I known a more timeless and influential band. They have spread their wonderful disease through generations of musicians. They are always listed as an influence by heavy bands to this day. They are loved and highly respected as the fathers of heavy music."

Afterward, Hetfield told Rolling Stone, "It was like, 'Oh, no, I'm going to start crying,'" he said. "I'd never known it until I had to access all those emotions in front of that crowd, but it just goes to show how much SABBATH mean."

In addition to inducting SABBATH into the Rock Hall, METALLICA performed a medley of SABBATH songs ("Hole In The Sky" and "Iron Man") during the ceremony.

In his induction speech, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich said about BLACK SABBATH: "Bill, Geezer, Ozzy and Tony, if it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here. Obviously if there was no BLACK SABBATH, there would be no METALLICA. If there was no BLACK SABBATH, hard rock and heavy metal as we know it today would look, sound and be shaped very, very differently. So if there was no BLACK SABBATH, I could possibly still be a morning newspaper delivery boy — no fun, no fun. So thank you for meeting, thank you for knowing each other, and thank you for forming a band.

"As one who has fought labeling at any opportunity given, I hereby not only acknowledge but scream from every fucking rooftop that BLACK SABBATH is and always will be synonymous with the term 'heavy metal.'

"SABBATH join what I consider a very short list of artists who can claim to be synonymous with their specific genre of music — one being Bob Marley with reggae, Bob Dylan with folk, Johnny Cash with country, perhaps Bill Haley with rockabilly, but no matter how you fucking slice and dice it, when you say 'heavy metal,' the words BLACK SABBATH hover in the shadows fighting for pole position. On any given day, the heavy metal genre might as well be subtitled 'music derivative of BLACK SABBATH.' Sure, we're all respectful to BLUE CHEER, we're enamored with LED ZEPPELIN, we're in awe of DEEP PURPLE and of course admiring of STEPPENWOLF and John Kay's first uttering of the words 'heavy metal,' but when it comes to defining a genre within the world of heavy music, SABBATH stand alone. They took pre-existing elements of blues, rock and soul, threw in the right amount of darkness and street cred, and fused those elements with a previously undiscovered 'X' factor — whatever the fuck that was — creating something unheard, unexperienced, unique and utterly groundbreaking with their huge hymns of doom. BLACK SABBATH are an entity of their own — in my mind, the only word that fits is the word 'pioneer.' They were, and much more importantly, still are considered pioneers of all things heavy. All the metal bands and all the so-called subgenres of metal still trace their lineage to one place: four kids in their late teens from the black country of Birmingham who named their band after a 1963 Italian horror movie starring Boris Karloff. Subsequently they changed hard rock and by doing so the entire family tree of metal and everything that metal, for better or worse, stands for, was and will be forever both invigorated and elevated."

METALLICA played a six-song set at BLACK SABBATH's "Back To The Beginning" charity event on July 5, 2025. The San Francisco Bay Area metal legends opened their performance with the SABBATH "Sabotage" classic "Hole In The Sky" and continued with two of their own songs, "Creeping Death" and "For Whom The Bell Tolls" before returning to covering SABBATH with "Johnny Blade" off the latter's "Never Say Die!" album. METALLICA concluded its set by playing two more of its classic songs: "Battery" and "Master Of Puppets".