James Hetfield admits the one Metallica song they never wanted to record

Metallica have plenty of massive hits and obscure cuts to be proud of, but there’s one track they never wanted to record in the first place, let alone play live.

As reported by Ultimate Guitar, James Hetfield was speaking to Sopitas about the recording sessions behind their ’84 classic Ride The Lightning, and revealed that one of its tracks was a bit of an unwanted addition.

Describing the writing process behind the album’s shortest song ‘Escape’, he explained that it was “the first time we wrote a song in the studio, after Lars entered at the last moment to explain that the studio was demanding “one more for the album.”

“I was like, ‘You didn’t tell me that…’, Hetfield continued. “So we had to write, and it was really last-minute. So ‘Escape’ was one of those songs that was written in the studio.”

Rather than a hurriedly-written favourite like Black Sabbath’s legendary ‘Paranoid’, the relatively basic ‘Escape’ went shunned by the band for years, especially in a live setting. Ultimate Guitar point out that it took over 10,000 days from its recording date before it got a live debut in 2012, with Hetfield even introducing it as “The song that we never wanted to play live, ever.”

You can watch that exact performance below.

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