Jeff Waters revealed that Metallica wanted him to try out as James Hetfield’s temporary guitar replacement while James healed from his 1992 stage burns.
A few days ago, Waters shared a story on Annihilator’s social media about meeting Jason Newsted in 2013 at a London awards show. “‘WTF happened to you, back when James got burnt in 92?’” the musician recalled Newsted’s words. “I had no idea what he meant and asked him to explain. I then sat down beside him and he told me something pretty cool that I wish I’d known!”
Jeff continued, “He said that, back when James had ben injured, they had a band vote as to who should temporarily replace him on guitar. I said to Jason ‘ya?’!. Jason said ‘we voted to get you but you never called us back’. Needless to say, I was in shock. C’mon. It is fkn Metallica .”
“Turns out, Jason said that one of their managers had called MY management office (I had 2 managers at that time, as did Metallica) and they wanted me to do it,” Waters further recalled. “Jason said that their mgmt. was told MY mgmt. would get back to them… they never did! Now, after a short time, I figured out that MY mgmt. was likely worried that I might join Metallica and they would lose their ‘hold’ on me OR that maybe the run with Metallica might lead to me realizing that things were NOT right, regarding finances, mgmt., etc…”
The guitarist then added, “Maybe they had no idea that James was irreplaceable! Either they didn’t realize who he was OR it was the fear that I might realize that my business was not being run well! So now back to 2013 in London: Jason said ‘we were all pissed that you never got back to us.’ WOW!”
Metallica’s guitar tech John Marshall, who had replaced Hetfield in 1986 after a wrist injury, took over rhythm guitar again while Hetfield’s arm healed. Sepultura’s Andreas Kisser and Ooverkill’s Bobby Gustafson were some of the guitarists who auditioned to temporarily replace James in 1992.