Apocalyptica had other names in their minds besides James Hetfield for their ‘One’ cover.
Apocalyptica’s lead cellist Perttu Kivilaakso recently spoke with Mexico’s Summa Inferno and talked about how Hetfield landed in joining them on the song:
“And, of course, in the very starting point, James Hetfield naturally was kind of the number one choice for us when we were speaking: ‘It would be so cool if James does his own lyrics.’ But we didn’t even consider that he would ever step away from Metallica to do something else. And that’s why, at some period of time, we had maybe other ideas of involving some cool actor — Mads Mikkelsen or somebody like that — with a great charismatic voice there.”
He revealed Hetfield himself wanted to collaborate with Apocalyptica:
“But then, when our recordings were all done and we came into the finalizing the post-production of the album, all of a sudden James informed us that, basically, like, ‘Why wouldn’t you ask me to do [it]?’ It kind of felt even that he wanted to do it — he really, really wanted [to do it]. And that was a mind-blowing experience.”
Lars Ulrich Didn’t Want To Be A Part Of The Project
Earlier this month, Apocalyptica released their version of ‘One.’ The song will be on their upcoming album ‘Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2.’ The track features Hetfield and another Metallica member, Robert Trujillo. However, Lars Ulrich didn’t join the two. Apocalyptica’s Eicca Toppinen revealed why in a new chat with Chaoszine:
“One of the coolest parts related to this whole Metallica thing was when we, of course, kept the door open for Lars to be a part of this, but after he thought about it, he declined. The reason for that was cool.”
Toppinen added:
“He said, ‘If Rob is there, and James is there, and you have Cliff’s bass track, then me being there as well will turn it into just Metallica. It would be all about Metallica. It has to be Apocalyptica. The focus has to be on Apocalyptica. We don’t want to take it away from you.’ For me, that was the coolest moment.”
‘Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2’ will drop on June 7 as the full album. It will also include songs like ‘Ride The Lightning,’ ‘St. Anger,’ ‘The Four Horsemen,’ and ‘Holier Than Thou.’
Below, you can watch the entire chat and listen to Apocalyptica’s version of ‘One.’