Metallica's Lightning Had Big Impact On Slipknot's Jim Root

K. Wiggins | 09-26-2019

Slipknot guitarist Jim Root explained in a recent interview that hearing a song from Metallica's classic sophomore album "Ride The Lightning" changed his musical direction.

Root spoke with WMMR during a stop of the Knotfest Roadshow and revealed the big impact Metallica had on him. He said,"I was listening to Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, Ratt, stuff like that; guitar-oriented music at that time.

"I think I was 13 or 14 years old. And then, after school, I remember going to this guy Jason - another guitar player up where I grew up - and he was like, 'You need to check this out.' He's played 'Fight Fire With Fire' (from Metallica's Ride The Lightning) and I was like, 'What is this? This is next level.

"I've never heard a drummer play like that, I've never heard nothing like that...' I mean, I appreciate Ratt and those other bands for what they are, but at that time your mind's a sponge and you just want to be as extreme as you can with the guitar. I needed to learn how to pick that fast, needed to learn downstrokes, and that really helped form me as a guitar player.

"[Megadeth's] Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good, all that stuff, once you found that record... back in those days, there wasn't, like, streaming, wasn't word-to-mouth social media, it was: you go to a record store and you go for the cover that looks cool and you hope the band's cool and you listen to it. Then you study the artwork, you read the lyrics and all that.

"So, after Ride the Lightning, it was all bets are off. I was looking for bands like Onslaught, Overkill, Anthrax, Megadeth, you name it."