Metallica have covered quite a few songs during their career, but there’s one in particular that features a really iconic lineup of guest musicians.
For their 1998 covers album Garage Inc., Metallica paid homage to one of their favorite bands — southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd. They recorded their own version of Skynyrd’s 1973 hit “Tuesday’s Gone” from their debut album (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd).
But it wasn’t just the members of Metallica that played on the track — they had an all-star lineup of guests play on it too, including Alice In Chains‘ Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, Faith No More‘s Jim Martin, Corrosion of Conformity‘s Pepper Keenan, Primus‘ Les Claypool, Blues Traveler‘s John Popper and, perhaps most notably, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s own Gary Rossington.
“Tuesday’s Gone” is the only song on Garage Inc. that lists musicians other than Metallica in the credits.
This group of rockers didn’t record the cover in a formal studio setting, either. They performed it in December of 1997 during San Jose radio station KSJO’s “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” Christmas special, and that version is the one that appears on Garage Inc., according to Metallica Wiki.
Metallica, “Tuesday’s Gone”
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Rossington, Martin, Keenan and Cantrell joined Metallica onstage to play the track live once more in December of 2011 while celebrating the thrash band’s 30th anniversary.
You can see footage from the performance toward the bottom of the page.
Metallica’s Ties to Lynyrd Skynyrd
Frontman James Hetfield has cited Lynyrd Skynyrd as one of his biggest influence in various interviews. In a video clip, he recalled the single “Sweet Home Alabama” as the first vinyl record he ever purchased.
The vocalist also told Rolling Stone in the early 2000s that “Free Bird” is one of his Top 10 favorite songs of all time.
“Nothing tops this workingman’s ballad. ‘Free Bird’ fit my life for the first 20 years on the road. Not really getting too attached to stuff, living life for the moment and moving on,” he explained [via Blabbermouth].
Drummer Lars Ulrich also shared some of his favorite tracks by the group during a December 2023 episode of their official podcast The Metallica Report. His selections included “On the Hunt,” “Cry for Bad Man,” “Workin’ for MCA,” “Saturday Night Special” and “Searching.”
“People that mostly know Skynyrd from, say, ‘Free Bird’ or ‘Sweet Home Alabama’: there’s this, sort of heavier, less mainstream side to them,” the drummer suggested [via Yahoo]. “Great, great, mid-’70s hard rock songs. Incredible drumming, singing, soloing. Those songs have definitely stood the test of time.”
Metallica, “Tuesday’s Gone” (Live 2011)
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Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita