Bill Kelliher Recalls His ‘Elitist’ Reaction to Metallica’s ‘Black Album,’ Highly Disagrees Mastodon’s 1st Album Is Their Best

The guitarist also talks band’s reluctance to play Ozzfest due to financial reasons.

During a conversation with Rock N’ Roll Beer Guy, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher discussed the band’s rise to fame, the elitist mentality of some fans in the metal community, his own elitist stances from back in the day, and more.

When the interviewer brought up 2009’s “Crack the Skye” as “the moment when you shifted to a whole new stratosphere,” Kelliher replied (transcribed by UG):

 

“Oh yeah, definitely wasn’t an overnight thing. Once we got management – I mean, things have taken off on their own, but once we got a manager, it was like, they managed Slayer as well.

“So we started getting all these tours with Slayer, which put us in front of a much bigger audience, more metal audience, and then we finally had enough clout to get paid to do Ozzfest, which we’ve been asked a million times to do it.

“We always declined because it was losing money – you had to pay to be on Ozzfest, and we’re actually getting paid $500 a night, which is nothing, that’s like to get there on a tour bus, but that’s when things really changed.

“We didn’t have a tour bus, we had a van, and to do Ozzfest, you have to have a tour bus, so we started hiring tour buses, and never looked back. We started getting more and more attention and, you know, the music got a little deeper.

“We had the vision but the manager helped us achieve it; as you mature, a lot of people are like, ‘Well, ‘Remission’ is your best record.’ I highly disagree.

“I felt like we were just a baby of a band, we were kind of just throwing shit at the wall and see what stuck and we were just screaming over it all, not really paying attention.

“We were more paying attention to getting to the next gig on time and looking at our giant map in the van and being super-hungover or wasted, you know, during that entire period, so you know, once ‘Crack the Sky’ was recorded – we started taking things a little more seriously.

“Things got a little more… I don’t want to say ‘cushy,’ it’s not the right word, but we could get a real producer, we could get into a good studio, we could pay our rent, so we didn’t have to worry about so many things. It’s like the fruits of our labor started to pay off.”

That happens to a lot of bands, the metal fans specifically have an elitist mentality, ‘Yeah, your first record was the best!’

“I felt the same way about Metallica before I got into their position. It was like, ‘My god, I guess all that money, they stopped writing good riffs.’

“But it’s all different, ball and yarn, you know? During the [1991’s] ‘Black Album,’ I was just listening to [1988’s] ‘…And Justice for All’ yesterday, and I was fucking going crazy.

“I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, it’s so sick, it’s so great.’ ‘Blackened,’ that fucking song is so sick!”