Billy Corgan recently recalled an incident from the late 1990s, when he was hanging out with Pantera backstage during Metallica’s ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ albums. Corgan told SiriusXM what he said to Pantera that caused them to stop: “And [Pantera] simply kept talking about Metallica. Not in a negative sense, but more in a perplexed one, as if to say, ‘I adore Metallica, but I don’t get it, and they’re not metal, and what’s going on?’ And I really stated, and this is a true tale; I don’t think I’ve ever said it in public before. I raised my hands, and I was confident that they would listen to me. That’s quite a compliment.”
During Metallica’s ascension, everyone was unsure whether they were still a metal band, with their new, more mainstream sound, and so was Pantera, so Billy called them aside backstage and said: “I told her, ‘You know what? ‘Shut up and f*ck off.’ They glanced at me as if to say, ‘Did you just order us to shut the f*ck up?’ I yelled, ‘Shut the f*ck up.’ Okay, so the room gets silent, and I go, ‘Listen, set aside Metallica for a second. Okay? You’re the best metal band on the f*cking planet right now, okay? Put the f*ck down. Be concerned about Pantera. Just be concerned about Pantera. “Metallica will figure it out.” “And they did, didn’t they?” ‘You concentrate on Pantera,’ I added. You just concentrate on being the best metal band on the planet.’ They all glanced at each other and said, ‘Okay, he’s complimenting us.’ Then it was like, ‘Okay, drink this dreadful poison, you f*cking alternative crazy.'”
