In a new Interview with Louder Sound, Diamond Head guitarist Brian Tatler discussed the impact Metallica made on his life by covering their music on their 1998 covers album “Garage Inc.”
He said:
“This album came out in 1998 and sold over five million copies. It contains four Diamond Head songs, and the royalties have changed my life a lot. I bought a house with my wife, and the constant flow of royalties mean that I no longer have to work.”
Remembering how he first heard about “Garage Inc.”, Tatler continued:
“In 1998, I was visiting our drummer Karl [Wilcox] in San Francisco, and I got a call from Lars Ulrich, who invited us to come and visit him at The Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California, where Metallica were recording ‘Garage Inc.’ Lars showed us around and treated us to a playback of ‘It’s Electric,’ that they’d just recorded.
“Later on we drove back into San Francisco to celebrate, and I asked Lars how many copies the record would sell. And he said, ‘This is probably going to sell five million copies, based on the last few. So the beers are on you!’
“To get four songs on a Metallica album… I’ve been very lucky there. It’s just the way it is. They did great versions of our songs. They are very tight and make it rock. They introduced Diamond Head to millions of American fans that didn’t know Diamond Head – because we had never toured the US back in the day.
“I sometimes think of some of the other NWOBHM bands that didn’t get covered. It could have been Angelwitch. It could have been Tygers of Pan Tang. I’m just very lucky.”