Roger Waters vs. James Hetfield of Metallica: "He's a nobody" – Watch the video interview

Roger Waters wades straight into the controversy over James Hetfield's statements and attacks the frontman of Metallica with a barrage of insults, going as far as to question his musical abilities too. The ex-Pink Floyd member's comments come as the words spoken by the singer at the Sphere in Las Vegas on October 10 continue to spark debate: "Metallica aren't here, like other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit."

A guest on "The Katie Halper Show" podcast, Waters was invited to comment on Hetfield's relationship with politics through a rundown of his past statements. The host first recalled the political and social content of songs like "Disposable Heroes" and "...And Justice For All", before bringing up a 2007 interview, dating back to Metallica's participation in the environmental concert Live Earth, in which Hetfield stated: "Politics makes me crazy."
The conversation then moved on to a more controversial episode: the use of Metallica's music during the torture of Iraqi prisoners by the US military. Commenting on the matter in 2008, Hetfield had expressed mixed feelings, saying he was partly sorry and stating that he didn't want the band associated with taking a political stance.

At the end of the rundown, Waters' response was scathing: "He's just proving what a complete asshole he is. He's got an IQ of about three and I don't even know why we're talking about him, because he's a nobody. He might have a few hundred million dollars or whatever it is, but he's a nobody." The attack then shifted to musical terrain. According to Waters, Hetfield "is not a musician": "I've heard them play acoustic instruments and it was horrifying."
The statements add a new chapter to the debate sparked by the frontman's words at the Sphere. Hetfield had not explicitly specified which colleagues he was referring to when speaking of artists intent on influencing audiences. His comments came, however, just weeks after Macklemore's exclusion from a support tour with Ed Sheeran, following a "Free Palestine" shout from the stage: a timing coincidence that does not, on its own, clarify who his words were aimed at.

For Waters, this is not the first clash with a leading figure in metal. After the death of Ozzy Osbourne in July 2025, the former Pink Floyd bassist stated that he "couldn't care less" about the Black Sabbath singer, sparking a reaction from his son Jack and the Osbourne family, who had even briefly put a t-shirt attacking him up for sale. Interviewed by Piers Morgan the following January, Waters reiterated his stance: "Do I have to like every rock band that's ever existed, or people who bite the heads off bats?"

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