Billy Corgan said that Metallica’s “Fuel” reminds him of a Smashing Pumpkins song, although he admitted he’s “certainly ripped Metallica off plenty.”
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman discussed his band’s own song “Tales of a Scorched Earth” during a recent appearance on the Australian podcast Everblack. The track, which is from their 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, has never been performed by the group in concert, according to Setlist.fm’s tour statistics.
From there, Corgan brought up the similarities between the song and Metallica’s “Fuel,” from their 1997 album Reload — though he acknowledged that he’s also borrowed ideas from Metallica.
“Let me caveat this by saying that I love James Hetfield as a person. I love Metallica. I saw them in 1984 and all that great stuff. And James is probably the greatest riff writer outside of maybe Tony Iommi,” Corgan explained.
The rocker pointed out that the part of “Fuel” where Hetfield sings “Give me fuel / Give me fire / Give me that which I desire” is reminiscent of “Tales of a Scorched Earth.”
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“Now, I don’t think James would rip anything off from me, but the first time I heard that song, I was, like, ‘That’s awfully close.’ But I love me some James. And I’d love somebody trying to get a troll headline out that, some clickbait out of that.”
Corgan pointed out that there are only 12 notes on the guitar, and thus musicians all borrow ideas from each other.
“I’ve certainly ripped Metallica off plenty, so,” he concluded.
Listen to the conversation below.
