Roger Waters Calls James Hetfield a “Prick” Over Metallica Frontman’s Sphere Speech

Roger Waters has offered a pointed response to James Hetfield’s headline-making speech at a recent Metallica show at Las Vegas’ Sphere, calling the metal frontman a “prick.”

This past Saturday, Hetfield appeared to take a jab at musicians who get political from the stage, telling the crowd, “I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit, OK? We are here…no bullshit…we’re here to forget about all the outside shit, OK? Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!”

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The former Pink Floyd singer-bassist said of Hetfield during an appearance on the Katie Halper’s podcast, “Can we stop talking about this prick? I’m so bored with him. He’s just showing that he’s a complete prick. He’s got an IQ of about three and why we’re talking about him I honestly don’t know because he’s a nobody. He may have a few hundred million dollars or whatever, but he’s a prick, and he’s no musician. I heard them playing acoustic instruments, and they couldn’t. It was appalling.”

He later added, “It’s a shame this prick didn’t have somebody around him to explain that being kind is way more important than all that loud music and bouncing around and whatever.”

Elsewhere in the discussion, Waters brought up the infamous usage of Metallica’s music for torture in American prisons at sites such as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

Waters ended his comments with a call for Palestinian solidarity, a cause he has vocally supported for two decades. Last month, he called out Ed Sheeran after rapper Macklemore was dropped from Sheeran’s tour as the result of his onstage pro-Palestine speeches.

Roger Waters and his son Harry Waters recently announced  a massive 2027 Pink Floyd legacy 2027 tour (get tickets here). Roger will not be on the tour itself, but is a major creative force behind the staging.

Metallica, meanwhile, will continue their “Life Burns Faster” Sphere residency through March 2028, followed by another North American leg of their “M72 World Tour” tour. Get tickets here.

Watch the full interview with Roger Waters below, and see where Pink Floyd and Metallica rank on Consequence‘s list of the 100 Best Bands of All Time.