{"id":523876,"date":"2026-03-14T21:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523876\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T21:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:59:13","slug":"one-by-metallica-the-story-behind-the-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523876\/","title":{"rendered":"One by Metallica: the story behind the song"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 22, 1989, there was a rude awakening for an American audience tuned in to MTV. It was a time when all the rock music videos on heavy rotation featured pretty boys with big hair. Bon Jovi<\/a>, Poison, Def Leppard<\/a>, even Guns N\u2019 Roses<\/a>, with Axl Rose dolled up in Welcome The Jungle.<\/p>\n

The video for Metallica<\/a>\u2019s new single, One \u2013 premiered that night \u2013 was something else entirely. For an anti-war protest song, a heavy subject with music to match, the first video of the band\u2019s career was dark and deeply disturbing, with stark, black-and-white performance footage intercut with grim scenes from the 1971 movie Johnny Got His Gun, portraying a soldier, ripped apart by a landmine blast, his limbs amputated, blind and unable to hear or speak, imprisoned in his mind and praying for death to release him.<\/p>\n

As Metallica\u2019s drummer Lars Ulrich<\/a> said at the time: \u201cObviously it\u2019s not the most jolly and uplifting video you\u2019ll see. It definitely gets a reaction that is somewhat emotional. I haven\u2019t seen a video of that nature before.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Metallica\n<\/p>\n

Metallica in 1990: (from left) Jason Newsted, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett (Image credit: Niels van Iperen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It was, for Metallica, a defining artistic statement, as powerful, groundbreaking and uncompromising as the music that had made them, by the end of the 80s, the biggest cult band in the world.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, I know there was the loss of Cliff roaming around in their heads, but I never gave it a thought then. It was work, work, work.<\/p>\n

Flemming Rasmussen<\/p>\n

One was a landmark song for Metallica \u2013 the standout track on their fourth album, \u2026And Justice For All, and their first US Top 40 hit. As Flemming Rasmussen, the producer of \u2026And Justice For All, says now: \u201cOne is amazing. In terms of performance, writing, lyrics, it is one of Metallica\u2019s greatest songs.\u201d And in the creation of both the song and the video, the band\u2019s co-manager, Cliff Burnstein, played a key role.<\/p>\n

When vocalist\/guitarist James Hetfield began sketching out an idea for the song in 1987 \u2013 the concept of a human entity as, in his words, \u201ca brain and nothing else\u201d \u2013 it was Burnstein who urged James to read the 1939 novel Johnny Got His Gun, written by Dalton Trumbo, who went on to direct the movie adaptation. The book made a deep impression on James. As Lars said, \u201cJames got a lot of input from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Metallica&rsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

Metallica\u2019s James Hetfield in 1988 (Image credit: John Atashian\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

An inspiration for the music, written by James and Lars, came from a more familiar source. Venom, originators of black metal, and the most extreme band to emerge from NWOBHM in the early 80s, had been a major influence on Metallica in their younger days \u2013 as illustrated in Whiplash, from their 1983 debut album Kill \u2019Em All, in which they recycled the riff to Venom\u2019s occult classic Witching Hour.<\/p>\n

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For the darkly atmospheric intro to One, James tuned into Buried Alive, from Venom\u2019s seminal 1982 album Black Metal. And while Metallica, the first and definitive thrash metal band, felt that they\u2019d outgrown the genre they had done so much to create \u2013 as Lars joked to this writer in 1987, \u201cDelete word beginning with T and ending in H!\u201d \u2013 the heavy drama of One built to an explosive climax. The slow, sombre beginning was the calm before the storm, the prelude to a high-speed, all-out attack on the senses.<\/p>\n

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\"Metallica&rsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

Metallica\u2019s Lars Ulrich in 1989 (Image credit: Paul Natkin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When the song was recorded, at One On One Studios in LA in early 1988, there was heavy tension within the band. It had been 18 months since the death of bassist Cliff Burton, killed when the band\u2019s tourbus crashed in Sweden on September 27, 1986.<\/p>\n

When the song really gets going, with the machine-gun bass drum thing, that was a first take. That\u2019s the kind of shit that Lars can pull off.<\/p>\n

Flemming Rasmussen<\/p>\n

And while Cliff\u2019s replacement, Jason Newsted, formerly of Flotsam And Jetsam, had proven himself on his recording debut with Metallica \u2013 The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited, a collection of metal and punk covers, released in 1987 \u2013 James, Lars and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett were still struggling to adjust to life without Cliff.<\/p>\n

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In addition, with expectations high after the previous album, Master Of Puppets, had sold a million worldwide, the first sessions for \u2026And Justice For All had been disastrous. Lars \u2013 \u201cblown away\u201d, he said, by the raw rock\u2019n\u2019roll of Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 Appetite For Destruction \u2013 had chosen that album\u2019s producer, Mike Clink, to work with Metallica.<\/p>\n

But within just a few days, Lars and James had concluded that Clink lacked the right feel for their most complex material to date. With Mike dismissed, they turned to the producer who knew them best, Flemming Rasmussen, who\u2019d worked on Master Of Puppets and its predecessor, Ride The Lightning.<\/p>\n

Metallica: One (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Metallica:<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d been fucking around for three weeks and had nothing on tape,\u201d Flemming recalls. \u201cSo we started over.\u201d He says the mood in the camp was businesslike, intensely focused. \u201cIn hindsight, I know there was the loss of Cliff roaming around in their heads, but I never gave it a thought then. It was work, work, work\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

I was scared shitless meeting the band for the first time,. The record company had talked them up so much as being anti-everything.<\/p>\n

Michael Salomon, video director<\/p>\n

The songs for the album were all fully formed. \u201cMetallica always did elaborate demos,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe final demos were how the album is.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Flemming heard in One \u2013 \u201cthe depth and the scope of it\u201d \u2013 was a classic in the making. And in the recording of the track, he sensed that both Lars and Kirk were reaching a peak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the song really gets going, with the machine-gun bass drum thing, that was a first take,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of shit that Lars can pull off. And I think Kirk\u2019s solo at the end is one of the 10 best solos ever played, by anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Metallica&rsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

James Hetfield with Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 Axl Rose (second right) (Image credit: Pictorial Press Ltd \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

\u2026And Justice For All, released on August 25, 1988, proved controversial. Jason\u2019s bass was mixed so low as to be barely audible, the result, as Lars later admitted, of he and James \u201crunning everything with an iron fist\u201d. But the album was a huge hit, No.6 in the US and No.4 in the UK. It was another victory for a band who\u2019d always played by their own rules. As Lars put it to this writer in 1987: \u201cFuck the business! We did the whole thing our own way.\u201d And so it was with the video for One.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we waited so long,\u201d Lars said, \u201cwas that we didn\u2019t want to be in
a position where we\u2019d be forced to make a video, or pander to the set ways of the industry. It just seemed that when it was time to do something we had to try and come up with something radically different \u2013 as opposed to just us running around with lights and ramps and shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metallica: One (Syracuse, NY – April 19, 2025) – YouTube
\n\"Metallica:<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

According to Lars, it was in September 1988, during the first phase of a world tour, that the band watched the movie Johnny Got His Gun for the first time. When the concept for the video was decided, Metallica\u2019s management bought the rights to the film.<\/p>\n

Obviously it\u2019s not the most jolly and uplifting video you\u2019ll see. It definitely gets a reaction that is somewhat emotional.<\/p>\n

Lars Ulrich<\/p>\n

In December, as the tour reached LA, video director Bill Pope shot the band performing One in a disused warehouse. A second director, Michael Salomon, was tasked with combining this footage with scenes from the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared shitless meeting the band for the first time,\u201d Salomon recalls. \u201cThe record company had talked them up so much as being anti-everything. And they weren\u2019t particularly fond of video as a medium. They already had a huge audience, so it didn\u2019t matter whether this was a hit or if it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s first cut, with movie dialogue laid over the music, was not to Lars\u2019s liking. \u201cHe called and said, \u2018What the fuck did you do to our song? You covered up all the solos, you covered up all the drum parts, you filled every fucking moment with dialogue!\u2019 I had to explain that I was trying to incorporate the story of the movie as well as the inner speech of the main character.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Metallica\n<\/p>\n

Metallica at the 1990 Grammys – a year after losing to Jethro Tull (Image credit: MediaPunch Inc \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

In the end, after judicious editing, the dialogue still prominent, a final cut was approved. And as Lars concluded: \u201cWe felt we had something special on our hands. It meant something. I see it as something that accompanies the song and furthers what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the early days of February 1989, One was the most requested video on MTV. Later that month, Metallica performed the song at the 31st Grammy Awards ceremony in LA, at which \u2026And Justice For All was nominated for Best Hard Rock\/Metal Performance (Vocal Or Instrumental). And although they lost out that night \u2013 implausibly, to veteran progressive rock group Jethro Tull \u2013 Metallica triumphed at the following year\u2019s Grammys, winning with One in a new and more specific category, Best Metal Performance.<\/p>\n

At the end of a decade in which Metallica had revolutionised heavy music, they had broken the mould again with a video unlike any other. As Flemming Rasmussen says, One stands tall among the band\u2019s greatest songs. It also represented the end of an era for Metallica. The biggest cult band in the world were about to get even bigger.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 332 (February 2020)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On January 22, 1989, there was a rude awakening for an American audience tuned in to MTV. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-523876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}