1989 THE SONG THAT CHANCE THRASH METAL forever
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, Poison, Def Leppard, even Guns N’ Roses, with Axl Rose dolled up in Welcome The Jungle. The video for Metallica’s new single, One – premiered that night – was something else entirely. For an anti-war protest song, a heavy subject with music to match, the first video of the band’s 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.
As Metallica’s drummer
