During his 'Road Dog Brothers' segment on the 'Mandatory Metallica' channel, the rock band's frontman admits that they 'really tried to get' the Armored Saint singer.

• Oct 16, 2021

AceShowbiz - James Hetfield almost lost his role as Metallica's frontman when the band actively recruited Armored Saint star John Bush as their singer.

Bush opted not to join the "Enter Sandman" group because at the time his band was a much bigger act, and Hetfield had to reluctantly step up to the microphone.

"A lot of our early memories were celebrated with a band called Armored Saint, who were a fellow L.A. band back in the early 80s, when we were getting started," Hetfield explained during his "Road Dog Brothers" segment on the "Mandatory Metallica" channel on SiriusXM. "Obviously John Bush was a singer we got to know really well, and really, really tried to get him into the band as a singer."

"He was dedicated and very in love with what he was doing with his brothers in Armored Saint, and we absolutely respect that…," the 58-year-old went on recalling. "We did get a crew member from them - our buddy Zach Harmon, who was running their whole show, ended up on our tour bus for some reason, which was quite awesome."

In a separate interview, Bush recalled Metallica's efforts to recruit him, adding, "Metallica did ask me to join, but I said no for all the right reasons. People must think that's crazy, but you have to remember the scene then. Metallica was nobody. Armored Saint was hot; you have to remember that."

"The thing was that Metallica was this new kind of thing, and nobody back then. I don't care what they say now; nobody could have predicted what would happen. I didn't know the guys either, so there was no real interest. It was great to be asked - in fact, a lot of people asked - but Armored Saint was really strong."