Billy Corgan thinks a Metallica song sounds ‘awfully close’ to a Smashing Pumpkins song

Give Billy Corgan that which he desires, which is acknowledgement that the Metallica song “Fuel” may be a bit too reminiscent of The Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Tales of a Scorched Earth.”

“Fuel” appeared on Metallica’s 1997 album, Reload, while “Tales of a Scorched Earth” was released two years earlier on the Pumpkins’ 1995 record, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

“If you listen to ‘Tales of a Scorched Earth’ and you listen to [‘Fuel’],” Corgan says on the Everblack Podcast. “I don’t think James [Hetfield] would rip anything off from me, but first time I heard that song, I was like, ‘That’s awfully close!'”

Corgan doesn’t have any hard feelings, though, and says he thinks Hetfield is “probably the greatest riff writer outside of maybe [Black Sabbath‘s] Tony Iommi.”

“James has written some of the greatest, most amazing riffs, and he’s still writing them,” Corgan says.

Give Billy Corgan that which he desires, which is acknowledgement that the Metallica song “Fuel” may be a bit too reminiscent of The Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Tales of a Scorched Earth.”

“Fuel” appeared on Metallica’s 1997 album, Reload, while “Tales of a Scorched Earth” was released two years earlier on the Pumpkins’ 1995 record, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

“If you listen to ‘Tales of a Scorched Earth’ and you listen to [‘Fuel’],” Corgan says on the Everblack Podcast. “I don’t think James [Hetfield] would rip anything off from me, but first time I heard that song, I was like, ‘That’s awfully close!'”

Corgan doesn’t have any hard feelings, though, and says he thinks Hetfield is “probably the greatest riff writer outside of maybe [Black Sabbath‘s] Tony Iommi.”

“James has written some of the greatest, most amazing riffs, and he’s still writing them,” Corgan says.