Roger Waters has levelled some sharp criticism at Metallica frontman James Hetfield following his recent comments at the Sphere, where he told attendees the band was “not here to influence you with any bullshit”.

His comments appeared to address the recent spate of artists who have used their platform – including Hayley Williams and Macklemore, who was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour for doing so – to make political statements.

“Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit,” Hetfield said. “Okay? We are here… no bullshit… we’re here to forget about all the outside shit, okay? “Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby”

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His comments drew backlash from some, many of whom pointed out Metallica’s history of making political statements in their music, including in hits like One, Disposable Heroes and Don’t Tread on Me.

Now, in a new podcast appearance, former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters has made clear what he thinks about Hetfield’s comments. And when we say “made clear”, we mean made very clear…

“Can we stop talking about this prick? I’m so bored with him,” he says. “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 and he’ll always be. He may have a few hundred million dollars or whatever, but he’s a prick.”

Waters even goes as far as to question Hetfield’s musicianship, adding that he’s “no musician”.

“I heard them playing acoustic instruments and they couldn’t. It was appalling,” Waters says.

It appears to be a case of over-exaggeration and relying on shock factor in order to make a point, as Hetfield’s acoustic playing on the likes of Fade to Black and The Unforgiven is pretty solid…

Still, they are some pretty harsh words from Roger Waters, who does have a history of making brash statements and political messages. In 2023, he drew ire from German police and the US State Department after dressing in Nazi garb at a show in Berlin.

Sam is the Associate News Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Thoroughly immersed in music culture for the majority of his life, Sam has played guitar for 20 years, studied music technology and production at university, and also written for the likes of Guitar World, Total Guitar, Metal Hammer and MusicRadar.