Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 tore the stage up at Chicago Open Air 2017. I have no doubt that he is talented beyond my capability to understand how talented he is. Thus, I knew that hearing his cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" would be great.
And it is.
Stupendous.
Mind-blowing.
Low-hanging fruit.
Think about it. Out of all the tunes he could have selected, the top of the "Best Known Metallica Tunes" list is the tune he selected.
It sounds fantastic - nothing wrong with the recording in the video below.
Yet.
It feels safe.
Calculated.
And John 5 is not safe.
He is not calculated.
For God's sake, he wore a dress when I saw him at Chicago Open Air.
So.
What's my point?
"What would he have done with a lesser-known Metallica tune?" is the question I ask myself. What if, instead of "Enter Sandman" as the Metallica tune to cover, he chose a tune like "For Whom the Bell Tolls" which is known for being a 'bass-heavy' tune and allowed his creativity to overtake the original? What if he chose "The Four Horsemen" instead? What if he chose "Disposable Heroes"? What if he chose "Harvester of Sorrow"?
What if he chose ANY tune on the "St. Anger" album?!?
He didn't. He chose "Enter Sandman" - a great tune that has been in my ears hundreds of times since I saw the premier of the video on MTV in the summer of 1991.
Long live the sandman!
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