This Album Changed My Life: Craig Heath on Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’

If it’s true that country music is three chords and the truth, then Australian singer-songwriter, Craig Heath has material of a lifetime. Overcoming heartbreaking challenges such as the recent passing of his long-time friend, business partner and manager Glenn Wheatley, Craig is returning to the music scene in the company of some of the biggest names in country music. 

Whilst also fronting rock band Supernova, he has performed with Shania Twain and Kelly Clarkson, and opened for acts such as Jon Stevens and Ian Moss. His new album From Dusk Till Dawn is a showcase of country music stars such as Keith Urban and Rick Springfield providing songs and guest vocals along with Richard Marx. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, From Dusk Till Dawn channels the hurt and pain synonymous with country music. 

To get to know Craig better, we asked him to tell us about an album that has changed his life.

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Craig Heath on ‘Master of Puppets’ by Metallica:

“Music is just pretty much in my blood. I grew up listening to a lot of blues; Jimmy Hendrix and Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and of course, then came Metallica.

Metallica's Master Of Puppets made me want to pick up a guitar in the first place and trade in my drums. The local boys and I started a Metallica cover band called The Four Horsemen and we obsessively gigged wherever we could. I think the thing that really sold me was… I was 16 or 17 when I heard Metallica and Master Of Puppets for the first time. I heard the main riff in Puppets, and I thought, 'That's what I wanna do for the rest of my life.' That was the moment for me.

I remember bouncing up and down in my bedroom, rewinding the tape recorder learning the entire album by ear, just uncontrollable excitement. It was angry, it had attitude and it was everything a long haired, surfy teenage boy loved. The pure raw energy I felt listening to this blew my mind. I was hooked and so were my buddies. 

I also loved the ballad vibes of that record and the guitar part harmonies playing 3rds with the dual guitars on Orion and I was especially drawn to Welcome’s Home (Sanitarium). The open voicings on the guitars with those sounding riffs, it resonated with a feeling inside me, like they knew how I felt. They could convey that emotion through making a guitar sound a particular way with a chorus pedal and clean tone. For a teenager yet to develop emotional intelligence to express himself, this was the perfect way – through music. But I was so excited by that album. And that was it. I was, like, 'This is what I'm doing for the rest of my life.’”

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For more of our This Album Changed My Life series, go here.
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