Geddy Lee being asked to produce Metallica's Master of Puppets is one of those longstanding rock rumors that sounds too outlandish to be true — except, as Lee recently revealed, it actually kind of happened.

"It’s sort of true," Lee told Noisey. "There was some discussion with [drummer Lars Ulrich], back in the day, about working with them. This was before Master of Puppets came out, I think? There was talk, you know. I was friends with their management, and I met Lars back in England. I remember going to see them here in Toronto when they played at the Masonic Temple. That’s when the original bass player was still happening. You know, before that tragedy. And, you know, we talked about it, and I liked their band a lot at that time. But it just never came together."

This intriguing pairing might have taken Metallica in some brand new directions during the Puppets sessions — particularly since, as Lee also admitted in the interview, he isn't much of a metal fan.

"I don’t listen to a lot of metal. Even though there’s an aspect of our sound that can be quite metal, I sort of attribute it more to early metal, in the way that Zeppelin were metal and in the way that Black Sabbath were metal, and Blue Cheer were metal," said Lee. "And that’s the sort of tradition of metal that we took on. I like Metallica. I’ve got great respect for them. But you won’t hear too much speed metal or death metal in my house."

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