10 Legendary Musicians That Play Multiple Instruments

For most rock and roll singers, it's easy to just use the guitar as a prop whenever you're on stage. Though you could normally see someone like Elvis Presley onstage every night with a guitar in his hand, there's no chance that anything he played actually made it onto the record most of the time. As far as metal is concerned though, you need to have your chops up, and James Hetfield's right hand is practically made of steel.

Across Metallica's discography, James' job as a singer has almost been secondary a lot of the time, mostly fleshing out the songs through writing heavy riffs and the occasional harmony lead lick whenever the band play live. Though rhythm guitarist is normally considered the less competent in hard rock circles, James could be considered a virtuoso just for his riffs, managing to sing a song like Battery while playing something as intricate as the main riff.

While James eventually morphed himself into a great singer in later years on the Black Album, his dexterity behind the fretboard has never failed him through the years. If you listen to something like Creeping Death, just remember that the main riff is being played with all downstrokes as James is still singing. You can chalk it up to show adrenaline, but most of us mortals would have our wrist spontaneously combust if we were ever asked to play something like this.