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On Thursday, Metallica and Miley Cyrus appeared on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show — with Elton John on Zoom to offer his personal tribute to the band. Metallica was promoting both the new multi-media box set edition of their self-titled 1991 set, better known to fans as the “Black Album,” as well as companion covers collection, titled, The Metallica Blacklist, which features Elton and Cyrus’ cover of “Nothing Else Matters.”

In addition to performing the classic ballad with Cyrus, Metallica also tackled the “Black Album’s” “Sad But True.”

Elton John told Stern and the band that he rates “Nothing Else Matters” incredibly high as a piece of music: “This is one of the best songs ever written to me. It’s a song that never gets old. The chord structure, the melody, the time changes; it’s got drama written all over it. And I have to say, it was no-brainer playing on this song. You can’t really define them. They’re not a heavy metal band — they’re a musical band. Their songs aren’t just heavy metal, they’re beautiful songs. This is such a melodic song.

Drummer Lars Ulrich and Elton John spoke about the longevity and quality of Metallica’s career and output: (Lars Ulrich): It’s just crazy cool to sit here to be able to hear what you just said, Elton — sitting next to James. We’ve been doing this for 40 years together, the reaction that I could feel in his body language when you said it was one of the greatest songs — I know how much that means to you and so, this is just incredible to hear — so, thank you. (Elton John): This is a great band — one of the greatest bands of all time. It’s their 40th anniversary. This is the classic album. It’s a no-brainer to come on and pay tribute to people like that. And, ‘know, the nicest thing about it is; after all this time, it’s hard to be in a band, y’know, there are different personalities. . . (Lars Ulrich): (Laughs) Yes. (Elton John): . . . These guys are all together, it’s like, U2. I admire that, y’know, because it’s the hardest bloody thing in the world. So, kudos to Metallica. They are one of the greatest bands of all time.”