The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan brought up Metallica while discussing whether The Smashing Pumpkins have ever performed their “Tales Of A Scorched Earth” song which originally appeared on the band’s 1995 album “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness,” live before.

In a new interview with Australia’s “Everblack” podcast, Billy said:

“ Well, let me caveat this by saying that I love James Hetfield as a person. I love Metallica; I saw them in 1984 and all that great stuff. And James is probably the greatest riff writer outside of maybe [Black Sabbath’s] Tony Iommi. James has written some of the greatest, most amazing riffs, and he’s still writing them. But if you listen to ‘Tales Of A Scorched Earth’ and you listen to that Metallica song [‘Fuel’ from 1997’s ‘Reload’ album], ‘Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.’ See — a little lightbulb went off in your brain… Now, which song came first?”

The interviewer noted that “Tales Of A Scorched Earth” was released two years before “Fuel”, Corgan said:

“God bless you… Now, I don’t think James would rip anything off from me, but the first time I heard that song, I was, like, ‘That’s awfully close.’ But I love me some James. And I’d love somebody trying to get a troll headline out that, some clickbait out of that.”

Billy added: “My father used to say, ‘Look, there’s only 12 notes.’ So, that’s the great thing. We all rip each other off, and if it works, great. I’ve got no problem with that. I mean, I’ve certainly ripped Metallica off plenty, so…”