Nothing Else Matters

“Nothing Else Matters” is the eighth track from American rock band Metallica and their 1991 self-titled album. Written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich from the band, the track was released in April 1992 and is one of Metallica’s most well-known and popular songs.

“Nothing Else Matters” is a ballad about being honest with your feelings and expressing them. In a 2012 interview with The Village Voice, Hetfield spoke about the intention of the track, its meanings and how it came to be: “It was a song for myself in my room on tour when I was bumming out about being away from home. It’s quite amazing, it’s a true testament to honesty and exposing yourself, putting your real self out there, and taking the risk, taking a gamble that someone’s either going to step on your heart with spikes on or they’re going to put their heart right next to it, and you never know until you try. That solidified, I think, that we were doing the right thing, writing form the heart about what we felt, and you can’t go wrong that way.” In a 2016 interview with loudersound.com from Metal Hammer, former Metallica bassist Jason Newstead spoke about the impact “Nothing Else Matters” head on the metal genre and their futures as musicians.

The music video for “Nothing Else Matters” premiered on MTV on the 26th Feburary 1992 and was directed by Adam Dubin and edited by Sean Fullan. The music video is fairly simples, featuring clips of the band playing the song during the recording process of their album. The video was uploaded to Metallica’s YouTube channel in October 2009, and as of December 2019, it has over 688.7 million views with almost 2.5 million likes.

Release Date: 20th April 1992

Songwriter/s: James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich

Producer/s: Bob Rock, James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich

Label: Elektra

Music Video Release Date: 26th February 1992

Music Video Director: Adam Dubin

Chart Rankings & Certifications: In its year of release, “Nothing Else Matters” hit the peak chart positions in the following locations: #8 in Australia, #5 in Belgium, #41 in Canada, #4 in Denmark, #10 in France, #9 in Germany, #6 in Ireland, #4 in Italy, #4 and #5 in Canada, #11 in New Zealand, #5 in Spain, #14 in Sweden, #5 in Switzerland, #6 in the UK, and #34 and #11 on the US Billboard charts. “Nothing Else Matters” is certified Gold in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US, and Platinum in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Italy.

The lyrics to “Nothing Else Matters” can be viewed here: LINK