Miley Cyrus Gives ‘Nothing Else Matters’ a Raw, Smoky Edge Alongside Metallica

Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” takes on a darker vocal character when Miley Cyrus joins the band. Her husky lower register gives the opening lines a substantial, almost weathered feel, bringing a fresh tension to a melody that is familiar to generations of listeners. She settles into the ballad with confidence, allowing its gentle beginning to carry as much character as the forceful passages that follow.

Recorded for The Howard Stern Show in September 2021, the collaboration brought Cyrus together with Metallica as the group celebrated thirty years of their self-titled Black Album. The musicians performed in Los Angeles while Stern hosted from New York. For their first live appearance together, they chose a song that could accommodate the contrast between her distinctive delivery and the band’s established sound.

That contrast becomes clear as soon as she starts singing. Cyrus approaches the early phrases slowly, letting the natural rasp in her voice shape their mood. The instrumental parts retain the contours of Metallica’s ballad, but the centre of attention shifts with the vocalist. Small changes in emphasis make the words feel newly considered without disturbing the melody’s familiar pull.

Her strongest asset is the balance between restraint and power. The grain in her voice is present even when she sings softly, so the performance does not need constant volume to hold attention. As the arrangement develops, she adds weight to the longer phrases and gives the climactic lines more bite. The build feels continuous because she has left room for it from the beginning.

James Hetfield’s presence gives the exchange another dimension. Hearing a different singer deliver the song while its creator plays beside her places both interpretations in the same frame. The guitars anchor the performance in Metallica’s musical language, while Cyrus supplies a different vocal perspective. Their combination lets the song remain recognisable and still feel open to discovery.

The appearance followed a separate studio version for The Metallica Blacklist, an anniversary collection of Black Album reinterpretations. Cyrus’s contribution featured Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo, Chad Smith and producer Andrew Watt. That recording and the Stern performance offer distinct settings for her voice: one gathers musicians from several musical worlds, while the other brings her directly into Metallica’s own ensemble.

Cyrus also discussed her personal connection to the song during the accompanying interview. She recalled an earlier performance at Glastonbury and spoke about the place music held during a difficult stretch of her life. Those reflections add context to the conviction of her delivery here. Even without that background, the pauses, rough edges and sustained notes communicate an investment in the material.

Much of the ballad’s strength comes from the space around the vocal. Its quieter sections give a singer time to establish intimacy before the instrumental sound grows. Cyrus uses that freedom to bring out a grounded, smoky quality, keeping the performance direct even as it becomes more expansive. The developing arrangement supports the emotion she has already established.

The appeal of this collaboration is the clarity of its two musical identities. Metallica provide the structure and instrumental character associated with the song, and Cyrus brings a voice that belongs unmistakably to her. Neither needs to disappear for the performance to work. Together, they reveal how a well-known ballad can gain another emotional shade through a change of singer.

Cyrus’s performance of “Heart of Glass” at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival offers another example of her approach to a familiar song. Its more insistent rhythm makes a lively companion to the measured pace of “Nothing Else Matters.” Across the different arrangements, the textured delivery remains a defining part of the sound.

For a different interpretation of the Metallica ballad, the band’s S&M2 performance with the San Francisco Symphony opens out its orchestral possibilities. Recorded at San Francisco’s Chase Center in 2019, it surrounds the familiar melody with a wider range of instrumental colours. Heard beside the Cyrus collaboration, it shows how strongly a change in arrangement can alter the atmosphere.