“After his funeral, me and my buddy snuck into his house and took the guitar”: Pepper Keenan got his first guitar after a tragic accident

Down and Corrosion of Conformity guitarist Pepper Keenan may now count James Hetfield and Tony Iommi as fans, but, as the metal lifer reveals in a recent interview, his humble rock ’n’ roll beginnings stem from a tragic accident.

“I started playing around 14. I had a friend named Pat The Rat,” he tells Kerrang! “He was a fucking complete red-haired hooligan. He got killed on a motorcycle trying to outrun the police on his shitty dirt bike. He went over this thing on the levee by the Mississippi River, and there was a cable going across it, and he didn’t see the cable, and went straight through it.”

He continues, “Anyway, he played guitar, and after his funeral and all that kind of stuff, me and my buddy snuck into his house and took the guitar. I’m sure his mother wasn’t going to do anything with it, and I’m sure Pat The Rat would have wanted us to have it.”

Article continues below

“It was intense,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’d played with those guys before, I’d done backing vocals on their cover of Tuesday’s Gone by [Lynyrd] Skynyrd. But this was crazy.”

“Even at the time, I was looking at Metallica from a fan’s point of view, what I would want Metallica to do? First things first, I would’ve brought back the OG logo, got back in that world and started on some Master of Puppets shit! Get back in the garage. I remember going in, we rehearsed, and it was killer.”

Keenan spoke more at length about the Metallica audition with Guitar World – and mused on what the band would’ve sounded like had he joined the lineup.

Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology and how it is shaping the future of the music industry, and has a special interest in shining a spotlight on traditionally underrepresented artists and global guitar sounds. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Melissa Auf der Maur, Yvette Young, Danielle Haim, Fanny, and Karan Katiyar from Bloodywood, among others. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her Anglo-Maltese, art-rock band ĠENN.