25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Hulk Hogan tried to join Metallica but never got a call back
Following the death of wrestling star Hulk Hogan, a long-forgotten chapter of his larger-than-life story has resurfaced: his serious attempt to join Metallica as the Bay Area metal band's bassist.
Hogan, who died at 71 from cardiac arrest at his home in Clearwater, Florida, on Thursday, July 24, was widely celebrated as the man who turned professional wrestling into a global spectacle. From headlining the inaugural WrestleMania in 1985 to body-slamming Andre the Giant before 93,000 fans, Hogan helped define the WWE's golden era.
But before the red-and-yellow spandex and the signature '24-inch pythons,' Hogan was just a long-haired 'music kid' in Florida.
In a resurfaced 2014 interview with VICE, Hogan recounted dropping out of college to pursue music full-time. He played bass in a band called Ruckus, which tore through the Tampa bar scene in the 1970s.
'We would play in north Tampa, then go over to Clearwater Beach and play at Skip's on the beach,' he said. 'The whole building would move when we played!'
His musical ambitions didn't end when wrestling superstardom began. In the early 2000s, Hogan heard that The Rolling Stones might be seeking a new bassist — possibly following Bill Wyman's departure — and seized the opportunity.
'I was in the UK for some award show, and Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger's old lady, was walking out with me to present this award,' he told VICE. 'I heard her talking on the phone to Mick about, 'Oh, you got to find a bass player.'… I said, 'Tell Mick if you guys need a bass player for the Rolling Stones, I swear to god I could show up. I could rehearse one day and play everything they play.''
He even sent Hall boxes of wrestling merchandise for her children.
'Never heard a word back,' he added.
Hogan's most persistent musical pursuit, however, came when he believed Metallica was auditioning bassists. He told VICE he recorded himself playing and sent the tape to the band's management.
'I was writing letters… Kept making calls trying to get through. I tried for two weeks and never heard a word back from them eithe,' he said. 'I would have quit wrestling to play in the Rolling Stones or Metallica like that (snaps fingers)… Of course I didn't (audition) — but I tried!'
In a separate interview with The Sun, Hogan went further, claiming he had been friends with drummer Lars Ulrich and was asked to join the band in its early days. Metallica, however, remembers it differently. Ulrich flatly denied the story, and frontman James Hetfield told Metal Injection, 'I don't remember him… Definitely not.'
Though he never joined a stadium-filling rock act, Hogan's music career wasn't entirely fantasy. In 1995, he co-wrote and released 'Hulk Rules' with the Wrestling Boot Band — a children's album that was a commercial success but a critical curiosity.
He even scored a Top 40 UK hit with a cover of Gary Glitter's 'Leader of the Gang (I Am)' in collaboration with comedy metal band Green Jellÿ, under the eye of then-unknown music executive Simon Cowell.
'He was cool!' Hogan later said of Cowell. 'He brought us in and said, 'I love this album!' Then he got us doing this Gary Glitter cover… it was number one for five weeks over there!'
At one point, Hogan even considered performing with One Direction.
'NBC wants me to interview them… then their management said, 'Would you bring them onstage?'' Hogan told VICE. 'Then they said, 'Would you play a song with them?''
The collaboration never materialized.
Hogan's death comes just months after a series of controversial public appearances.
In 2024, at a promotional event for his Real American Beer brand, Hogan caused an uproar when he asked a crowd, 'Do you want me to body slam Kamala Harris?' and mimicked a stereotypical Native American greeting.
The remarks reignited scrutiny of Hogan's history of racially offensive language, including a leaked tape that led to his temporary removal from the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015. He was reinstated in 2018.
As the band performs, frontman James Hetfield spots the misfit duo hovering above the stage in a helicopter filled with gold bars.
'Beavis and Butt-Head, we love you guys,' Hetfield says into the mic. Beavis yells back, 'How much to buy Metallica?' Hetfield jokes, 'One gold bar oughta be enough' — a remark he quickly regrets as the absurdity escalates.
