Game of Thrones writer and producer Dan Weiss has a new Netflix movie, Metal Lords, which follows a group of high school friends and their heavy metal band, Skullflower. A central part of the film revolves around the song “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath, which is easily one of the most iconic heavy metal tunes of all time. During an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Weiss revealed that he had to get the right to use the song from Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary frontman of the band, and admitted that it was a “terrifying” feeling.
First giving some background on why the song was important to him, Weiss explained, “I was this metal kid and then the metal adult and I wanted the movie to be for the people who love the music, but I also, I didn’t want it to only be for those people. I wanted it to be a movie that could, would invite people into the tent, not keep people out of the tent and I feel like, to me, that song is a song that you can play for… I was talking to a friend who was saying, he plays it for his 8-month-old daughter at breakfast every morning and it speaks to her even though she doesn’t speak yet.”
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He continued, “I think that’s the song that it is and it’s also in terms of the way the drums work in the song. It was the only song I could find that had the universality of that song and that worked for the purpose that it serves in the movie.”
Weiss then went on to share that having to reach out to the Osbournes for the rights to use the song was a very nerve-wracking experience since he’d really already gone all-in on its role in Metal Lords. “So approaching Ozzy and Sharon about getting the rights for it was terrifying, because if they said, no, I honestly didn’t know what else we would do, where else we’d turn,” he said. Thankfully, however, the song was approved and serves as an incredibly effective tool for capturing the film’s homage to heavy metal. “A huge thank you to the Osbourne family for just being so cool about it,” Weiss said, “and letting us put it at the heart of this love letter to the music that d.”
In addition to writing and producing Metal Lords, Weiss can also now call himself a songwriter, as he co-wrote Skullflower’s hit song “Machinery of Torment” with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and music producer Carl Restivo. “I would say that Tom and his, producer-engineer did the bulk of the heavy lifting on that one, ” Weiss said humbly, adding, “But I did write the lyrics and did get to use the word exsanguinate and the phrase, ‘bucket of f—.’ so I feel like my life is now complete and it was great working on a song, being able to write a song with Tom and to give Tom a bunch of intentionally, smart kid writing the on lyrics type. Give him that just sheet of words and see what he did with it and how he created a metal song.”
Weiss continued, “Just that song that I think he put, it was metal with a side of metal, and it was so much fun working on the detail. I never worked on a song at that level of detail before in terms of the actual production of it. So working with those guys on it was great. It was a bucket list item that I can now tick off.” Metal Lords is now streaming, only on Netflix.
