"Nothing Else Matters," Metallica's 1991 ballad, featured a solo played entirely by frontman James Hetfield rather than lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, a detail that might surprise given Hammett's prominence in the band's bluesy riffing. Hetfield wrote the song as a tender tribute to his wife—a departure from his usual themes of pain and anguish—and initially hesitated to show it to the band, but it became one of Metallica's most successful and acclaimed tracks. The song's blend of open-string classical influences and bluesy swagger resonated globally, with Elton John reportedly calling it one of the finest songs ever written.

Hetfield constructed the song from open string strumming, drawing inspiration from bassist Cliff Burton's classical studies of Bach. The entire composition, including every note of the solo, contains no contribution from Hammett; Hetfield played every lick until the final cadence. The song reached new heights when performed with an orchestral arrangement, which brought out the delicate fingerpicked passages and transformed it into what the band considers one of their finest moments, despite initial concerns that its sentimentality might clash with their established metal identity.