Hal Willner died on Tuesday and his contributions across music, TV and film were far-reaching. And that includes working with Metallica.
Willner worked on Lulu, the band’s 2011 collaboration with Lou Reed.
“The entire Metallica family was shocked and saddened to hear of producer, writer, and composer Hal Willner’s passing earlier today. He was a truly inspirational collaborator, someone who through his unique combination of musical knowledge and warm personality, invigorated every project he touched, including co-producing our very own collaboration with Lou Reed, 2011’s “Lulu;” Hal expertly helped to guide us all to a project we loved, and remain fiercely proud of, to this day,” drummer Lars Ulrich wrote in the Instagram post.
Willner died on Monday at the age of 64. He said in a tweet on March 28 that he had contracted the coronavirus, but the cause of death has yet to be revealed. He worked with Reed on several albums, so working on Lulu made sense on many levels.
Over the years, Willner worked with a bunch of music legends, including Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Marianne Faithfull, Laurie Anderson among others. His tribute compilation albums included a wide array of stars including Deborah Harry to Wynton and Bradford Marsalis, Elvis Costello, Henry Rollins, Dr. John, Leonard Cohen and Chuck D.
Read the full post from Metallica below:
