“That’s the song that really broke the ice between James and me. We had our tensions, but we would talk a lot, and the more I got to know him, the more I realized how much there was to this guy.

“The God That Failed is deep. It’s not just a cheap shot at religion; it’s him tackling the subject in a very complex manner. Emotionally, it’s as real as Nothing Else Matters.

“Working with Kirk on this song was interesting – and this goes for the whole record, too: I was told that he’d come in the last few weeks of making a record to do his guitar solos. I told everybody right off, ‘Well, that’s not how we’re going to do things. He’s going to play live, like everybody else.’

“At first, Kirk was very uncomfortable with this approach, but he was game and played what he thought were guide solos. In many cases, including this one, his first ideas were the ones that we’d go back to and use when doing overdubs. He learned how to be spontaneous.”

Listen: The God That Failed