Joan Armatrading wants to make a heavy metal album "with lots of shredding"

(Image credit: Erika Goldring / Getty Images)

Joan Armatrading, the pioneering singer-songwriter behind such hits as Love And Affection, Me Myself I and Drop The Pilot, has revealed that she'd like to make a heavy metal album.

Armatrading made the surprise announcement in an interview with The Guardian to celebrate her winning the lifetime achievement prize in this year's Woman Of The Year Awards.

The Grammy-nominated Armatrading has experimented with various styles over the years. 1983's The Key featured King Crimson and David Bowie guitarist Adrian Belew and lent towards hard rock, while in 2007 she released the first in a trio of albums exploring different genres. Into The Blues was a blues album, while 2010's This Charming Life was rooted in "guitar based rock" and 2012's Starlight was a pure jazz album.

Now she wants to go further. "I love hard rock!” she tells The Guardian. “I always tell myself, ‘One day I’ll make a heavy metal album.’ With lots of guitar shredding! And I will."

Armatrading's epiphany comes in the wake of news that pop star Miley Cyrus is working on an album of Metallica covers, and recent revelations that Mariah Carey secretly recorded a grunge album back in 1995.

If we're completely honest, life hasn't been this exciting at the pop/rock interface since Back Street Boys made a hair metal video back in 2005. Although, to be fair, it wasn't very good.

Below, you can watch footage of Armatrading receiving her lifetime achievement award.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.