To meet James Hetfield

Four hours before Metallica to go out before their Bulgarian fans for second time, on the National Stadium “Vassil Levski” on 25^th July 2008, here I am on my meeting point with people from Virginia Records, who… who should take me backstage, where little me and other media represents will meat guys from Metallica. I’m waiting for already twenty minutes and I’m starting to think the place where I am is not the place I should be… Fortunately, I notice some other people with blank look and press badges. The moment I have already convinced myself this is the moment to go and supply myself with heavy sedatives, people we were waiting for showe up. Well, we get just a fence closer to our goal. And, of course, there is more to wait. In any case, the preliminary info I have, gets confirmed and there is just an hour to go till my meeting with James Hetfield – founder and front man of Metallica. I won’t go into descriptions and superlatives here and I have no clue if it’s ok to be a bit nervous in such a situation… but if there was a device called “the nervoumeter” I would’ve probably broken it with my indications in that particular moment. Anyway, I successfully simulate being cold-blooded.

Half an hour latter and we are at the backstage, distributing ourselves around the tables for the meetings. We wait. We smoke nervously in front of the tents. We play hang-man with some crazy guys like me… We wait. We smoke nervously in front of the tents. In a moment there is a slight animation around and we see a guy with long curly hair coming up with few other people. Just in the moment I’m saying to myself “Damn, I know this guy…”, Kirk Hammett passes by and greets in such a warm and hearted way as if you’ve met an old friend by chance down the street. He is not coming to us, he’ll talk to the “radio stations”. In any case we go back to our seats to wait for our man. And it doesn’t take him long.

On the table we are total of eight media represents. Right from entering James starts messing with us how come there hasn’t been yet a fruit fight after waiting so long. His flight has been good, he doesn’t want anything, he is fresh and joking. His presence is so definite and overwhelming that engages everyone’s attention immediately and, surprisingly, my nervousness vanishes. The word to describe James Hetfield completely is charismatic. During the entire meeting he is cheerful, replies with lots of humor and irony, keeps it real and is warm to everybody.

He is totally a gesture type of person, to explain you one thing, he plays an entire play and his magnetic voice is just adding up to it. With just a t-shirt and jeans he demonstrates his completely drawn arms that the fans on the stadium didn’t get the chance to see that night. From all of the tattoos I liked best the one on his right hand: an “M” from Metallica’s logo and a numer,“81”, the year in which the band has been formed. Sweet, isn’t it.

And bellow is how our conversation on that table passed, uncut, unedited and reported as closest as possible (the way people speak is kept completelly original, both the speach of journalists and of James Hetfield are unedited and reported as they were in reality). I’m publishing the questions of other medias too. I attended the meeting on behalf of STROEJA.COM, where you can find the text on Bulgarian language, as well as a report from the concert and the full gallery of the official photographer of STROEJA.COM on Metallica’s concert, Ivailo Ivanov – IVU.

Thea Ryn for STROEJA.COM

Text on Bulgarian!

Text on Serbian!

 

James Hetfield /Metallica/ by IVU

 

What should we expect from the new album, “Death Magnetic”, and if you can compare it to some of Metallica’s previous albums? With which one it can be compared to?

Well, as soon as it is released, people will compare it to whatever they need to compare it to… The mission was to go back and recapture an essence and a hunger of Metallica and I see that most in “Master of Puppets”, and I thing also the assembling of the album, the songs we’ve chosen are diverse like in “Master of Puppets”: of ballad and instrumental, short and fast song, epic… But also sonically sounds like today: bigger, more in your face, you know, sonically they have a lot more technology that’s able to bring the music closer to your body (laughing). So it’s the best of all typing.

 

 

If you don’t mind, I will take you more than 20 years ago. Could you tell us what kind of a person was Cliff Burton, what do you remember of him and if you can compare with Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo to Burton?

 

Oh, well… Obviously they are all very different people. All good bass players, all different personalities. Cliff’s personality was very… let’s say he was pretty laid back, but he was having kinda ready-to-strike feel, you know. (laughing) Loved music, loved playing, loved writing music, was probably a first rated guitar player. Had a really good home base of friends. Really pretty healthy. But mentally he was ready for anything! Just ready for anything! And then, of course, on stage just… shining, shining bright. You know, Jason coming into the band was very difficult, at a tough time for us. We were grasping for something to keep the band going and playing made us feel good. So we needed a bass player. And Jason… was good enough, he was fronting his own band, you know, he wrote songs, he would sing… he did play with a pick, which was a different feel, he followed the guitar a lot. I think, he was too much of a fan at the beginning and we tried to beet the fan out of him (clapping with a fist into his hand), which didn’t work so well. And I’d say he had a lot of respect for Cliff, but it was difficult for him to take his place. It was tough. I think with Rob… he has so much respect in the music world, his sensibility, his personality, his persona; very approachable, very easy going. He’s got his own image, he’s not trying to feel Cliff’s shoes head off. So, I think, they are all very different, Robert, it seems like he has been in the band forever, already.

 

 

Where do you find this energy, this enormous energy and this feeling?

 

Of the music? Of the concert? Of…

 

 

The concert, of the mission, the work with the band…

 

Well ah, where does it come from? Why…

 

 

The energy, the passion?… The song energy?

 

Yeah, yeah… Am, well, I believe it’s a gift for me to be able to write music, to communicate that way. I think without that… I would be in trouble. (laughing), I would be somewhere else, usually, “let me out”! Maybe… The energy is kind of thrown at each other, in a way, especially on stage, there is no doubt when we… The new drug, walking over the stage the first minute is “YEEES!”, and it is so high, it’s another level of human feeling, going back and forth, then it’s singing the words, us pushing back and forth, but not in an aggressive way, but you know, in a loving, joining, connecting way. And in a lot of times it happens between the band and in the studio when we are writing, you know, there are certain people that I love, using as a back-forth for you. Throw an idea and they throw it back and it goes back and grows, you can’t believe it came out from nowhere, I think, it came from somewhere, but we can’t take it for granted and we are very grateful we have this gift. And the four of us together, we’ve come together for a reason. I think individually, if we stand, on our own, we are ok, ok musician, ok singer… ah, pretty good drummer, but once you get us together, there is something magic that happens and it goes places.

 

  

Are you happy that Metallica is a lifestyle, even a religion?

 

I was looking for this my whole life. I was looking for a family of some sort, you know. My family… everyone has their story about their family. (laughing)

 

  

No, no, my question was your fans… Metallica for your fans is a lifestyle, a religion.

 

Yeah, yeah, Well that’s the family I’m talking about, yes. I think that beauty of Metallica is honesty that four of us have. (I keep pointing as we are right there on that poster) The four of us, we have honesty when we get together, when we’re writing, we’re writing about our fears, about our deepest, darkest things, and when someone is afraid of something and we write about it and someone hears it, they are comforted I think, this feeling of “ah, I’m not the only one”. So there are misfits out there, possibly, and people that think they are… but they are not. Just, we are that way too, they are not alone. So , I think, every country that we go to, that country thinks or feels that they own Metallica. It’s… “They are ours!” And it’s a great feeling to have. No matter where we go, we are at home.

 

 

Imagine you life was a movie, what would be the title?

 

(laughing) Wow, it’s „Some Kind Of Monster”…. That was not… this movie! It’s a good movie, but I only have seen it twice. Ok, that’s enough. It’s my life or the band’s life?

 

 

Yours.

 

Mine… Oh… Ah… What it would be called?… Ah… “Fortunate”?… Nah, what, what would it be… I don’t know, I don’t know. I’ll think about it. (laughing)

 

 

What was most important to you at your 20-ties and what is it now?

 

The title of the movie would be “Almost”. I don’t know what that means. Almost died, almost something, almost happy, almost made the best record ever, almost satisfied… I don’t know… Ok…

 

 

Which are the bad aspects of being James Hetfield from Metallica?

  

Wuuu… Hm… I’m pretty friendly most of the time… and sometimes I’m not very friendly. (laughing) Not very good at listening, a bit selfish… Yeah, yeah… I think growing up, making sure that I get what I need, and in Metallica too. You’re on a tour… and if you do not grab the towel in the shower first… you don’t grab the towel, (laughing) you know. “Uh, ah!”- more like animals.

 

 

I’m just wondering, what do you sing in the shower?

 

Aaaah, I don’t shower, nah. (laughter) Ah, what do I sing under the shower… I usually do my vocal warm-ups, you know. Or I have my iPod player and I play whatever mix and singing along, which’s the greatest… I have my family on tour now and, I have three children, my boy, who’s eight years old… it’s hard to get him to shower, haha. But when he is in there, he is there for an hour… singing and singing, it’s so great to hear. When I’m listening to him, he has no idea that I’m listening, so it’s just pure and honest.

 

 

You have a birthday soon. Any special present you would like to receive?

  

Ammm, just to be loved by my family, to be with them, you know… To be together on your birthday. My wife is very… “You have to be there!” It can’t be the weekend after, it have to be THAT DAY, when you were born, you must be there. “Ok, ok…” And we have cake for breakfast. It’s great.

 

 

STROEJA.COM:

I would like to ask a bit about the new album. Going through the titles and having in mind the title of the album itself and the key visuals, it’s quite dark. You get the impression of death, end, lost moments, is this the main theme of the album? Is it that dark?

  

I don’t think it’s dark… But it doesn’t stay dark. I don’t know how to explain that. There’s this kind of… I don’t know how to explain it… It’s not bleak, like “there’s no hope”, it’s, within it there is a sense of hope, I guess a believe in man, a believe in something else that, a reason for all this. I think the main thing was, “Death Magnetic” it was chosen for the title as some songs do deal with the theme of death, we all must face death, alone, and a magnet really has a pole that attracts and the other side that pushes away. Some people are drawn towards death, why? We don’t know. Maybe they’re obsessed with it, maybe they think they are going to die soon, or they worry about it. Or like someone, like Layne Staley, the singer for Alice In Chains, who was obsessed with death and ended up dyeing. Why is he pulled that way? And on the other side is people being afraid of it. No one wants to talk about it, even when someone in their family is dying, in a hospital, especially in America, no one wants to mention that their… “Oh, so after you die, this is gonna happen.” No one wants to talk about it, it’s the big elephant in the room that no one wants to notice, you know. (covering up one side of his eyes) So, some of that, some of that happy subject.

 

 

STROEJA.COM

Can you tell me something particular about this special show in the album pack? I know there will be a credit card with a special code with which you can download a record from a show in September, in Europe… Have you already picked up the venue?

 

Yes.

 

Do you plan anything?

 

Haha, yes.

 

And you are not telling me anything?

 

I’m telling you “Yes”. (laughing)

 

Ok… Like, what part of Europe?

 

Yes, the European part.

 

Indeed.

 

So you are the one that shakes the Christmas presents?! (showing a shaking movement with his hands) “I know what it is!” No, some things can be surprises in the world, I think. There’s a lot of special things going to be happening. Including special packaging for the album, unique items that have been very though out in advance, that need to be presented at the right time.  

 

 

STROEJA.COM

You’ve changed the producer for this particular album and in front of Rolling Stone you say the reason is you needed fresh air. Did it actually work and how did Rick influence your work on “Death Magnetic”?

 

I think it did work. And… well, having Bob with us for the last five albums, that’s a long time… “St. Anger” was a purging and a chapter closing, I think. New bass player, new attitude towards life and the band and new producer… it felt right, it felt right! We knew we wanted to work with someone else, we didn’t know who, but we wanted to start over. And, you know, “St. Anger”, having everyone around us, you know, therapist, producer, engineer, management, everyone, making sure, you know, we don’t fall down… Тo know when it was just us in the studio, just the four of us, like “Aaah, should we start?”, “What time do we start?”, “Well, I’m gonna be here at ten…”, “Ok, let’s start making the schedule…”, “Oooh, ok…”, you know… We were starting to fly on our own and it felt good. And Rick Rubin is the kind of producer who does not, you now, check up on you, you know, “Are you working?”, “Are you there yet?”, you know, “How is it coming along?”… We had to do it ourselves which I think was a good thing for us, to take back a lot of the responsibility of being in a band and being in the studio writing.

 

 

The music, the money, the fame… what has kept the band together all this time?

 

Well, all of those things play a positive part in it and all of them play a negative part in it, you know. The fact that we have money we could hire a therapist to help us, you know, if we didn’t have that, we might not be here. A lot of money we’ve made we have invested back into the band. Like, buying a field full of house… (laughing) Like coming to this concert, you know, in a charter plane, we’re not on the bus, you know, we are fresh, we are getting here fresh, I’m here doing an interview feeling good about it, you know. So that’s money well invested back into it. The fame part, it depends on your attitude, you can become a prisoner of your fame, or you can turn it outwards and make more friends. And I do both… depends on what day it is I guess. The other thing you’ve mentioned was… money and fame… oh, music, yeah! Mmm, nah, nah. Music? No. Music, of course, is the reason we are here. The reason we are here is waiting. When we come on and play, there is nothing better, there is nothing better. Sitting in the studio, playing, writing songs is thinking of the day we play it live. That is it for us.

 

 

Do you remember, may be you remember your first show in Bulgaria, nine years ago… What will be the difference now?

 

Less people? Hmmm… no. More people, right! I hope! Yeah, 1999 was the last time, I think. Well, we are still here, we are still a band, nine years, that’s great, it’s great! Great to be able to come back when we’ve said we gonna come back. And seeing more people, playing at a bigger place, and the weather is… mmm, not too bad. (laughing) I mean, the fact that we are here again, nine years later… Some bands don’t come back, some bands brake up in nine years… I mean, nine years, a lot of things can happen in nine years! But the fact that we are still together, making music we love and bringing it to the people, it’s… it’s great.

 

 

What is the influence of Robert in the new album? Did he put some fresh air or was a guy you couldn’t cope with?

 

Nooo, it’s not so fresh… Fresh air… (putting up his arms and laughing) He eats Mexican food, you know. No, no, no, no… He… We played shows with him, Metallica and Suicidal Tendencies, long time ago, and if someone said “That guy up there, is gonna be your bass player in twelve years.”, I would’ve been “Yeah, right! No way!”. He is such a strong personality, him and Mike Muir in Suicidal Tendencies, there’s no way he would leave that! Why would he leave that! They need him! And you never know what happens in life. He is very, very relaxed guy, very confident, very comfortable… Anything could happen to him and he would be fine. He’s very… Him and Kirk are very good at sitting at the back seat and Lars and I drive, wherever we gonna go. And it takes a certain kind of person to trust that. His ability-amazing, his friendship-unbelievable, his drive, his will to wanna get better and play, he’s practicing all the time, till three a.m., yeah, yeah, he’s taking singing lessons, he’s doing flamenco guitar lessons…

 

 

Is it gonna be in the new album?

 

Flamenco guitar? Flamenco guitar on bass.

 

 

In “Death Magnetic”?

 

Well, it is the same! It really is, you know. And he is a good player.

 

 

Tell me a secret about the new album that nobody knows.

 

Hahaha…. What secret?…

 

 

Well many say you’ve got 14 songs…is it true?

 

Well, we had 28 songs, then we had to bring it to 14, then we brought it to 10, that’s all that will fit. So there are other songs that will show up somewhere.

 

 

What provokes you to write songs?

 

It depends, it’s different. Sometimes, just like with music, if I have a spare minute I sit on the couch, pick up an acoustic and all of a sudden something is there. Like “Oh, I have to record this!” You know, taking out my cell phone and “ok, here is a new riff: niu-niu-niu-meow-meow-ow…” Same with lyrics, you know, something jumps, and “oh, those words are interesting together…” and I just write them in my brain… my telephone brain (pointing at his pocket) and sometimes later they show up. Other times I would just sit down and just start writing, nah, not thinking, and it starts off as a poetry and its, hey this poem belongs on its own, but what we need is lyrics, oh lets try and put this there, so lots of different ways. I don’t have to be on the beach in Hawaii, I don’t have to … I don’t need any special place, it happens when I least likely needed it to happen.

 

Press Pass Signed By Hetfield

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