Apparently, this thrash band has done pretty well for themselves, so the road is a little more comfortable these days, as Bravewords.com found out during our sit-down chat with James Hetfield in the “tuning room” at the “Air Canada Centre” in Toronto “recently.”
“Right, well, we have a voodoo doctor out with us, which is very important, for the road. I just call him that because he does everything (laughs). From making us special drinks (holds up a drink, no doubt charged with vitamins available only to the president, Bono and Metallica), to chiropractic, massage, and... what do you call it?”
Acupuncture?
“My mind is bad… thank you, putting needles in us! No, don't say that. Yeah, acupuncture, to the electrodes on your nipples, all that fun stuff! All that fun stuff bands do. That, and taking care of ourselves much better as far as our health goes, eating a lot better. Obviously the partying in my area has tone down quite a bit (laughs). And summertime, having the families out as much as possible. But just a healthier lifestyle in general, out on the road. Taking care of ourselves, and seeing some of these bands that are out with us, some are still partying super-hard and you look at that and go, ‘Wow, that was us. OK, that's your path, go for it - you got it.’ And then other bands are, ‘Well, tell me a little more about this or that.’ They're a lot more health-conscious, you know? It’s no longer uncool to say, ‘No, I'm not having a beer right now. I want to stay focused.’ Or, ‘I'm going to work out tomorrow morning.’ It's OK to take care of yourself.”
And apparently the long but still improbably catchy songs from Death Magnetic are taking care of themselves as well…
“Yes, well they are. They're super-comfy on stage. Super-comfy. That's a good sign, because when you're writing something that you have to sit and really think about, or you're constructing something in the studio, you know, and a lot of the …And Justice For All, and even Puppets, was two or three songs shoved into one, you know? But these just flow a lot better. They came out a lot more easily, and that's always a good sign, and when you're playing them, they're easy to remember (laughs). But they do feel good on stage; they feel great, actually, and it's interesting, we probably played more songs from this, maybe not since the Black Album - on the Black Album we ended up playing a lot of new songs too. And I haven't really gone back and listened to the record. It’s like we’re still breaking the songs in. And when I go back and listen to Death Magnetic, I go, ‘Oh wow, oh, that's the lyrics for… oh, the riff’s like that?!’ It's already morphed into something else, you know? But that's a pretty natural thing.”
As a result, the guys look like they’re having a good time, as we gathered later that packed and chilly eve. Again, improbably, there’s a swing to the new material that seems to well up from the drums, the engine room, and then keeps feeling tidal due to all the motion as the guys traipse the stage toward the next in-the-round, round-to-the-other-side vantage point.
“Yeah, we are,” agrees James “If it wasn't, we wouldn't be out here, man! Simple as that. We're getting along pretty good. And we're all pretty much on the same page, in the same boat. We've got a real sane touring schedule, as far as the travel and everything goes. It's really geared towards us remaining sane and healthy.”
“It certainly is a lot of embracing of our past,” continues Hetfield, asked to put a stamp on the band’s well-received latest album, now well on nigh a year old. “And it's well known in the press that… Rick Rubin has… sorry if I'm a little spacey right now, Rick Rubin is his name. He got us focusing on Master Of Puppets and the early days. You know, ‘Let's go back in time there, and feel what you were feeling then’ and all of this, and unlearn a lot of life, which is impossible. But we understood the feeling he wanted, that hunger and that drive of the early albums. It was pretty easy to go there, surprisingly, once we all started feeling it again. And it's one of those things that, if you think too much about writing a certain way, it's not going to work. You can't. You’ve just got to be there and you've got to feel it, and it just so happened that it felt right when we were doing it.”
You past, yes, but is perhaps some of the youthfulness of Death Magnetic the result of some level of ass-kicking by the incorrigible younger bands rising up?
“As far as new bands go, there are so many unbelievable musicians out there that are over the top, as far as their talent, and it's pretty inspiring, sure. I pick up a guitar, and I look at youtube, and whoever is on there doing some guitar lessons, like say the DRAGONFORCE or TRIVIUM guys, and they're just going (air guitars a convincing shred). ‘Okay, again. OK, now do it faster.’ Are you kidding me?! It's unbelievable. Unbelievable! ‘And here it is backwards, and here it is with one hand.’ And drummers too. I mean, the drummers are like… they’re lead guitar players on their kicks - it's just unbelievable. So that's pretty inspiring. Pretty inspiring. So obviously we… we're not chasing anything. I’m not chasing the best singer award or best rhythm player. We are what we are, and we're as good as we are (laughs). But together we create some kind of magic that maybe some other bands can't - that's the part we like to focus on.”
Check club listings for a Metallica date near you. It’s worth the ticket – these guys could be huge some day.
