METALLICA frontman James Hetfield spoke to Andrew Dansby from Chron.com recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Q: You guys look pretty fit. Is touring a thrill? Or does it leave you feeling weary?
A: "(Laughs.) Right now I’m standing in front of our voodoo doctor’s room. He can either manipulate your back or do reflexology. He can do some acupuncture or hook up some electrodes to us. Or make a secret vegetable concoction to get us through the show."

Q: That’s not very dark and evil.
A: "No. (Laughs.) It’s weird, actually. Instead of the booze and pills it’s the health stuff; we’re addicted to that."

Q: Do you feel sobriety changed the way you write?
A: "I can say I’ve taken off the black-cloud glasses. It’s pretty amazing and continues to be. I’m not here to preach about it, to say it’s got to be this way for everyone. But it feels like things happened where I didn’t get the full effect, and now I do. Better late than never."

Q: Yet you have a death-filled album titled Death Magnetic . . .
A: "Well you can’t turn that off. (Laughs.) We stick to pretty core stuff. When I try to tell a story tell or explain history or something it always comes out wrong. When I can get dark and universal with it, it’s a little more real. But we’ve heard a lot of things like, 'I caught you smiling. How’re you going to write songs?' It happens, man. I’m not going to spend the rest of my life trying to sort out the first half of it. It’s a work in progress."

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