WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: THE BEST OF THE REST OF JAMES HETFIELD ON WINNING ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Obviously, people have been comparing those records to this one, especially with Rubin telling you to go back to that 1985 mindset. Where did you draw the line between Metallica’s past and present?
Well, you can only go so far back until you’re playing dress up or becoming the character of who you were in the past. It becomes Halloween, and suddenly you’re dressing up in a costume, which is certainly not what we’re into. And so we weren’t really into our past that much; we were running from our past the whole time, and as an artist, feeling that if you’re not creating, thinking, breaking new ground, you feel you’re not really an artist. You’re not really moving forward. You’re not really satisfied. I think Rick allowed us to embrace our past a little more and stand up and take credit for some of the good things that’ve happened in the past. And I think fans had a lot to do with it with the 20th anniversary of Master of Puppets. Things like that, people coming out and saying, “Hey, did you know that it was 20 years ago when this album came out?” Oh, right. That’s important, isn’t it? I guess it is. We’re hearing that it is! Let’s celebrate it. Let’s go out. We did Master of Puppets in its entirety on tour, playing the whole album from first to last note. And that also helped us to start to embrace history.

Lars once said that the way people treat those albums as classics made you want to move away from them.
You know, that makes sense. It’s like, “Ach! All right, those’re classics—don’t fuck with ’em! Move as far away from them as possible.” And it works in the reverse, also. There are bands who continue to make similar types of songs because that’s what they feel, not because they can’t do anything else. There are some great examples of bands out there who remain consistent, and our fear was that consistency just meant blandness, almost to the point of running away from your own sound.

When you listen to this album now, what do you think about?
Rebirth.

That’s a pretty heavy word.
Yeah. It feels alive. It’s a happy record, even though it’s got death all over it. But it works for us, since we’ve kind of died, and it doesn’t mean it won’t happen again. But you can rise above, and you can come out of the ashes stronger, and it feels like that’s what we’ve done. We’ve gotten a whole team of people who feel the same way—record company, road crew. We’ve got four guys on our crew—and that’s just four backline guys, sound guys—who’ve been with us more that 20 years. We had a party for those guys, to celebrate ’em .

They’re family, too.
Oh, totally. The have dedicated, you know, at least half of their lives to this band, and lifestyle, and standing up for it, being proud and loyal. And that to me is the ultimate.

From the albums you selected as ’08 favorites [see the issue], it sounds like you’re still very much into metal.
[Laughs] Well, these days, I don’t really listen to the radio. It’s either satellite or putting CDs in, so most of the stuff I’m picking up from [Sirius/XM Radio’s program] Liquid Metal or stuff like that, and try to discover the next great thing that moves me, like everyone else is. And there was a while where it was pretty disappointing. So I’m just happy that rock, hard rock, heavy metal, death metal, whatever—it’s coming back. It’s feeling good. It’s rising, so you can see it on the charts, feel it, see and heart it on the radio, the satellite stuff. Hopefully, it’ll show up on the TV somewhere. You see these award shows, and it’s all just rap or black soul or something, and there’s no rock! Represent, man! There’s a lot of bands that’ve been flying the flag.

You’ve said that you’re writing riffs on the road right now. Given what’s on Death Magnetic, we here at Revolver can’t wait to hear what you guys do next.
We hope the wait was worth it on this one, and we’re honored to be represented by your magazine as the Album of the Year. We’re thankful for that. It’s tough out here, so seeing people out there, that’s what it is all about.

Related links
Metallica: To Live Is To Die
Metallica: Web Exclusive Interview With All Four Members
Metallica: "All Nightmare Long" music video