JAMES HETFIELD Talks New METALLICA Music, Possibility Of Another ORION-Like Festival (Video)

Before the second annual "Metallica Night" at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Bay Area radio station Live 105 talked with METALLICA frontman James Hetfield about his love for the San Francisco Giants, custom cars, what is next for the band and much more. You can watch the chat at this location.

Asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for METALLICA's follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic", Hetfield said: "We've got to sift through like 800 riffs and see what the best stuff is. Lyrically, there is a lot to work off of the last six or seven years since the last record. We are constantly inspired by stuff — not just books or movies or thing like that but life happenings, being parents, things that happen in life. Lyrically, especially, comes from within. We've all learned a lot in our lives this past six years. That will show up in there."

Regarding whether the huge backlog of material will result in the next METALLICA album being released in separate installments, like 1996's "Load" and 1997's "Reload", Hetfield said: "No, I don't think so. 'Load'/'Reload' was more like overload. There were a lot of songs and what are we going to do with all these. We can make a lot of songs pretty good. I think we learned a little bit of a lesson from that why not focus on eight to ten really good ones. It is quality over quantity. Not that they weren't great songs, but it seemed a little much to bite off and chew. And making the fans wait even longer and ourselves, frankly … waiting longer to release something. We are going to be focusing on a single album."

Hetfield also spoke about the future of METALLICA's Orion Music + More festival which lasted two years before the band pulled the plug on it because, according to James, it was "a disaster financially." He told Live 105: "You never know what's going to happen. There are always hurdles that show up for us. Adventures. Orion was one that we tried. It didn't seem to pan out. We had a great time. We had a blast at both of them and hopefully, if you were there, you were fortunate. I don't know if it will happen in the States ever again. Who knows what will happen with that? Other things like going to Antarctica, playing in China for the first time, and continuing to do festivals and writing a new record. That is what is on the agenda."

The first edition of Orion was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey over two days in June 2012, with the second edition taking place on Detroit's Belle Isle in June 2013. Both featured around two dozen acts, along with exhibitions, films and other attractions. The Detroit show reportedly brought in around 40,000 fans for the entire weekend to see METALLICA, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, DEFTONES, RISE AGAINST and others.

Hetfield told a Houston radio station that the problems facing Orion were part of the same issues that have kept METALLICA from touring in the U.S. more frequently. Asked when the band might be back on the road in its home country, Hetfield said, "I'm not sure what's going on in the States as far as rock and metal goes and concert-wise, but there's not really any willingness to get a big show out there and make it worthwhile to actually get out there and play . . . It's pretty tough in North America."