METALLICA's HETFIELD Recalls Friendship With 'Outlaw Country' Legend

September 1, 2003

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield spoke to Country Weekly about his friendship with the late "outlaw country" legend Waylon Jennings, who died in February 2002. The two met at a college radio station interview in the late '80s and immediately found the humor in their media-hyped "outlaw" personas.

"My dad was a big fan of Waylon," recalled James. "When we were doing that interview, I brought my Waylon CDs for him to sign for my dad. Waylon brought his son Shooter's METALLICA CDs for me to sign for him. It was a pretty cool kind of father-son crossing there.

"During that time my dad was ill," continued James, "and Waylon actually called him a couple of times and they got to chat. That opened my eyes to a whole other side of the influence of your inspiration. It's beyond music — you're touching souls. That phone call meant so much to me and my dad."

James got to pay his respects to Jennings by contributing a solo cover of "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand" (Real Audio) to "I've Always Been Crazy: A Tribute to Waylon Jennings", a new record honoring the late singer.

Hetfield's contribution comes from Jennings' September 1978 release, "I've Always Been Crazy". The process was unique for James as he not only sang, but played all the instruments (including the drums!) on the track. The song was produced by Bob Rock at the METALLICA HQ in San Francisco.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).