METALLICA's JAMES HETFIELD: 'I'm Looking Forward To Making The Next Record'

June 22, 2012

Dan DeLuca of the Philadelphia Inquirer recently conducted an interview with METALLICA frontman James Hetfield. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Philadelphia Inquirer: METALLICA spoke out vocally against Napster when the file-sharing revolution began in the late '90s, and you were vilified for it. How do you view that now?

Hetfield: I think everyone did it wrong, from the people inventing the technology to the record companies to the artists. I think the record companies should have embraced the technology rather than turning their back on it, thinking they were untouchable, which obviously set a little more fire under these younger computer geniuses who were inventing this amazing technology. I mean, they did go to them, and the record companies snubbed them. So the artist actually ended up getting, in my opinion, [messed up] because of that confrontation. . . . I think we did the right thing at the moment. I still think stealing is wrong. It's one of the 10 Commandments: Thou shalt not steal. Though it's not as simple as that, it will always go back to that. Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] took the shots. We would have lot of artists coming up and saying. "Thank God, you're standing up," and "Go get 'em." But as soon as we called them out for some support, they were hiding in the shadows, and we were out their on our own.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Did you ever regret how much access you gave the filmmakers in "Some Kind Of Monster", which was made when you were in rehab?

Hetfield: No. We thought we might as well put it out there in a form that's something we can trust. It was just unfolding. We didn't know what we were doing. I was like a piece of raw meat walking around. I didn't know what had just happened to me in my life. I'm grateful that it was captured.

Philadelphia Inquirer: When's the next METALLICA record?

Hetfield: You tell me. I don't know. We're writing here and there, touring, doing the festival thing. I'm looking forward to making the next record. But I don't know when.

Read the entire interview from Philadelphia Inquirer.

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).