METALLICA's JAMES HETFIELD: 'I Have The Best Job In The World'

A special feature about METALLICA's All Within My Hands foundation will air on "CBS Sunday Morning" this Sunday, November 30.

"CBS News Sunday Morning" is scheduled to air at 9 a.m. Sunday on the CBS television network and streaming on Paramount+.

Asked how me makes METALLICA's live performances fun for himself more than four decades into the band's career, METALLICA frontman James Hetfield said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's so easy. It is so easy. Just looking into one set of eyes — that's all it takes for me. I will hook up with one person's eyes and I'll just see them change. I'll see the passion in them, and I'm full — my heart fills right up and I'm ready to just keep going, kicking ass.

"I am so blessed," Hetfield continued. "I have the best seat in the house. I got the best job in the world, if you even wanna call it a job. I found my passion early on in life; I'm super grateful for that. I had parents that were supportive around that. And I struggled. I struggled hard to get what I thought was what I needed, which was be in a band and make music. Struggle is part of it, and with this foundation [All Within My Hands], hopefully we're a little bit of a helping hand getting from that, 'I can't get out of this struggle. I just can't,' to the, 'I can, but I gotta work hard and I'm gonna be able to get what I want.'

"So, yeah, I have the best job in the world," James repeated. "I get to see three generations of people hugging each other. Oh, God, the last thing I would've wanted to do is go to a gig with my dad, or my grandpa even. But I see that happening out there. And little kids down in the front, old people down the front, people in wheelchairs down the front — a mixed match of backgrounds and stories of people.

"We gather a lot of misfits around this planet, and we make a family out of it. And we create some energy that helps us get through life."

Referencing the fact that All Within My Hands focuses on "giving back" through community support and skilled trades education, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich said: " It goes back to the basics, which is giving, giving back, sharing. We come out of not just a community, but come out of community itself. And in community, whatever words — whether you call it a collective or a community or a gang or like-minded folks, or whatever it is — we've always thrived in the plural. And we always use the word 'we', 'we', 'we', 'we', 'we', 'we', all of us together. And so in that is us, the fans, the like-minded."

Ulrich continued: "I know this may sound slightly corny, but I feel that one of the purposes of what we do is to try to break down that barrier of sense of separation between the group and the fans, the band and the fans, the artists and the people who appreciate what the artist is doing, to try to sort of do away with — you could almost call it in a concert setting, a physical barricade that's there, and try to sort of bring that sense of we're all in this together."

Lars added: "I think instinctively you just wanna help. I mean, we all depend on each other. If you really wanna break it down, then you go, humans are herd animals and really thrive — you know, the flock does better when everybody's doing well."

Formed in 1981 by Hetfield and Ulrich and including guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo, METALLICA has become one of the most influential and successful rock bands in history, selling nearly 125 million albums worldwide and generating more than 17 billion streams while playing to millions of fans on all seven continents — more than 1.3 million of whom belong to the band's fiercely loyal and consistently growing Fifth Member fan club.

METALLICA's catalog of multi-platinum studio albums includes "Kill 'Em All", "Ride The Lightning", "Master Of Puppets", "…And Justice For All", "Metallica" (commonly referred to as The Black Album),"Load", "Reload", "St. Anger", "Death Magnetic", "Hardwired…To Self-Destruct" and, most recently, the Grammy-winning "72 Seasons", released April 14, 2023, on the band's own Blackened Recordings label.

METALLICA's awards and accolades include nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, multiple MTV Video Music Awards, a 2009 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and Sweden's Polar Music Prize.

In 2017, METALLICA established its own charitable foundation, All Within My Hands, to give back to communities that have supported the band. To date, All Within My Hands' collective efforts have raised nearly $20 million since inception, including $11.4 million in grants to workforce education, $7.4 million to fight hunger globally, and $5.2 million donated to critical local services around the world.