METALLICA's JAMES HETFIELD Shares Stories About Becoming A Musician And Rising To Fame (Video)

February 4, 2014

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield recently visited the Guitar Center store in San Francisco, California. In the small room, he shared stories about becoming a musician, rising to fame, and even played a bit. All the while, customers continued to shop in the store, having no idea it was James playing. Check out the footage below.

Hetfield said in a January 27 interview with a Houston radio station that METALLICA's two-year-old Orion Music + More festival "has been a disaster financially, and it's not able to happen again because of that. So it's a bummer."

The first edition of Orion was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey over two days in June of 2012, with the second edition taking place on Detroit's Belle Isle last June. 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.

The financial toll that the festival took must have been even worse than the band first estimated, because Hetfield told The Pulse Of Radio last year that making money wasn't the goal. "We're not expecting this thing to break even for a while, really," he said. "It's a long-term investment, and as a band who's done lots of things over 30 years, this is another adventure. We're trying to help make a stamp on music history. So at the end of the day, it's not about us making money at all."

Hetfield told the 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."

METALLICA will get down to work on its next studio album in the months head before hitting the European festival circuit this summer with an "all-request" set list chosen online by fans.

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