Hetfield, who sometimes appeared on stage with a beer in his hand, sometimes appearing drunk or outright drunk, managed to impress his fan base and keep them alive. Over time, he began to hate alcohol.
James Alan Hetfield was born on August 3, 1963. He is of German, English and Irish origin. His father, Virgil, was a truck driver and abandoned his family in the following years, and Hetfield was also greatly affected by this situation. His mother, Cynthia, is an opera singer. As a belief, it is strictly adhered to Christianity; This situation of his mother greatly affected Hetfield's childhood.
James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, co-founder, and a primary songwriter of heavy metal band Metallica. He is mainly known for his intricate rhythm playing, but occasionally performs lead guitar duties and solos both live and in studio. Hetfield co-founded Metallica in October 1981 after answering an advertisement by drummer Lars Ulrich in the Los Angeles newspaper The Recycler. Metallica has won nine Grammy Awards and released 11 studio albums, three live albums, four extended plays, and 24 singles. Hetfield is often regarded as one of the greatest heavy metal rhythm guitar players of all time.
His family did not use any medical aid or medication due to the sect or belief they adhered to. That's why his mother, Cynthia, died of cancer in 1979. At the time of his mother's death, young James was only 16 years old. His father, Virgil, passed away in 1996 during the tour of Metallica's Load album.
James Hetfield's Metallica Era
In its early years, Metallica tried several alternatives in terms of guitar and vocals. However, they could not achieve the tone and musical performance they aimed for. After all the combination experiments, the band Metallica was officially formed and established, with James Hetfield playing rhythm guitar and vocalist, Lars Ulrich playing drums, Dave Mustaine acting as the main guitarist and Ron McGovney playing the bass guitar.
Dave Mustaine's alcohol problem caused arguments between him and Hetfield. Another incident that occurred during this period was Mustaine spilling beer on McGovney's bass guitar and electrocuting McGovney. In the years 1982 and 1983, when Mustaine's incorrigible attitude was added to his stubborn attitude in the interviews he gave to the media, Ulrich and Hetfield expelled Mustaine from the band. On the same day that Mustaine was removed from the band, Kirk Hammett, who was playing in the band Exodus at the time, was recruited as Metallica's new main guitarist. Mustaine, who was fired from the band, founded the heavy metal band Megadeth. James Hetfield also arranged the songs until the mid-1990s. In addition, with the studio recordings of the Load album, main guitarist Kirk Hammett also began to take part in the rhythm arrangements of the songs. James Hetfield also creates the majority of the guitar harmonies himself. At the same time, he wrote the lyrics and vocal melodies himself and completed the song arrangements together with Lars Ulrich.
James Hetfield has many stage accidents. The accident that Hetfield experienced during the Guns N' Roses and Metallica concert tour held in Montreal in 1992 is the most popular experience among these events. Hetfield was impressed by the fireworks exploding while playing the song "Fade To Black". Although the fireworks on the stage were replaced, there were fireworks in their old places, and James Hetfield did not pay attention to them, resulting in 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his left arm. For this reason, Hetfield could not play guitar for a long time. However, less than 3 weeks after the incident, Hetfield managed to return to the stage. One of these accidents was that he needed around 30 stitches on his head due to an incident he experienced in 1994. In addition, he was unable to play guitar at Metallica concerts many times because he broke his arm after falling off a skateboard. In fact, just because of this incident, a condition of "not riding a skateboard during the tour" was added to the agreements made with Hetfield.
While James Hetfield was on his "Black Album" tour, he had to take singing lessons as his voice became hoarse at a concert. Even today, James Hetfield uses the audio recording tape that his singing teacher gave him to help him. James Hetfield suffered from alcohol addiction throughout his life. That's why he went into rehab during the preparation of the St Anger album. Metallica documented the preparation process of this album, the discussions among the members, and their future plans, and released it under the name "Some Kind Of Monster". The first guitar Hetfield owned was a white guitar imitating the "Gibson Flying V". However, Hetfield has been playing special ESP-branded guitars produced under his name in almost all of his concerts since the early 1990s. The ESP brand has released 6 Hetfield-signed guitar models to date, and they paid Hetfield money for these guitars. In addition to ESP brand guitars, it is also known that Hetfield prefers the Gibson brand from time to time.
Hetfield, who sometimes appeared on stage with a beer in his hand, sometimes appearing drunk or outright drunk, managed to impress his fan base and keep them alive. However, in later times, these behaviors became a problem, both as he got older and became a family man. Over time, he began to hate alcohol.
James Alan Hetfield is a living music legend. In the heavy and trash metal music market, he continues to be a recognized, appreciated and admired artist all over the world, with his productivity, talent and the band he belongs to, Metallica.