Broken homes, abusive childhoods, and the death of a bandmate. Here's the
"Sad but True" story of one of history's greatest metal bands.
Listen to just two or three Metallica songs, and you'll realize lead singer,
rhythm guitarist, and lyricist James Hetfield is carrying a lot of pain
and anger. He's a metal frontman, after all. A lot of Hetfield's angst comes from
his upbringing by parents who were firm believers in Christian Science.
In a 2020 interview with Metal Hammer, Hetfield said,
"Our parents didn't take us to the doctor. We were basically relying on
the spiritual power of the religion to heal us or to shield us from being sick
or injured. And so at school I wasn't allowed to sit through health class,
to learn about the body, to learn about illnesses and things like that."
Even trying out for his school's football team
was a problem because his parents wouldn't let him get a physical.
Hetfield's mother died after refusing treatment
for cancer. Metallica's "Mama Said" is about his relationship with her,
and "The God That Failed" is about how Cynthia Hetfield's religious beliefs cost her her life.
"Playing music, and being of service, going on tour,
playing, writing creating – thank God so much for that."
In 2001, Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett told Playboy,
"James comes from a broken home, and I come from a broken home,
and when I joined the band, we kind of bonded over that. I was abused
as a child. My dad drank a lot. He beat the s— out of me and my mom quite a bit."
It may not be surprising, since many of us probably don't expect folks with healthy
childhoods to make a living playing thrash metal. For Hammett, music wasn't just a hobby;
it became a place of comfort and peace, even if he preferred material full of rage.
Hammett got his first guitar around the time he was 15, and music became his go-to method of
releasing pain or calming down. On the Backstaged: The Devil in Metal podcast, he admitted,
"Basically, guitar playing and music saved my life. It was a
type of therapy for me. It made me feel better."
He's maintained the habit over the years, saying,
"I'm prone to depression like most people. My guitar helps me through all that."
Forming a band with friends is the ultimate dream. And for Ron McGovney,
that's how it all started. He met James Hetfield in middle school and
they jammed together as teenagers. Later on, Hetfield met Lars Ulrich,
and the pair started Metallica. Eventually, McGovney joined the group as their bassist.
McGovney played shows with Metallica and even recorded a four-track demo. But tensions started
to mount between the bassist and the rest of the band in 1982. After Dave Mustaine poured
beer on his bass, McGovney kicked the band out of his home and completely quit the music business.
In an interview with Shockwaves, McGovney explained,
"I was so disgusted with the whole thing that I sold all my equipment:
my amps, my cases. I even sold my Les Paul which would now be
worth about $1,200. I was just so pissed with the whole thing."
After four years, a friend convinced him to join Phantasm. But his return
was short-lived. McGovney quickly grew tired of fans attending the band's shows
just because he'd been in Metallica, and he left the music business for good.
The members of Metallica drank so much that they called themselves
"Alcoholica." But original lead guitarist Dave Mustaine was in a league of his own
when it came to knocking back a bottle. In an interview with Loudwire, he admits,
"I'd be aggressive and confrontational because I was a violent drunk. I lost
all inhibitions when I was drinking, and that didn't go over too well in the end."
In his 2011 autobiography, Mustaine details a particularly nasty fistfight
with bandmates Hetfield and original bassist Ron McGovney that destroyed
his relationship with the group. He was fired then rehired, but his return was short-lived.
In spring 1983, James Hetfield, drummer Lars
Ulrich, and bassist Cliff Burton handed Mustaine a bus ticket and fired him.
"If you ever wake up and the other three band members are sitting within two feet of you,
staring at you as you're rubbing sleep out of eyes, it's probably not a good sign."
He was replaced by current axeman Kirk Hammett. But Mustaine didn't take the rejection lying
down. The fiery-haired and fiery-tempered rocker funneled his rage into a new band:
fellow "Big Four" thrash outfit Megadeth, which has sold upward of 50 million albums of their own.
But despite his success, Mustaine remained hurt over his firing for years,
especially since Metallica has proven to be considerably more popular than his band.
"It's been hard to watch everything you guys do
and you touch turn to gold and everything I do f—-g backfire."
In 1986, Metallica, flying high off the success of their legendary third album,
Master of Puppets, were in Sweden on tour. Sadly, not all of them would survive it.
On September 26, the group was asleep on their bus when the vehicle slipped on black ice and
crashed. Almost everyone made it out alive. But 24-year-old bassist Cliff Burton, who'd
defeated Hammett in a card-drawing competition and therefore got to sleep in the top bunk,
was thrown through a window and trapped under the bus. Whether he died on impact or when the
bus fell on top of him a second time during an unsuccessful rescue attempt is up for debate.
There have also been questions about whether the bus driver fabricated the black-ice story to cover
up driving drunk or falling asleep at the wheel, but he was officially cleared of wrongdoing.
The band was devastated, and the whole metal community mourned with them.
"Yeah, he was quite a character. Very, very himself. Unapologetically Cliff."
Former guitarist Dave Mustaine, who hated the band for firing him, wrote "In My Darkest Hour" after
hearing the news. And fellow Big Four thrashers Anthrax dedicated their most popular record,
Among the Living, to the bassist's memory. Decades later, the band still mourns Burton's
loss. Hetfield recalled the tragedy in an interview with Metal Hammer, saying:
"Coming out and finding your buddy under the bus is not something you want to go
through. Our first reaction was anger — one of the things we were good at."
Bassist Cliff Burton's death put the band in a difficult position. Not only were they
devastated at the loss of a friend, but they had to figure out how to go on as a band.
"I think you will never ever ever find a permanent bass player."
They auditioned replacements and ultimately tapped bassist Jason Newsted for the position.
For Newsted, joining one of the most respected metal groups of the day was a dream come true,
but it wasn't a cakewalk. Getting hired was one thing. Being accepted was another matter entirely.
Newsted endured hazing that would've made the worst college frats blush.
He told Loudwire that 11 days into being in the band, he was tricked into eating
a spoonful of wasabi in Japan. Newsted's new bandmates even turned down his bass to nearly
inaudible levels on 1988's And Justice for All. He eventually earned their respect by
taking it on the chin and doing his job. Still, it was rough going for a while. And
although some of the pranks were the kind of "messing with the new guy" shenanigans
you'd expect bored 20-somethings to indulge in, a lot of it came from a darker place.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Hetfield later admitted,
"[We] took a lot of our resentment, a lot of our grief, a lot of our despair around
Cliff's death out on Jason. Right from the beginning there was a lot of hazing that
just separated him. [...] I wish that that didn't have to happen. [...] We were brutal with him."
In 1991, the two biggest rock titans were undoubtedly Metallica,
who released the self-titled record known as The Black Album, and Guns N' Roses,
who put forth Use Your Illusion I & II in September to enormous fanfare.
The following year, the two bands joined forces for a brief North American tour.
It made sense on paper for two of the biggest bands on earth to share a bill,
but the partnership was fraught with drama and controversy, largely due to the antics
of Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose. One night in Montreal, it all fell apart. During the opening
notes of "Fade to Black," James Hetfield accidentally wandered into the path of a
pyrotechnic blast and had to be rushed to the hospital with second- and third-degree burns.
"There was an incident with the pyrotechnics.
Unfortunately James is on his way to the hospital right now."
Guns N' Roses took the stage early to appease the restless crowd,
but Rose stormed offstage halfway through the show, complaining about sound issues.
The crowd lost it. The ensuing riot spilled into the streets,
where fires were set and cars were overturned. At least three police officers and 10 rioters were
injured in the chaos. Hetfield later remarked on VH1's Behind the Music:
"I go and light myself on fire, and he upstages me."
In the early 2000s, Metallica hit a rough patch. Not only had they
not put out a beloved record in more than a decade, but tensions within
the group were at an all-time high. Not the greatest time to put out a revealing
behind-the-scenes documentary like Some Kind of Monster, but that's what they did.
The band had sued Napster for allowing their music to be pirated, and, while they had a point,
fans revolted, accusing Metallica of becoming the establishment they'd always despised.
"Metallica is fortunate enough to make a great living from what we do. Most
artists are barely earning a decent wage and need every source of revenue available to scrape by."
Then James Hetfield went to rehab for alcohol and Jason Newsted left the
band. The group tapped Suicidal Tendencies bassist Robert Trujillo to replace Newsted,
but the problems continued. There were plenty of backstage fights, all captured on film,
including one in which Hetfield stormed out of the room after getting into it with Ulrich.
"You know what, guys? Why don't we just go in there and just hammer it out,
all right, instead of hammering on each other?"
Throughout it all, Kirk Hammett acted as peacekeeper,
but he wasn't happy either. In Some Kind of Monster,
he openly laments the lack of guitar solos in their then-upcoming album St. Anger.
It might not seem particularly metal to publicly air your dirty laundry,
but the movie was well-received, with the Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calling it:
"A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at
how Metallica survives one of their more turbulent periods."
The members of Metallica were never known for hard drug use like Ozzy Osbourne and
members of Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, or Guns N' Roses, but that doesn't mean they were
strangers to unhealthy substance use and addiction. James Hetfield had already
been to rehab for alcohol once. Then, in 2019, a message on the band's website read,
"As most of you probably know, our brother James has been struggling
with addiction on and off for many years. He has now, unfortunately,
had to re-enter a treatment program to work on his recovery again."
Fortunately, Hetfield has recovered, and Lars Ulrich feels optimistic about the band's future.
"I think Metallica is happier and healthier than it's ever been, ever, in 32 years."
But Hetfield wasn't alone. Guitarist Kirk Hammett was also a heavy
drinker. In an interview with Kerrang! Radio, Hammett remembered:
"For f---ing decades I'd go out after a show and carry on all night. I'd go back
to the hotel room and play guitar for two or three hours and not remember anything the next
day. [...] I stopped drinking and now I go back to my room and play guitar and remember everything!"
Hammett had also used cocaine for years, but ultimately beat it in an unconventional way:
by spending huge amounts of money on comic books to get his mind off things.
Metallica are now respected elder statesmen of rock and metal. They're revered by countless
up-and-comers and millions of fans around the world thanks to their game-changing
albums and some of the most instantly recognizable hits in metal history,
from "Sad but True" and "Seek and Destroy" to "Master of Puppets" and
"Battery." They've dealt with addictions, loss, fan backlash, and internal conflict,
and somehow came out the other side as the same old Metallica fans have loved for decades.
But all that hard living has taken its toll, and none of them are spring chickens anymore.
In a May 2022 show in Brazil, James Hetfield became emotional, telling the audience that
he fears his age has caught up to him. He's quoted by Metal Hammer as saying,
"I've gotta tell you I wasn't feeling very good before I came out here. Feeling a bit
insecure, like I'm an old guy, can't play anymore. [...] So I talked to these guys,
and they helped me. [...] They gave me a hug and said, 'Hey, if you're struggling onstage,
we've got your back.' And I tell you, it means the world to me."
This prompted his bandmates, likely no strangers to those feelings themselves,
to run up and embrace him. Through his tears, Hetfield thanked his audience, saying,
"Seeing you out there, [I’m] not alone. [I’m] not alone, and neither are you."