Metallica's James Hetfield At Guitar Center

[Music] I was pretty much afraid of everything afraid of the world afraid of speaking if you know really really shy kid music was a way to speak as simple as that I could either just journal write poetry write just whatever was in my head and sit down to drummer a few chords and put that together and that's me that's me telling the world about me when I can't do it on my own so music was the voice I didn't have there was a kid in my high school Downey High who was in the Jazz Band who was selling his guitar he had a I think it was a 69 SG with the tremolo and he wanted to sell it he said you want it and I said yeah how much he wants to two hundred bucks so begged my mom and you know did chores did whatever I could and she said yeah she bought me she bought me my first real guitar and then of course once you got a guitar yeah join a band so started hanging out with some kids at school that loved playing music and they were it was a cover band called obsession but you guys in my grade and we just end up at their house after school playing Black Sabbath was the band that just totally lit me up so heavy so moving I sunk right into that I could close my eyes a beat in there me and a buddy growing up in school John's an or was his name we would we would try and top each other you know every day like hey look what I learned and Oliver look what I got like oh damn now go back and learn something else and then he got so the great you know high school competition you know got us to another level which was great and then at some point it was like wow you know the guys I'm playing with I need to play with better players and I was writing I wanted to I wrote some songs they didn't like him they just wanted to play covers and then I kind of decided well I got to start playing with other people so right then I kind of knew that I was on a quest I wanted to get better and some friends didn't understand that they just you know why don't you you know just hang out with us and I I was on a quest to go go places I think it was my sophomore year I went back to high school the summer time to gear up start playing football again and I had long hair at that point and the coach said you have to get a haircut and I said yeah but Eddie Van Halen's got long hair and Michael Schenker's got long hair I want to play football and have long hair you can't do it so right then it was one of those forks in the road that was pretty pivotal in my life that I had no clue about and that kind of just said well you know screw this do I want to be second strings you know playing football or do I want to be up on stage you know with a mission you know speaking through music I didn't know what at the time but it was pretty much the right choice [Music] I don't think it really hit me until probably after after high school where I realized wow I got to start thinking about what uh what I want to do you know I'd be working at the sticker factory you know cutting stock and just thinking of riffs or lyrics or something you know at lunchtime I'd be out in the out in the car with my guitar writing some riffs and the you know uh she they gotta get back to work then after work you know show the riffs that I had written and you know we did our first gig and then what was then it was kind of like you know I think I want to quit my job I want to start playing music and it was there was no other option that's this kind of how it was when I think the first time hey we're going to we're going to New Jersey to sign up or we're going you know one of the first things like we're going up to San Francisco to play a show oh my god and then hey we could sign up with this manager he's talking about going to Europe and all this stuff it's like yeah whatever you know trying to act cool but inside I'm freaking out flipping like this is this is happening this is really happening and all of us are friends and where we get to do what we want that's amazing and every step of that way has been a little more of it every day we wake up there is that reminder again that dude you get to do what you want to do and create and it's sustaining you sustaining your family it's an amazing gift so for us to to keep keep track of that you know there was certainly a time when it got out of control you know the black album black album tore out for a long time I mean that was the album there was multiple divorces lots of egos you know swollen to you know no one was no one was right sized anymore everyone was bigger than they should have been but if you at the end of the day when you look at this this careers is bizarre people saying they respect you for your music but then you did the the the validation that you get out there is unreal it's it's like a fantasy it's like the people think you're something more than you'll really are so you got to stay grounded just like God I'm human you know so something comes back again and knocks you back down and to reality you know and you realize that I have a gift of playing music that's what I got [Music] you know I I grew up listening to guitar players mostly I loved rhythm guitar players you know obviously Tony Iommi is a big influence on most metal guitar players and obviously the riffs the single note riffs and they sounded fat when you analyze the sound it's it's not really fat sounding it's it's it's got a got an edge to it that cuts so for me getting getting that at first like on the first albums then it grew more into a depth I wanted I wanted I wanted it's like I wanted to play drums on guitar pretty much so I wanted a really percussive sound so a one that really reacts quickly and is punchy but also if you you know hang on a chord it's gonna fill the room and I wanted a Les Paul shape that was a little lighter a little more Road worthy this has a little cut out for me I like to wear my guitars pretty low this is a little got a little more sharpness to it I can get up a little higher even though you don't want to hear me so low I've tested probably I think we went through about 30 different kinds of poles different kinds of windings different kinds of metals you know one of the traditional look but also have an active pickup so combining passive and active together smooth distortion but with uh some aggressive mids and you know that some of the passive pickups have you know they're a little more focused in the mids and they they're pushy which I like but the warmness and the wideness of the active pickup so combining those two together was the challenge and and that's what I want in a guitar sound but not not abrasiveness something that's gonna give you you know complete ear fatigue you know after a concert I think being on stage is a different hat it's a different mindset it's a different space it's uh to me time stops there's no pain there's it's it's it's like you know when when people artists talk about being in the zone that is the zone I could get in that zone even here just sitting playing and forget you guys are here it somehow the world goes away whether that's good or bad it's difficult to come out of sometimes but you know that's the curse of it but the blessing is there is that focus and there is that the sense of purpose sense of being sense of communication sense of creation there's this like that's a reason that's a reason I'm here there's times when I haven't played for a couple weeks and my wife will say god you're grumpy go play guitar it's like oh yeah and I'm going I'll play and then I feel better now it's just it's just what it is it's a it's it's a part of me it's like I got to have it you know it's it's my coffee in the morning too and it's my my chill in the evening the music just makes us do things that we normally wouldn't do I mean I'm not gonna be jumping around here you know screaming in people's faces you know by by the power of some riff coming out of this amp you know it's just kind of unfriendly really it's rude downright rude but that's what we get to do on stage we get to express the music out of every pore out of every every part of us [Music] most things in life that are worthwhile you got to work at it you got to work at you get out what you put in as simple as that that's a kind of a universal law so yeah it's not pick up the guitar and go haha which I've done you know hope for the mirror Lots you know hey I'm really good and you got to have that attitude too but it does take work it does take you know some dedication you know but if you love doing it it's not as hard as is it is it could be if you're you know you're doing something that's not it you're not as interested in there's nothing more inspirational than me plugging in to an amp that's dialed to my sound and turning it up that's just nothing more inspirational I could write 20 riffs just like that if it's if it's passing through me you know there's there's just stuff coming through I do believe that you know to keep what you got you had to give it away and so to show up you know doing benefit type things helping others with the gift that we have you know we've got all we need we've got more than enough that we need so to give back for sure you know little kids rock is something that I'm involved with just played a gig down south and raised a quarter of a million dollars this is unbelievable bringing instruments into public schools where music programs are cut I think if there's a kid out there that's got that gift or just needs a little something whatever it may be you know if it's that five dollar guitar hit the swap meet that shows up for somebody else somewhere else and I've helped with that it's a good feeling that's a better feeling than most of the other feelings on this planet

Channel: Guitar Center

Views: 16,431,716

Rating: 4.9335217 out of 5

Keywords: James Hetfield (Record Producer), Metallica (Musical Album), Metallica (Musical Group), guitar center, james hetfield, james hetfield interview, james hetfield guitar center, james hetfield guitar, james hetfield esp ltd iron cross guitar, james hetfield esp guitar, james hetfield esp iron cross guitar, james hetfield of metallica, james hetfield guitarist, james hetfield guitar player, metallica blackened

Id: 1Eq9RVKT9XQ

Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 04 2014