Nothing Else Matters - The Metallica Story ┃ Documentary

well we've always prided ourselves on kind of being a little different from all the others and uh i don't know satan's not on our mind too much they're considered to be one of the big four the innovators of thrash along with megadeth anthrax and slayer metallica became a global phenomenon they somehow survived the 80s and became kings of metal from their debut record kill em all to the huge commercial success of the black album metallica and modern day metal legends and this is their story [Music] one one bedroom james hetfield born august 3rd 1963 and lars ulrich born 26th of december also in 1963 are the founding members of metallica although hetfield was born in california in the u.s lars would be born in denmark but would move to america in 1980. me being forced into a certain religious belief at a young age that my parents were raising me as a christian science christian scientist which basically you're not believing in doctors and hetfield was raised in an interesting environment to say the least with two older step brothers and a younger sister james would be raised by parents that held faith in christian science a set of beliefs governed by faith and spirituality a faith that denounced modern medicine it was difficult it's very alienating for me as a child being raised this religion and how i couldn't attend certain health classes at school you know when you're in elementary school you wanna you wanna be hanging out with the buddies and doing stuff together and this is something that largely impacted james's early childhood and school years not only would his parents refuse to take him to a doctor if he was ill but he was also told not to attend health class in school as they didn't want him to learn about modern medicine or biology it didn't make me feel a part of this earth really it actually really alienated me just as silly as it sounds but it really did however from an early age hetfield knew that there was something wrong with this way of life hetfield would later go on to write a song about these religious teachings the song would be called the gods that failed and would feature on their self titled 1991 record also known as the black album fortunately for hetfield this was made possible by his mother signing him up for piano lessons when he was a kid although hetfield didn't really enjoy his two years learning the instrument due to the teacher making him learn classical pieces he said it did help him to train his hands for the guitar this would eventually lead him to joining two bands in high school obsession and phantom lord although they didn't amount to much phantom lord would become a song title on metallica's debut record kill em all released in 1983. i grew up in a bohemian situation in denmark i don't know if por is the right word you know denmark is a social democracy working i grew up poor in the um in the friendship area i was a bit of a loner kind of alienated and just enveloped myself in music my dad was a professional tennis player so i grew up in in in the world of tennis and traveled around the tennis circle all over the world and in denmark i was actually in the 12th and 14th i was ranked in the top 10 in the country lars ulrich was born in denmark to his danish family his father torben ulrich was a professional tennis player and his father before him so it's no surprise that lars would initially follow the same career path lars was heading towards becoming a professional tennis player where he ranked high enough to be one of the best tennis players in his home country lars would soon realize his passion for music far outweighed his ability to play tennis when lars moved to the states in 1980 he couldn't even land a spot on his high school tennis team so instead he delved headfirst into his love for music and decided he wanted to form a band lars had had a thirst for metal ever since his father took him to a deep purple concert in copenhagen when he was just nine years old this would be lars's gateway experience into discovering iron maiden motorhead diamond head and more he'd been bitten by the rockstar lifestyle lars's mother and father fully supported any path he wanted to take so he chose the path of metallica and naturally decided to form a band in pursuit of that dream although tennis ran through the ulrich blood music was also a huge part of the ulrich family home with lars's father torben even writing about music for danish newspapers whilst lars saw tennis as his day job and music as his hobby it wouldn't be long before lars started to play drums at around the age of 14. when lars moved to the states he wanted to join the tennis team at corona del mar high school in newport beach california but he also got busted for smoking pot there so it seemed lars had already chosen the rock and roll lifestyle over tennis it came pretty clear early on that it was just a bit more of a challenge and just trying to like go for something that was just not so like what everybody else is doing and it's kind of more fun metallica would officially form on october 28 1981 after lars placed an ad in a local magazine called the recycler some months before james hetfield was in a band called leather charm with ron mcgovney who would become the first bass player for metallica it would be hugh tanner of leather charm who would actually reach out to lars to set up the first meeting for what could become a new band the first jam session however didn't go too well hetfield and tana weren't impressed by lars and they didn't even think that lars was a good drummer lars wouldn't give up he kept pestering james to start a new band and the two things that brought them together was their love for the new wave of british heavy metal and the fact that they were both loners when i don't get enough beverages lars was completely driven to succeed despite initially being rejected he had even managed to convince a record label to release one of his songs on a compilation album despite not even having a band or a song all of a sudden you know well you get a you get a song on someone's compilation record this is what convinced james to officially start jamming with lars hetfield was just as passionate about being in a metal band as lars was and this was his big chance this was the official formation of metallica metallica now had a drummer lars ulrich a vocalist and guitarist james hetfield and a bass player ron mcgovney who was living with hetfield at the time but there was still one important figure missing from the original lineup dave mustain so for me i never had anything that i needed to make up for myself i was already starting from less than zero so everything was just a blessing because i was homeless i i panhandled you know i've gone without mustaine would respond to an advert looking for a lead guitar player and when he showed up to the audition james and lars instantly gave him the job mustaine didn't even have to play lars and james looked at mustaine's expensive gear and just assumed he'd be a great fit metallica was officially ready to dominate the world hadn't exactly gotten off to a great start james wasn't a huge fan of lars as a drummer lars only seemed to be playing drums because his tennis career had failed and it would later transpire that ron mcgovney was just along for the ride not only this but dave mustaine would become a nightmare for the band to deal with however before this chaotic lineup even formed lars and james were recording demos in ron's garage one metallica demo no life till leather caught the attention of a concert promoter and record store owner by the name of john zazula someone forced it on me like you said and i said okay i'll put it on but when i put it on it was like lightning at first he was reluctant to even listen to this demo but when he did it changed the course of metal history forever i was like flipping out i went to marshall this is the greatest thing this is america's answer i just said to motorhead after hearing the demo zazula knew he had to be part of this legacy he knew metallica were going to change the face of heavy metal by this time ron mcgovney was no longer in the band he'd been replaced by the one and only cliff burton ulrich and hetfield were at a club in west hollywood when they witnessed cliff playing base for a band called trauma the pair was so blown away by cliff that they had to convince him to join metallica and he would cliff joined on the condition that metallica relocate to the san francisco bay area how could lars and james refuse cliff james lars and dave would have their first rehearsal on december 28 1982 the following six months would once again be a defining moment for the future of metallica we do what we want to do you know they consider that selling out then whatever or maybe you don't play a thousand miles an hour the whole time or you know and we're not trying to be something big and fancy you know it's just us doing what we do and to keep it that way yeah cliff was certainly a one of a kind person but a true and total musician he loved music he was probably the only one in the band that had studied music properly you know going to uh music classes studying theory and he introduced harmony to me you know the guitar player and singer you know hello thank you and i i respected him completely because he had his own vision on how he wanted to be and he no one no one could [ __ ] with that nobody could and he had a conviction you know he liked country music he liked shooting guns he liked being out in the wilderness really exploring his mind reading bizarre things you know he he really was out to enjoy life and it was so still sad that he was taken so early metallica had already played their first show on march the 14th 1982 with the original lineup they would spend the next few months playing a few random shows here and there as well as recording their no life till leather demo tape in july of 82. shortly after relocating to san francisco in february of 1983 on april the 11th of the same year the band came to the difficult decision to fire dave mustaine mustaine was given a one-way bus ticket home not only that mustaine thought he was on the path to becoming a superstar and metallica just crushed his dreams he was devastated what i went through with my life through the heroin days and the cocaine days and the alcoholism and then the loss of band members lives although mustaine was only in metallica for a short time he would instigate a decade-long rivalry with his former band mates by starting his own band megadeth he would also blame them for ruining his life this feud simply helped to fan the flames of who would become the biggest thrash band on the planet metallica though had bigger and better things to worry about they were struggling to find a record deal and it seemed no label wanted to associate with them that is until john cezula stepped in after hearing the no life till leather demo zazula knew metallica had the potential to be huge but he couldn't get them a record deal so he decided to start his own label megaforce records zazula would agree to release metallica's first album and the band would enter the studio on may the 10th of 1983 after signing with zazula's label just one week before whilst mustaine was fired for his apparent violent behavior and drug and alcohol abuse metallica had to find a replacement and someone was already waiting to fill his shoes i formed exodus in high school i thought that was my band then when i met these guys and started playing with them i felt more at home than i did in the band that i started on april the 1st of 1983 just 10 days before mustaine was fired metallica called exodus guitarist kirk hammett to offer him the job before he knew it hammett was on a plane to rochester new york where metallica were ready to record their debut album you know we never never been to new york and all of a sudden we're you know recording a record out in the you know making a record we had done demos before we kind of knew what we wanted i knew what i wanted guitar wise and stuff and you always have you know you have dreams man you have visions of i remember being at school writing you know i'm drawing up the band i'm gonna be in i already know the name of the record i know what it's gonna look like and all this stuff and it's a dream that that started to come true it seemed metallica had finally seen a light at the end of their chaotic tunnel but their debut album was at risk of never even being released whilst john cezula had granted the band 15 000 to record their debut record in rochester new york retail distributors refuse to stock it the now iconic red and black cover with a bloody hammer that came to be kill em all was originally a dagger fisting upwards from a toilet and metallica wanted to name the album metal up your ass it's easy to see why retailers didn't want this on their shelves it would be cliff burton that would give metallica the idea for a revised name when talking about a specific record distributor he said those record company [ __ ] kill them all and according to hammer cliff used to carry a hammer with him everywhere he went and would randomly start destroying things and so kill em all was born [Music] metallica's debut record would go on to sell 60 000 copies in the first year thanks to an extensive touring schedule in the us and europe whilst it didn't bring them commercial or financial success it helped them to build their own audience and word of mouth quickly spread not only would kill em all become an important record for metallica but it would also help to define a completely new genre of metal whilst bands such as venom and motorhead have also been accredited with the invention of thrash it would be four bands known as the big four that would go down in history as the icons of the genre these bands would include metallica slayer anthrax and dave mustaine's megadeth hetfield described metallica's early sound as power metal however it's reported that the description of thrash metal was coined by a karang magazine journalist in 1984 in reference to an anthrax song metal thrashing mad thrash would become incredibly popular from 1984 onwards with the release of metallica's second record ride the lightning and anthrax's debut album a fist full of metal which was also released on john cezula's megaforce record label sitting in interviews and talking about it it seems like when we do things it just happens over the coming months anthrax and metallica would not only become mutual record label partners but they would also hang out together in london where cliff burton and scott ian of anthrax would end up getting arrested seems to be that way in a lot of these college stations good good buzz going good excitement metallica had caught the attention of the underground metal scene with their debut record in 1984 metallica would travel to lars's home country of denmark to record their second record ride the lightning this time their budget would jump to thirty thousand dollars but it would be their last record with john tazula's label it became clear that whilst azula had the passion to promote metallica he didn't have the finances to back it up and they would part ways shortly after during the recording sessions in denmark metallica had a tour lined up in the uk with canadian speed metal band exciter the only problem was this tour would be cancelled due to lack of ticket sales metallica however decided to stay in london for a month and they would be joined by founding member and guitar player scott ian of anthrax my major influence was from 1974 when i first got the paranoid album right so it's just a case of where that's where it comes from i mean they're the first and we're just something new that's coming out now in 1985 1986. cliff burton and scott ian however would find themselves stripped down to their underwear in a jail cell shortly after leaving the metallica apartment one day they had been questioned in the street by british police and arrested on suspicion of drug dealing not only this the police would escort cliff back to the apartment with 10 police officers in order to search the premises for any illegal substances unfortunately for scott ian he spent several hours in a jail cell waiting for the police to find a huge bag of weed stashed under cliff's mattress fortunately for cliff the police failed to look in the one place where he'd hid in his stash and the pair were released from custody we get arrested they the the cops think because we had long hair we must be carrying drugs stripped down to my underwear and it's freezing cold and i'm like sitting there for six hours they're gonna fight and i knew because cliff had a whole bunch of weed back in the apartment they never looked under the mattress luckily metallica were able to finish recording ride the lightning which would be released on july the 27th 1984 and would become one of the band's most revered records it was an ambitious album and landed them a top 200 us billboard chart position this was just the beginning of metallica's huge journey [Music] at that time where we were at in our age master puppets came out that was sort of you know this grand next step and a really heavy inspirational body of work for rock and roll as metallica's career started to grow so did dave mustaine's public resentment for the band he would regularly attack kirk hammett in interviews claiming kirk stole his job and that he also ripped off his guitar solos 1986 would see megadeth and metallica go head to head in the us album charts with metallica releasing their third studio album master of puppets and mega death releasing their second record piece sells but who's buying master of puppets recorded at sweet silence studios in denmark and released in march of 86 would see metallica enter the u.s billboard charts once again the band were now also signed to electoral records thanks to a r executive michael allago although master of puppets would be hailed as one of the greatest metal records of the genre 1986 would be a devastating year for metallica the year started off on a high when metallica headed out on tour with the prince of darkness ozzy osbourne whilst this would be a highlight of their career it would unfortunately be the last tour that cliff burton would embark on towards the end of these dates on the night of september the 26th 1986 metallica were travelling through sweden on their tour bus hammett and burton drew cards to pick the bunk they would sleep in around 7am the next morning the driver lost control the bus would leave the road and begin to violently flip cliff burton was thrown through a window and the bus would land directly on top of him pinning him to the ground whilst emergency services tried to rescue him and save his life cliff wouldn't make it he really was out to enjoy life and it was so still sad that he was taken so early after burton's death metallica made the difficult decision to continue touring as a band but first ensured they had the blessing of cliff's family hammett said cliff wouldn't want to see us lose the drive that he was part of metallica now needed to find a new bass player to finish the tour after auditioning 30 to 50 bass players they would land on jason newstead before entering the studio to record their fourth album the band decided to release an ep called the 5.98 ep garage days revisited the record was a cover ep featuring songs from diamond head killing joke the misfits and more metallica wanted to record this ep for a few reasons firstly to test out their new studio complex another reason is to vent anger at cliff's death and also to test jason's abilities before officially committing to their next album and justice for all recorded during the first few months of 1988 with producer fleming rasmussen who had already worked on ride the lightning and master of puppets and justice for all would see metallica land their first grammy nomination for best hard rock metal performance but they would lose out to jethro tull on the night of the award ceremony metallica were waiting on the side of the stage as everyone naturally assumed they would be winning the award in the grand scheme of things however this would be an insignificant loss as they would win three grammy awards over the next three years the first grammy award would come with a single taken from and justice for all that single would be named one i need help a dark and twisted concept of a soldier losing all of his limbs blind and unable to speak begging god to take his life it was one of many anti-war songs that metallica had written so far during their career in 1992 metallica would win two grammy awards for arguably their most successful album to date [Music] in october of 1990 metallica would head to los angeles to record their fifth studio album although self-titled many refer to this record as the black album metallica would collaborate with world-renowned producer bob rock at one-on-one recording studios in la it would also be the most difficult album metallica had recorded to date i guess it was called metallica but i always call it the black album there was no real theme to this one it was simple black cover and you had to listen to the music you wouldn't be distracted by a drawing on the front while barack had just finished working on motley crue's chart-topping lp doctor feel good bob rock had made a name for himself producing records for artists such as the cult skid row and even bon jovi at first metallica were reluctant to work with rock but he convinced them otherwise he basically sat down and was like so brutally honest with us you know he sat down and said i've seen you guys play a bunch of times live and i've listened to your records and um you guys have not captured what you do live on a record yet and we're like excuse me uh who the [ __ ] are you the great thing about metallica when they make a decision they commit fully to it so even though a lot of things that i that i brought to them uh no no kind of concept in mind but just what i brought to them in terms of the changes that were made they embraced and they they do it for long previously metallica mainly consisted of james and lars when it came to who wrote songs in the studio kirk and jason would often just turn up to play their parts but bob rock wouldn't have any of this for this record he wanted the band to be a collective in the studio and work together and this was just one of many conflicts that would arise between rock and metallica during their eight month long recording session keeping one eye open same delivery sleep with one lars and james are definitely the the budding heads alpha males of metallica do you want to hear it with vocals go sing it although recording sessions for the black album were difficult it was bob rock that would introduce metallica to drop detuning [Music] you could start by taking i don't want to take the other things this simple change in tuning helped to make the black album one of metallica's heaviest to date i'll let you guys duke it out on this one because i frankly i don't give a [ __ ] tired of arguing yes i am [Music] [Applause] it seemed metallica were taking things a bit more seriously with this record they decided to move away from their thrash metal label and focus more on their writing style hatfield decided to revisit some childhood trauma in the studio when james was just 16 his mother cynthia would lose her battle with cancer due to her religious beliefs as a christian scientist she refused any form of medical treatment believing god would heal her still torn up emotionally all those years later hetfield wrote a song in anger at these beliefs the god that failed broken is the promise betrayal the healing hand held back by the deepened nail follow the god that failed the lyrics to this song show how deep an impact james's early religious teachings had affected him to lose his mother to what seemed like a betrayal of god must have been devastating and confusing however heartbreaking this experience was for james it helped to fuel his anger into the music of metallica [Music] over the course of the 90s metallica would release two more studio albums with load in 1996 and reload in 1997. they would also end their 10-year long feud with former metallica guitarist dave mustaine who was now riding high with megadeth despite the incredible success the band had achieved with the black album the following chapter in their history would be a dark one a 10 million lawsuit therapy sessions alcohol addiction and the departure of bass player jason neustad were all events that mentally destroyed metallica and nearly ended them you know it's the only way of avoiding that is agreeing with you and that's just i can't that's what i can't get my head around although load and reload released just over a year apart were commercially successful fans and music critics were completely divided the new direction of metallica's hard rock sound alienated many of their audience with load landing the band number one chart positions all over the world many fans accused metallica of sailing out but this was the least of their worries it was starting to emerge during the 90s that james hetfield had developed a serious drinking problem and would soon find himself in rehab battling alcohol and substance addiction fear was a big motivator in that for me losing my family that was that was the thing that scared me so much that was the bottom i hit that my family's gonna go away because of my behaviors that i brought home from the road i got kicked out of the house by my wife i was living on my own somewhere i did not want that my family kind of disintegrated when i was a kid you know father left mother passed away i live with my brother like the family you know where'd my stuff go where where it just kind of floated away several songs released on the load album also highlighted james's battle with depression the loss of his mother and even how the band still struggled to deal with the death of cliff burton metallica seemed to be at breaking point the band were about to take their first big blow of the new decade as jason neustead announced he was leaving by the end of the year 2000 newstead gave metallica an ultimatum for him and for us it was difficult it just truly was you know psych 101 will tell you that all our anger our grief and sadness got directed at him not all of it but quite a bit of it was he was an easy target he was such a fan and we hated that we hated that part jason told the band he wasn't happy and wanted to take a year out to work on his side project or he would leave lars james and kirk confused angry and upset asked him to reconsider but newstead had already made up his mind metallica were falling apart now without a bass player a singer struggling with depression and addiction as well as lars and james fighting for control over the band recording a new album seemed impossible fortunately metallica wouldn't completely fade to black on april the 23rd 2001 metallica would enter the studio to record their eighth album saint anger but this time producer bob rock would also be playing bass for the record as neustead had left the band high and dry jason not being happy in metallica needing to find happiness elsewhere made us understand that are we really happy you know are the the three of us happy recording though would quickly come to a standstill as james hetfield decided it was time to enter rehab to address the addictions that had been eating away at him for the last decade the ride was over an awesome ride 20 years a lot of highs one or two lows what an amazing ride it was but i think i started insulating myself to the possibility that maybe um it had come to one terrified of losing his family and destroying his band he couldn't see another way out of the dark void he'd found himself in i had to hit the bottom i didn't i was pretty stubborn i didn't learn i had tried to stop for a year and it just wasn't fun so i went back to it i had i had to have someone tell me you know someone basically my wife threw me out of the house and said goodbye it took that shock you know and fear is a pretty good motivator because i certainly didn't want to stop drinking even then but i knew that i couldn't live without my family when james left rehab and the band started to record again in 2002 metallica had turned into more of a counselling session rather than a metal band metallica brought in a personal enhancement coach better known as a therapist called phil tol to help the band work through their issues james and lars were starting to fight for power over the band as james's control issues had pushed lars to breaking point despite saint anger almost destroying metallica the recording process and therapy sessions turned out to be the band's salvation all of which was documented in the award-winning independent film some kind of monster released in 2004. all working on collectively and when i leave work on it that part bothers me a documentary that followed the band through the recording process of the album when metallica released saint anger in 2003 it was met with mixed reactions from critics and fans many fans will no doubt remember having heated arguments over the sound of lars's snare drum the documentary also featured a heartfelt yet painful discussion between lars ulrich and former metallica member dave mustain i had nothing then i had everything then i had nothing again and it was okay going from nothing to everything to nothing but then having someone stand on the back of my head and keep me underwater made it even harder for me mustaine was finally able to open up to lars about how he truly felt but it wasn't pretty although mustang and metallica had apparently buried the hatchet it seemed mustaine was still in a great deal of pain from being fired from what became one of the biggest bands on the planet despite his incredible success with megadeth metallica's development through the saint anger era would redefine who they were as people and who they were as a band they had rediscovered their passion for music and why they started a band in the first place hi um my name is robert trujillo i am a bass player i play in the band metallica this is also when they would discover their new bass player robert trujillo who has been with metallica ever since trujillo who had previously played with suicidal tendencies infectious grooves and ozzy osbourne's band for seven years was no stranger to life on the road and seemed to fit right in with a metallica crew from this point onward metallica would become a reformed group and go on to release another two outstanding albums death magnetic in 2008 and more recently hardwired to self-destruct in 2016. death magnetic was written on the road whilst metallica toured the saint anger album and despite death magnetic accidentally being released two weeks early by a record store in europe the album would debut at number one in the us and sal over 450 000 units in its first week hardwired to self-destruct would be metallica's sixth consecutive studio album to land a number one spot on the us billboard charts it would also be the first metallica album to be released on their own record label blackened to date metallica have sold millions of albums worldwide and secured themselves a place in music history as one of the most successful and respected metal bands on the planet lazel rick was even knighted in his home country of denmark in 2017 for his contributions to music metallica may have been hard-wired to self-destruct but now it seems nothing else matters but the music [Music] you can get an even more detailed look into the history of metallica with these biographies or check out their film some kind of monster metallica also have their own line of funko pop figures check the links in the description below for more information if you'd like to support my channel consider subscribing becoming a member buying some merch or watch another documentary right here right now [Music] [Music]

Channel: RAWMUSICTV

Views: 1,403,490

Keywords: rawmusictv, documentary, Metallica, Metal, Rock, Film, Movie

Id: NfgoeultUoU

Length: 37min 4sec (2224 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 01 2021