JAMES HETFIELD Recalls METALLICA Turning To Thievery To Stay Afloat

Beginning your personal band is actually a path fraught with difficulties, much more so contemplating the dire state of the music trade these days. Monetary constraints, lack of sources, and the battle to achieve recognition are only a few of the hurdles aspiring musicians face. However do not suppose for a minute that within the 80s it was a lot simpler, regardless of the variations within the musical panorama. And when you do not imagine that, you may ask Metallica‘s James Hetfield.

In a current episode of the band’s official podcast, The Metallica Report, Hetfield recounted the group’s tough circumstances within the mid-80s and the intense measures Metallica took to outlive. In just a few phrases, Hetfield painted a vivid image of the band’s lack of sources, describing how they resorted to unconventional means to go by, whereas recording in Denmark’s Candy Silence Studios, the place they created their iconic albums Trip The Lightning and Grasp Of Puppets.

“We had been up within the attic, sleeping on the ground and stealing meals from different bands that had been coming via there, stealing bikes simply to get round, stealing empty beer bottles to go flip them in for extra beer,” Hetfield recalled. “There was quite a lot of thieving.”

“We did not have something, we did not have shit. So it wasn’t thieving, we had been simply borrowing it perpetually,” James added with a chuckle.

These difficult experiences in Denmark have left Hetfield feeling a deep connection to the nation: “Due to all these adventures within the early days, I really feel much more at dwelling in Denmark now. The early days had been powerful as a result of, so far as us and the enterprise aspect, we had no clue. Lars was sort of taking a shot at it,” he recalled.

The frontman additionally reminisced in regards to the wealth of musical historical past surrounding them at Candy Silence Studios, the place they encountered recordings from jazz legend Chet Baker and rock icons like Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow: “Lars and I slept within the tape storage upstairs of Candy Silence and looking out via it was like whoa, Richie Blackmore‘s stuff and every kind of various bands which have gone via there doing stuff.”