WOMAN: Okay.
Go ahead, pull it out.
(indistinct chatter)
WOMAN 2: Thank you, sir.
ZACH HARMON: So, uh... what we're gonna do
is we're gonna play back some of the band's new songs.
There'll be no cameras allowed in there.
There'll be no video,
no bags in there.
You can only walk in with paper and a pencil.
MAN". We're ready.
WOMAN: Okay. Go ahead.
HARMON: Are there any questions?
WOMAN: Okay.
(rock music playing)
Want it so?
Camera over here.
Hello? (beeps)
Was there ever a moment you-you thought
about stopping with Metallica,
or the whole band was falling apart?
Was it a kind of a power struggle between you and him?
REPORTER 3: How did you manage to solve this crisis?
Where in God's name are you getting
all this aggression from on this new album?
Where's it coming from?
Why did it take so long to release an album
with the new songs?
REPORTER 4: After 20 years, is it possible
to retain the fire that, you know,
you guys once had at the beginning?
Do you think the young generation
of met-metal fans will...
accept the new album?
85 million records, 22 years...
I think it's 11 albums in various official releases.
One word... (Hetfield laughs)
Oh, my God.
One word to span our career?
Uh...
("Seek & Destroy" begins)
♪ Scanning the scene in the city tonight ♪
♪ We're looking for you to start up a fight ♪
♪ There's an evil feeling in our brains ♪
♪ But it's nothing new ♪
♪ You know it drives us insane ♪
♪ Running, on our way ♪
♪ Hiding, you will pay ♪
♪ Dying a thousand deaths ♪
♪ Running, on our way ♪
♪ Hiding, you will pay ♪
♪ Dying a thousand deaths ♪
♪ Searching ♪
♪ Seek and destroy ♪
♪ Searching ♪
♪ Seek and destroy ♪
(grunting)
Thank you!
(cheering, whistling)
After 14 years of head-banging,
Metallica bassist Jason Newsted has quit the band,
citing “private and personal reasons
"and the physical damage that I've done to myself
over the years while playing the music I love."
Metallica's management had no comment when asked by MTV News
if there's a replacement waiting in the wings.
But the band is still scheduled
to begin recording a new album this spring.
That's the news for now. Stay tuned for more news...
PHIL TOWLE: I mean, I think everybody understands
the concept of trusting instincts.
That's getting to a place where
you don't let egos and let...
stuff get in the way of...
artistic expression.
You know?
So, I mean, this...
I mean, do you want to say any more about that?
'Cause, I mean, I think everybody understands that...
I met Metallica through
Q-Prime Management after having seen me
work with another band of theirs.
When they called and said
that Metallica...
with Jason, uh,
announcing that he was exiting the group...
needed to take a look at itself
and say, "Well, what's going on here?
We've lost touch with our personal relationships."
And face some of the issues that
I think Q-Prime felt that they were headed for.
You know, we haven't really worked together
for almost nine months.
When we were talking a couple of days ago about whether...
you know, if we wanted to do this film or not...
I was wondering if
having these guys in here...
would affect that.
Yeah. 'Cause I'm just...
...there's an intimacy that you get
when it's just a few people in the room
and I'm just wondering if that's going to get lost.
If we're gonna go back to sort of, like,
battling each other
and trying to be, like, all strong and...
What intimacy?
What the f*ck are you talking about?
(laughs)
TOWLE: I think, to me,
it's not going to be a matter of whether
the cameras are in play,
but whether or not
you guys are free enough
to risk being seen by other people.
(intro playing)
HARMON: We're here, uh, in the Presidio
in San Francisco,
and this is going to be the location
where Metallica is gonna start recording their next album.
BOB ROCK". We decided that we didn't want to go back
into a studio again and do kind of like
the same thing we had done before.
We had to kind of...
change things up.
And this is one of the things that we talked about,
was to go into a space
that's not a studio,
bring in kind of like a portable studio,
or a makeshift studio...
That's good.
...and basically make the situation uncomfortable.
HARMON: You know, don't buy new furniture,
don't paint the walls.
Don't do anything.
Just keep it Spartan, keep it crude.
They're such a success that you can get comfortable.
I don't think they want to be comfortable.
Well, there's definitely a vibe in here.
They've got a lot of attitude and I think
they want it to come out on this next album.
How did you approach this record differently?
I mean, did you talk about things,
did you have ideas, key words,
things like that that you wanted to put across
before you actually started
putting the whole thing together?
Well, ego was a big one.
Uh, coming in here
and not bringing a riff,
not bringing a song,
not bringing a title. Nothing.
Uh, me and James
did not meet somewhere else
and come in here with material.
With songs. With music.
This time, we all got in a room
and just started playing.
And that's how we wrote songs.
(playing a riff)
BOB ROCK: The idea is, it should sound like
a band getting together in a garage for the first time.
(guitar playing)
Only the band's Metallica.
II'
JAMES HETFIELD: I really like going fast.
Just go off and meditate in the wind, you know?
As corny as it sounds, it-it works,
and it feels good. It's a good way to...
just let the weight of the world off
every once in a while.
It is it is kind of strange being...
you know, like a famous guy.
You know.
This is... this is part of me
that's trying to be unfamous, I guess.
But it's also go-against-the-rules attitude.
You know, is this some big pose?
I mean, yes, this is a pose.
I mean, am I driving down the street
to not get noticed in this thing?
I mean, rebellious is kind of what this says,
(laughing): I would say.
(engine revs)
II'
Have you got a plug in here?
Wait, wait, wait, so what exactly are you doing?
ROCK: Well, you'll just hold it above the...
the pick ups. HAMMETT: Oh, okay.
I gotcha.
(guitar wails) HETFIELD: Yeah!
HETFIELD: ♪ Give me fuel, give me fire ♪
♪ Give me that which I desire ♪
♪ Give me fuel, give me fire ♪
♪ Give me that which I desire ♪
♪ Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire ♪
ULRICH: Uh, I got some bad news.
Gonna have to, uh...
HETFIELD: Change the lyrics?
(Hetfield laughs)
(buzzing)
I like this thing, Bob.
ROCK: What? I like this thing.
II'
ULRICH: I used to kid myself that
art was my great escape away from music.
And I think I've become increasingly aware
that my interest in art,
music, and Metallica...
is not separate from anything.
You know, what does he feel that there's enough of that...
kind of gold thing?
How come there isn't...
another 20 strokes
up in that black area up there where it's...
where it's kind of bare?
Where are the starting points and where are the end points?
Do you know what I mean?
When's a song done?
What the f*ck does that mean anyway?
"Done."
When's a record done? (little boy shouting)
You know, when... where does a record start?
Where does it end?
Urn, where does the process start?
Where the process end?
All that type of stuff. Do you know what I mean?
MYLES: Daddy!
It's really interesting.
Yes, sweetie?
II'
I don't, I don't feel anything great there.
ROCK Yeah, he didn't know...
HAMMET: I don't think it's that great a riff, either.
How do you hear the riff, then? ROCK I like that
(singing riff)
and then... Mm-hmm.
(both singing riff) HAMMETT: Yeah.
(all playing the riff)
(seagull squawks)
HAMMETT: In nine days,
it'll be my two-year anniversary of surfing.
It's taken the place of a lot of bad things in my life.
So I-l basically
stopped doing the dr*gs that I was doing
and, uh... cut way back on my drinking.
You can't surf when you're hung over.
You can't surf if you've been up all night...
well, at least I can't. (laughs)
There's a-a sort of
individualism, also, about surfing that I like.
I mean...
when it... when it's your moment, man,
that's your moment and yours alone.
And no one can help you.
(laughs)
(laughs triumphantly)
(trolley bell clangs)
ULRICH: For all intents and purposes,
we-we go into this record
completely equal.
Everybody contributing
just as much on the lyric front
as James contributing with drum parts and...
As soon as you started talking about that,
I just, like...
(laughs) HETFIELD: Yeah. Yeah.
You flash back now?
(laughs) Well...
You want to hear it with vocals?
BOB ROCK: I said... Go sing it.
ROCK". You guys had some rules about that before.
Quite frankly, I don't give a f*ck.
I'm tired of arguing.
ROCK". You couldn't talk about his lyrics,
therefore, he couldn't talk about your drumming.
ULRICH: Right. (laughs)
ROCK: Do you know what I mean? And...
you and him did the solos... (Ulrich laughs)
...so you weren't allowed to comment on the solos.
Do you know what I mean?
There was, like, rules. HETFIELD: Oh, definitely.
Are you telling me that...
that those boundaries are gone now?
(all chuckle)
ULRICH: In the past, what we did was
started with a bunch of ideas
existing on tape from everybody.
Then me and James would sit down
and turn those ideas into songs
and then we would tell the rest of the band
what to play and when to play and how to play it.
There was never any...
just other ways of doing it.
HETFIELD: You know, it's just
a whole new thing for me.
You know, writing in front of everybody...
'cause I've always just gone into my own head
and wrote stuff down
instead of taking things from outside
and putting them down.
ROCK: You know, I was thinking this is like,
"these are the hands that da-da-da-da,
this is the face that da-da-da-da,"
so it's like...
Building a Frankenstein or something?
Yeah. Pretty much.
Building what?
A Frankenstein.
This is the top of my head that's flat...
(laughs) These are my bolts...
II'
HAMMETT: We're on the same
stream of consciousness here.
We're just all working
on the same creative wavelength.
And it's inspiring to me.
Now I can further express myself
with these lyrics, now that, you know,
James has opened that door for-for Lars and I.
This is "clay," right?
HAMMETT: Yeah. Not "clam"?
Clay- Okay-
"These hands finger the clam."
♪ These are the eyes that can't see through me ♪
♪ This is the tongue that speaks on the inside. ♪
Make sure you really, like, spit "Can't see me."
HETFIELD: These are the eyes that can't see me.
♪ These are the eyes that can't see me ♪
♪ This is the hand that drop your trust. ♪
This is the... Yeah.
♪ This is the eye... ♪ Yeah.
♪ This is the eye that can't see me ♪
♪ This is the hand that dropped your trust ♪
♪ These are the boots that kick you around ♪
♪ This is voice of silence no more. ♪
ROCK What is this about?
Well, I mean, when I see Frankenstein,
it's not that far off.
Talking about pieces of things.
So, I mean mon... some kind of monster.
"Some kind of monster"?
(laughs) You know.
BOTH: "Some kind of monster."
That's awesome! It is, it is good.
You know what I mean. I like that.
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ The monster lives ♪
TOWLE". "We come now
"to create our album of life.
"Throughout our individual and-and collective journey,
"sometimes through pain and conflict,
"we've discovered the true meaning of family.
"As we accomplish ultimate togetherness,
"we become healers of ourselves
"and the countless
"who embrace us and our message.
"We have learned and we understand.
Now we must share."
So, that's just, um...
The mission statement.
HETFIELD: A what statement? Mission statement.
"Mission"? Yeah, a mission. It's, like, you know,
it sets a-a goal so you just can, like, just...
always be reminded of,
you know, you know, what the ultimate goal is.
HETFIELD: All right.
♪ It's my world, you can't have it ♪
♪ It's my world, you cannot have it ♪
♪ It's my world, you can't have it ♪
♪ It's my world, my world, my world ♪
♪ You can't have it ♪
♪ Sucker! ♪
MAN: Let's... Next one.
(Crying) Come on, little man, let's go.
Skylar, do you want your purse?
Um... CHILD: Daddy?
CHILD 2: I'll come, I'll come.
CHILD: Come, Daddy! Come, Daddy!
ULRICH: I don't know how you guys feel.
But it's really awesome what we're doing.
The four of us can just go in a f*cking room
and roll that kind of sh*t out of our sleeves.
Pull it, pull it out of thin air, man.
It's so exciting.
'Cause that has just never happened before.
I couldn't get to sleep last night 'cause I was
kind of still wired from it all.
How do you f-feel?
You don't seem very psyched about it.
(indistinct chatter)
James! How's it going buddy? Yeah.
ROCK: Good to see you. HETFIELD: Excellent. Yeah, thank you.
ULRICH: How many bears did you k*ll? Two.
Russia's f*cked up.
I mean, it was like... you put a bottle
of water here on the table-- it was it, that was it.
A bottle of vodka sitting there.
ULRICH: Did you drink vodka? Hell yeah!
You did?! What else is there to drink?
Drank the vodka? As soon as you got there,
it was like... na zdorovie!
You know? HAMMETT: Na zdorovie!
That's a pretty big bear.
Is bear edible? They were no good to eat.
That freaked me out when they didn't take any meat, you know.
They have been hibernating for three months,
so they haven't pissed or sh*t or nothing, so it's...
Oh, so they're toxic? Yeah.
Third day, I'd k*lled my bear and I was just in camp
for the rest of the time, it was like, "Oh, my God."
I mean, I didn't... Worked on lyrics?
Yeah, actually did. (laughter)
it was a long time, man.
A lot of time.
MAN". I worked on lyrics in Siberia.
HETFIELD: Kind of drank vodka and worked on lyrics.
♪ Temptation wreck my head ♪
♪ Temptation make you dead ♪
♪ Temptation sucks my soul ♪
♪ Temptation fill no hole! ♪
♪ Temptation ah-ha! ♪
♪ f*ck you up ♪
♪ Temptation ♪
♪ No, no, no, I can't say no ♪
♪ Can't say no ♪
♪ No! No! ♪
♪ No, no, no ♪
♪ Can't say no ♪
♪ Oh, no, I can't say no ♪
♪ Go away ♪
♪ Leave me be ♪
♪ Just leave me be. ♪
MAN". So, what were the reactions
you got from those close?
I mean, how did the family react?
I'm just, I don't know, sometimes
I'm a real ass about it, and just come in,
and say, you know, "Oh, by the way, I'm going
to Russia for two weeks right here," you know?
And, "What?" You know. Right.
Yeah, I'm getting better at that, you know?
And... 'cause that was the most I...
I missed my family ever, you know?
Right. And it was, you know,
Castor's first birthday I missed.
Right. And it was... Well, of course
we had a little... vodka!
To Castor, you know? Oh, sure.
Did a little sh*t for him and everything.
But I, I would've loved to have been able
to get a hold of home.
(guitar strumming)
Look who's here!
This is Dad working.
This is where Dad works?
Yeah. What does your dad do for work?
Drums. Trying to get the drums?
Yeah. Uh-huh.
Let me play drums.
Daddy, want to play drums? (Hetfield laughs)
I-I played drums a lot today already.
I'm okay. You play for a while.
(singing gibberish)
(laughs)
MAN". Those guys...
That's very good.
...you know, their plate is filled with many, many things.
And music is just one of the things.
Say, "Bye, James."
Bye, James. Bye, buddy.
I chose to not have children and do those kind of things.
My music... yeah, that's my children, you know?
Daddy's gonna stay and work for a little while.
Yeah, but since I decided to do it with music,
then that's what I have to fill my time with.
Echobrain is one of the projects
that I've been working on for years.
And now it's come to fruition.
And then when it comes to the time
where my main cat James
tells me that,
you know, basically he couldn't be in a band with me
if I did the... took this other project
to this level.
And after 15 years of working together
and go on busses and you know the stories, man.
There was no way that this thing
that I was doing could affect
the monster of Metallica. I just don't see how it could.
And so in saying things like that, I-l couldn't
accept that kind of, urn...
limited...
acceptance.
I also know that this relationship is not over.
You know, he'll-he'll co...
it'll come around again at some point.
You guys'll make contact.
NEWSTED: At that time,
the manager suggested that
we have a psychotherapist come in.
A man that meets with pro ball teams, you know,
big ego, big dollar guys that can't get along
but have to make some kind of
entity flow so everybody else
and everybody can make their money.
And, uh...
I actually said I think that this is
really f*cking lame...
and weak
that we cannot get together-- us...
look... we... the biggest
heavy band of all time...
and the things we've been through
and decisions we've made
about squillions of dollars and squillions of people.
(stammers) And this?
We can't get over this?
MAN: Was it more than just the Echobrain thing?
'Cause that's, like, you know, what has been discussed.
HETFIELD: He felt like he wasn't free enough
to do what he needed to do,
uh, since he wasn't getting
his creativity out enough in Metallica.
He needed to get it out somewhere else.
And I totally understand that now.
And, um...
on my side of that was
I didn't want him to enjoy that more than Metallica.
I didn't want anyone to leave Metallica.
I didn't want to feel
that we weren't enough
or something like that.
And it was through my...
Oh, I guess the way I learned how to love things
was just to choke them to death.
(chuckles) You know?
Don't go anywhere. Don't leave.
You know? You have to stay here.
Okay.
I need a pen.
None of this pencil sh*t.
Check it out, man.
Can't even f*cking spell it right.
"Metllica"
We've only been together 20 years.
(both imitating drum beats)
I feel guilty
that I'm not inspired all the time.
You know? Especially when everyone else is.
It's, like, okay.
We-we kind of get to the point where the song is looped twice
in the Pro Tools and I know
Bob's gonna hit me up for some
kind of lyric ideas. Oh, sh*t.
I was, like, dreading the whole process.
It's like... why are you dreading it?
Why don't you just...?
TOWLE: Well, you're dreading it because of what?
Now, let's get to the fear.
Well, because I didn't have anything or...
And so if you didn't have anything...
...wasn't inspired enough to have something or..
Or letting down the team... And if you didn't have anything?
Or some vibe like that. Okay.
One, two, three, five...
r say“:
♪ I'm lonely yeah ♪
♪ m*therf*cking in my head ♪
ULRICH: It's like, I'm almost, like,
racing against time
along with this weird-ass fear
of, like, I got to come up with something myself really quick
before somebody comes up with something for me, and then
if I don't like it or don't 100% embrace it,
then I'm just being a selfish,
you know, insular assh*le.
TOWLE: Yeah, it's a fear response.
When we're up against a fear,
that's the time to move into it, forward,
because there's gonna be some kind of genius there
or some kind of breakthrough.
♪ Hit a wall, m*therf*cker, yeah! ♪
(grunts)
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ Yeah! That's right! ♪
MYLES: Metallica!
Metallica!
(laughing)
HETFIELD: Kirk?
Kirk?
Kirk?
Kirk?
Kirk?
Kirk?
Kirk?
Kirk?
HAMMETT: Yes? Kirk?
James is trying to talk to you.
Sorry, man.
Yeah, it's a, it's a bit stock.
HAMMETT: Check it out, guys.
HETFIELD: I don't know how you feel.
I-I'm in a sh*t mood.
And... I'm not digging it right now.
Even last night, I got to tell you
everybody kind of looked-- I hate to tell you--
looked pretty burnt.
I agree.
HETFIELD: And if we don't start earlier
and end earlier, I'm just...
I'm not gonna be in a good mood for the rest of this sh*t.
(laughs): You know?
(clears throat)
HAMMETT: That was totally weird for me.
Uh... You hear that, Bob?
HETFIELD: Why don't you try getting a more
solid b*at? ULRICH: Regular?
Oh, well, call it regular.
You call it regular.
No, I'm trying not to call it regular.
'Cause I know it bugs you when I call it regular.
So a little more solid then.
II'
f*ck!
HAMMETT: Maybe we should talk about next week.
Well, all next week is therapy.
Yeah.
HETFIELD: Do we have to do that?
Can we sack Phil?
ULRICH: I mean...
we gotta find...
we gotta find a balance to not...
you know, the Phil stuffs important,
and I hope we all feel
that that's an investment
in the music.
It's an important part of the record.
II'
♪ Get all holy again ♪
♪ Yeah... ♪
Come on. Let's go put one together.
II'
(over playback speaker): ♪ Get all holy again ♪
I don't know, man.
HAMMETT: It's just real confusing sounding.
HETFIELD: It's just jackin' the vocals all up.
I mean... I mean it's clever and everything.
But... I mean, I don't see what it does to this.
ULRICH: I think that's how you hear it, dude.
I mean, that's fine.
I'm just trying to do something different.
I mean, I'm...
I'm used to having the drummer do the...
b*at part.
(laughing): You know what I mean?
Holding it together.
ULRICH: Urn...
what I'm hearing is...
Gotta choose my words carefully here.
Urn...
it's pretty straightforward.
And the guitar sh*t, it's...
you know, it's a little stock.
So I started trying to
introduce some kind of edge to it, from the drums.
HETFIELD: Those things we throw out to each other
are complete bullshit.
You know?
"It sounds too stock.
It sounds too normal to me."
That... I mean...
Do you know what I mean?
You're saying this sh*t... so...
you can get your point across
about doing a drum b*at.
I mean...
you know, it doesn't hold any water.
ULRICH: To you.
HETFIELD: It doesn't!
I think it's f*cking stock!
What... which part of that is unclear to you?
I think it sounds stock to my ears.
I mean, do you want me to write it down?
I think... HETFIELD: Oh, yeah, please write it down.
...It feels stock, okay? HETFIELD: I can't hear you.
So I... HETFIELD: No, when you say...
you're telling me what to play, right now.
You're telling me, "You should play with what's Kirk's doing,"
and I'm telling you it's stock.
Dude... fine.
You know what, you guys?
Why don't we just go in there
and just hammer it out, all right,
instead of hammering on each other?
I mean, we're in sh*t moods and we're not going to get
anything done in there today. ULRICH: All we want to do is pick a f*ckin' fight.
And you... I don't want to pick a fight.
This is... it's so silly.
You're just sitting there going,
"I'm in a really pissy mood, and..."
HETFIELD: And I f*ckin' told you
straight up that I was.
Right. And what are you trying to do?
I'm not trying to do f*ckin' sh*t!
You're just sitting here
being a complete d*ck.
You're-you're really helping matters.
You're really good at that.
I was straight up with you,
and I told you I'm in a sh*t mood!
And what have you been doing?
f*ckin' picking at me all night.
Come on, guys.
We've got better things to do.
Right? HETFIELD: Yeah, I do.
.I do.
Metallica front man James Hetfield
has entered a rehabilitation facility
to undergo treatment for alcoholism
and other undisclosed addictions.
In a statement
posted on Metallica's official Web site,
the band writes:
"James has entered an undisclosed facility
"and he will continue to receive treatment
"until further notice.
"Until then, we have postponed
"all current activities
"including recording sessions
for our new album."
Metallica, whose hard-partying ways
earned them the nickname
"Alcoholica", have been
working on their follow-up
to the 1998 double disc collection of covers...
II'
♪ Not only do I not know the answer ♪
♪ I don't even know what the question is ♪
♪ God, it feels ♪
♪ Like it only rains on me ♪
♪ God, it feels... ♪
TORBEN ULRICH: I think it's easy to see that, in those days,
Metallica brought a kind of
physicality to rock 'n' roll.
Let's say the Beatles, the Rolling Stones,
you know, and all that
inspired some of the British
rock music that then developed after that.
And, let's say, the metal music and...
and Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and all of that.
And then, out of that again,
then, let's say, then came Lars
and all of that and being...
So I think that...
that they have certainly, uh,
a place in all of that, I think.
Lars had a very good vision, at the time,
of where he saw
that particular... you know, the metal music going,
because he could see
with European ears and eyes, maybe.
Yes, actually. Don't you feel that it's great for you
to have your father's perspective on...
on who you are and what you're doing?
I think that's incredible, and it's...
you know, talk about the lineage...
which we did.
We talked a little bit about your grandfather...
I mean, it's very difficult to admit it,
especially with him standing next to me.
I... it's easier to talk about
when he's not in my presence.
But, urn...
of course it is.
Yeah. What would you...
what would you say in private?
To who?
To anybody, without him here.
Say it.
You know, what... what would it be?
Well, I mean, I've already said it
to you countless times.
Well, have you said it to him?
(laughs) Urn...
TOWLE: What is it that you...
you-you brought it up.
I didn't bring it up.
What is it you feel you've said
that you're not saying now?
You can... you know... ULRICH: I think maybe in some ways,
some of the, urn...
TOWLE: To me, that's...
A fear of status quo
comes a little bit from this direction over here.
I think that, um...
I mean there's nothing worse
than when I have to go to him and play the new record
and know there's something on there that sucks.
And he can see right through that
in two and a half seconds flat.
II'
♪ I... want to live ♪
♪ I... ♪
♪ Want to live... ♪
ULRICH: Comments on that one?
TORBEN: I would say...
You know, if-if you said...
"if you were our advisor,
what would you say?"
Then I would say, "Delete that."
You know?
(chuckles nervously)
I mean... I mean, I don't know
for you guys.
For-for me, it doesn't cut it.
You know?
Huh.
But, uh... That's interesting.
I mean, it's interesting, you know, now... Yeah.
I mean, other than the people involved here... Yeah...
...the only other people who've heard
any of this music is Cliff Burnstein.
Yeah.
When Cliff Burnstein heard that,
he thought that should open the record.
Yeah? (laughs)
I mean, that could well be.
But I...
I'm pretty sure that...
that I really... that...
I really...
I-I really don't think so.
(laughing): You know?
(both laughing)
I really don't think so.
Right.
TORBEN: For me, that...
that doesn't sound right or something.
You know.
Unless I'm... a guy
that's kind of, uh,
shouting in some...
some kind of echo chamber. (laughs)
(laughing)
Huh? It's a joke.
Yeah.
II'
(indistinct talking)
TOWLE: So I think one of our responsibilities here
is to act like a band
that's still continuing. We're going on.
We're doing our exploring.
We're exploring ourselves individually,
we're exploring our relationships.
And, uh, we really need to...
get together, talk about this,
act like the band exists...
because it does exist.
And if we don't do that,
then we are
the co-producers of the process
slipping off the planet.
It is a bit of a sh*t sandwich, though.
What is it...
the unraveling of a band?
(laughs)
And then there were two?
HAMMET: Yeah. You know... ROCK: So...
Uh... a good friend of mine
phoned me.
And he knew where James was.
ULRICH: Really?
Yeah. He couldn't even imagine
James doing anything for six months.
I'm prepared for the worst.
I'm pretty confident that, you know,
we will come together when the time is right.
But...
knowing when that time will come...
or not knowing when that time will come
is very, very uncomfortable.
ULRICH: I hope that, at some point, he will
come back and try and finish
the making of this record.
If...
If he walked away from Metallica,
I'm not sure that it would surprise me.
II'
♪ Say your prayers little one, don't forget, my son ♪
♪ To include everyone ♪
♪ I'll tuck you in... ♪ ULRICH: I've always felt that James
was a softer, more caring,
compassionate person
than he...
allowed himself to be to most people.
II'
I can remember from the Dave Mustaine days,
I mean, when him and Dave Mustaine--
these guys, they started, like, right away
with their big, you know, chest b*ating
and their mannerisms, and the whole thing was very much about
this kind of, like, macho and it was just...
Like, I couldn't deal with that stuff
and, I mean, looking back on...
I mean, what is that-- 18, 19 years ago--
I mean, I just felt so alienated because it was just
so far removed from the upbringing that I'd come from.
Well, here's to you, my friends.
ULRICH: But then, at the same time,
I'm starting to realizing now that the sort of
depressive things that show up
as a result of the alcohol and stuff like that.
It was just very difficult
for him to communicate from the heart.
You want some or not'? Not hide behind a lot of these different fronts.
Whether it's alcohol, that gives him
a false sense of strength or...
the front man in Metallica or,
you know, macho bullshit and all that stuff.
All right, now you guys are drunk and I'm drunk.
Now this is the fun part, man.
I want to help him.
I want to be there for him.
And I want to do the best I can
to make him the best person that he can be.
So I-I don't know how the f*ck it's gonna play out.
II'
HAMMETT: It's really healthy for me to be here.
Without any pressure
or anything related to the band or...
anyone who would remind me of-of the band.
And, uh, recognize what's real.
Our sessions with Phil
really stirred up a lot of things in James that
he felt that he needed to address.
Mentally, it's really taken... taken its toll on myself.
You know, it's... I'm-I'm very worried about him.
And, you know,
whenever you check yourself into rehab,
they don't...
they don't focus on, you know,
the fact that you're an alcoholic.
They go much deeper, you know?
I mean, they go way deep.
They cr*ck you open and then spill you out
and-and examine all the things that are on the table.
L-I've spoken to him a few times,
and, you know, I know he's having a-a rough trip.
HAMMETT: No matter how bad it gets...
eventually, things seem to
sort themselves out,
sooner or later.
Whether it's good or bad,
they sort themselves out.
MUSTAINE: I watched people around the world say,
"What a great guitar player Kirk is."
And what a piece of sh*t I am
and that I, uh...
got kicked out of Metallica.
And I wasn't good enough for them
and that I was a loser and...
(sighs) ...and I've had to
deal with that for...
almost 20 years.
And it's-it's
a dreadful experience.
It's been hard, Lars.
It's been hard to watch
everything that you guys do,
and you touch, turn to gold
and everything that I do,
f*cking backfire.
And I'm sure there's
a lot of people that...
they would consider my backfire
a complete success.
You know, and, and am I happy being number two?
No!
You know?
You're just now encountering something
I've been going through 13, 14 years.
I've never had a chance
to be able to tell you without...
talking to Lars, the guy in Metallica.
I've never talked to my little Danish friend again.
You know?
I remembered the day you and I talked about
digging a hole in f*cking dirt and smoking hash
through the ground.
That, to me, is the,
the stuff that's, like...
(chuckles)
You know?
And we've never had...
very many moments like that.
Do I feel some guilt?
Uh, yes, I do.
But at the same time,
it's difficult for me to comprehend...
that...
the only thing...
that you feel when you look back
on the last 20 years...
is rooted...
in... the Metallica thing.
Okay.
Have you ever thought what,
what I've been through?
I think I've had an awareness
of the pain I caused you, urn...
That's not what I said.
Okay... um...
Do you have any idea...?
Of what I've put you through...?
What...? No. No. No.
What I went through?
I mean, people hate me because of you.
You know, I, I walk down the street
and I hear some piece of sh*t say,
"Metallica...!" to me
and they do that to taunt me.
I mean, when I would hear
Metallica on the radio...
I would be like,
"God, I have to turn this off,
"because I just keep thinking,
'I f*cked up."'
Right.
I've been waiting
for this day for a long time.
You know?
And by no means
is it done, because...
somebody else very important is not here.
Right.
Do I wish it was 1982 all over again,
and you guys woke me up
and say, "Hey, Dave, you know what?
You need to go to AA"?
Yeah.
I'd give anything for that chance.
DAVIS: ls there any last words
you want to say to everybody out there?
Metal up your ass!
(laughter)
Okay, thank you.
This is Donna Davis
and this is Metallica.
(indistinct conversation)
MAN". This is, like,
a pretty bitchin' club just to play
a first f*cking gig.
DON KIN: Yeah.
How're you guys feeling?
(scoffs) Freaking out. Totally stoked, man.
SAGRAFENA: Freaking out...? Yeah. Totally.
(laughter) Totally. Freaking out, man.
It's unfuckin' unbelievable
is really what it comes down to-- can I say that?
Yeah, you can say whatever you want.
Great. Great. Yeah, it's f*cking unbelievable.
WOMAN: Echobrain! Yeah!
I don't know. I-l just...
All of a sudden, this became, like, such a big production.
I don't understand.
It's, like, all of a sudden, like, you know,
I get, like, one phone call.
It's like everybody and their f*ckin' brother in town.
I thought it'd be Jason, like, playing with his new bands...
band for, you know, like, 20 drunks
down at some bar or something, and now,
I guess, to my own ignorance or something, I-l...
That's what... I guess that's what I wanted it to be.
So, now I'm realizing that...
supposedly, it's a little more of a big deal than that.
♪ Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh ♪
♪ Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh,ooh,ooh“.I
(instrumental interlude, featuring guitars)
(song ends, applause, cheering and whistling)
Hey, man. What's going on, man?
Thank you, man. Hey, man.
Thanks. Thanks, man. Thanks. (indistinct chatter)
Awesome... Oh, thanks.
Awesome. Right on.
I'm Lars. Oh, really? Nice to meet you.
Great to meet you. Uh, thanks.
Where's Jason? Oh. Jase?
I don't know. Uh, dude, I think he went back to...
I think... I think he went to...
I think he already f*cking bailed.
Think he might have went back to... Did? Really?
Nice. Wow...
Go back to say "hey", and he's, like, f*cking gone.
Elvis has left the building.
There's Zack.
Hey, Zack!
You need help, or are you all right?
See, he's even blowing me off.
(laughter) I know.
Jason blows me off, Zack blows me off.
How quick we become yesterday's news.
(laughing): Yeah. No-no kidding.
See, there's a guy in an Echobrain T-shirt.
Yeah, that's Steve over there.
He works at the studio with us.
(laughing)
Well, he is. Really?
Yeah.
I remember that guy. Huh?
I remember that guy.
He worked at the studio. Which guy?
Over there. The guy in the red shorts?
No. No, the guy in the black that's walking across right now.
Really? Kessel.
Todd? He works at the studio, too, doesn't he?
Who? Todd over there.
I'm sure they're all here, Bob.
I mean, the only two people in the Bay Area
not working for him is me and you.
Yeah. Hetfield's gonna freak.
I'm in f*cking
hell.
This whole gig has brought all of this on, hasn't it?
Yes, it has. You really want to come clean.
It's made me feel like...
It's made me feel like such a loser.
I mean, I can't hold my band together.
You know?
I start records, I don't finish them.
I f*cking... I...
Oh!
(sighs heavily)
Jason is the future, Metallica's the past.
ROCK". I've never had a break like this.
In 20 years.
Do you know what I mean?
And just what's been kind of getting me is...
is just not knowing.
Do-do you know what I mean?
Not knowing, and not hearing-- that's just like...
It just eats away at you.
Kirk talked to him. HAMMETT: I talked to James today.
Just me and you. ROCK: Oh, cool.
Yeah. TOWLE: What did he say?
He basically said that...
you know, he just...
His family's the priority right now,
and he needs time to work on his family
before he can reach out to his other family, being us.
And that he loves us, and...
he just needs for us to...
to understand that he needs time.
And he also went on about...
how difficult it was talking to-to you about it,
because he felt pressured.
And you know, he-he spoke about
how you always need to be in control of the situation,
or in control of the schedule, or whatever.
And he said that this is a time,
he needs complete control of the situation.
And he said, you know,
all the Marc Reiters, and the Bob Rocks, all that...
all that stuff, you know, just has...
I-I can't think of that right now.
So, you know, I got the feeling
that he kind of lumps in your relationship
with the business side of things,
which was actually really surprising to me.
But I think that's...
You know, that explains a...
I think that explains a lot, on why he hasn't spoken to you.
ULRICH: We're just in limbo, and
the longer James chooses
to stay away from dealing with us,
the further we drift apart, and I just
feel... so...
disrespected.
That-That's the key... the key thing.
MAN". Was the future of the group
ever in doubt, even when James went into rehab, do you think?
Lars and I-- uh, we-we were wondering
when James was going
to finally feel
like he was in a situation where he can come back to the band.
And after a certain amount of months,
you know, Lars and I started to think.
Well, is he ever gonna come back to the band?
And that was a really big question on our plates.
Whether or not, you know, he wanted to come back.
II'
ULRICH: James wrote something
in the new issue of our magazine, So What.
He wrote a kind of a little handwritten note.
That note was probably the most heartfelt thing
I'd ever seen come from his mind.
Tomorrow is... shaping up,
or is gearing itself up to be,
yes, the first to sit down
with one James Hetfield post... uh, rehab.
Yeah.
Yeah. Is that...?
Why are we filming this?
I don't know.
We're in very different places.
Or, at least, I am in a very different place
than I was from the Presidio.
(laughs)
That's a huge understatement.
So...
we just have to find that if,
you know, if the movie will be as
intense, you know.
To-to me,
there was a lot of intrusion,
and I kind of went with it, and felt...
I felt uncomfortable.
I felt uncomfortable with it.
You know, a boom following me around.
And it just felt like
I was in the spotlight all the time, and I didn't...
I-I guess I don't really like that feeling.
When we were in the Presidio filming you guys playing...
Mm-hmm.
Did you feel it then, too?
Yeah. It was...
it was pretty much all the time.
SINOFSKY: I mean, do you think
you're in a better place now?
I mean, we got to find some...
I'm definitely in a better place.
Having some place that makes you feel comfortable.
And the last thing we want to do is have it impede
on your music, because that's
more important than anything. BERLINGER: Right.
You know, one-one answer may be there...
Maybe there shouldn't be a film.
I mean, that-that's the range of possibilities
that we should really think about, because...
I mean, why do you guys want to film?
Even you said that you hope that the film is made.
I mean... That's a big question,
'cause for me, it was really just...
it came along with being in Metallica.
"Hey, we're gonna do this."
"on, okay."
That's part of this, all of this...
(laughs)
...the bigness of Metallica, and I'm kind of tired of it.
You might look at it as a friend; to me, it's...
it's been a beast.
And it's sucked a lot of me into it.
(Towle clears throat)
You were maybe the keeper of the beast at one point.
You know, because you were the champion
of-of that fifth... that entity.
ULRICH: And, of course,
you got to just find the right balance
between what everybody's personal needs are,
but if Metallica collectively decides to do this,
then I think Metallica can make it happen.
I don't know. That scares me again.
Metallica is... three individuals.
And three individuals have to decide if it's good to do.
ULRICH: But...
I still think that the priority is the collective
until all the people involved in the collective say
that the priority is the individual.
And so far, you're the only one
that said the priority is the individual.
I haven't said that, and he hasn't said that.
I haven't heard him say that.
So, I feel that,
it's still...
there's still an unbalance there.
HAMMETT: We met from, like, maybe--
I don't know-- six or eight weeks
before we actually picked up the project again.
That was when we came in, and,
it was the first time
we actually used this studio, HQ.
Anyway, here we are.
HQ.
(laughing quietly)
HETFIELD: Right on. Well, we're-we're here.
And the cameras are here.
And my friend the boom is here.
(laughing)
ROCK: Hovering.
Yeah. Cool.
Want me to play the music?
Yeah, let's go. I'm...
I'll put the big speakers on.
HETFIELD: I was afraid to pick up a guitar.
And fearful what would happen.
Would I not like it? Would I love it?
Would I not be able to write anything cool?
Would I write just recovery stuff?
James?
It was probably the best sound
I've ever heard in my life,
was the fact that you were playing guitar in here.
MAN: Hey, Zack.
Right on, brother.
ULRICH: Play a riff.
(Hetfield playing riff)
(others join in)
ROCK What?
Nothing.
See? Feels pretty good, doesn't it?
HETFIELD: Yeah. Feels like the next day.
(laughter)
A year later, the next day. Now, that's a stretch.
(chuckles)
It's gonna be interesting working on-on the schedule,
'cause we really haven't. It's gonna be great.
HETFIELD: And kind of the overview is,
you know, the less time you...
we have here, the more productive we'll be.
In a way. You know?
It's like we're more focused on getting the stuff done.
ULRICH: That all
sounds really good. (chuckles) Okay.
Now, let's revisit it in a week. (chuckles)
So, um, I think
that... don't talk it, walk it.
(clears throat)
ROCK: At some point, we are gonna have
to work a little harder. ULRICH: Yes.
Yeah. When that feels right. HETFIELD: What do you mean?
What does that mean? What does that mean?
HETFIELD: Yeah. When you say harder,
does that mean more hours?
ROCK You know, if we can...
go deep real quick.
Be intense. Uh, I spoke up because
what does that mean? We have to, you know,
do eight hours now and... I got fearful right then.
ROCK That's okay. Yeah.
I mean, it's like... yeah.
To do eight hours? No.
(Playing guitars)
ULRICH: Any lyric ideas?
HAMMETT: I'm searching for uh, uh.
ULRICH: Searching for doughnuts.
♪ Searching for doughnuts ♪
♪ Searching for doughnuts, na, na, na, na, na ♪
What was the whole thing from yesterday?
The Buddhist... HAMMETT: Guarantee?
What? No, the Buddhist thing that you had.
The-the... Uh, birth is pain.
Life is pain.
Death is pain.
The cycle of suffering.
It's called samsara.
ROCK: Where are you with this, James?
Somewhere else.
ROCK: Okay. ULRICH: Where's today's sweat
going? I've wo... I've worn out
being afraid.
My endless parade
of fear that I've constantly made...
My lifestyle determines my death style.
A rising tide that pushes to the other side.
(laughs) My death style.
II'
♪ I've worn out being afraid ♪
♪ Endless parade ♪
♪ Of fear that I've constantly made ♪
♪ Frantic, tick-tick-tick-tock, I gladly trade ♪
♪ I need to know the answer, where I'll be laid ♪
♪ I can't find it ♪
(music stops) It just... it doesn't work.
ROCK: The great... the great... You did one great thing.
You went... (scatting) Yay.
You did this one, uh,
syncopated thing. (scatting)
Do the whole verse like that.
♪ Worn out, always being afraid ♪
♪ An endless stream of fear that I've made ♪
♪ Frantic tick-tick-tock, I'd gladly trade ♪
ROCK: It's weird. It's weird. You know?
It's. .. ULRICH: But the-the second time,
you felt really comfortable with it. HETFIELD: Right.
TOWLE: Oh, uh, by the way, it's quarter to 4:00.
HETFIELD: I got to get rolling, guys. Sorry.
II'
♪ Frantic tick-tock ♪
♪ Frantic tick-tock ♪
HETFIELD: I feel like the bad guy saying
I got to go 'cause it's 4:00.
If we all know-- and we all do know--
that 4:00 is kind of the stop time then... I don't know,
then I won't feel like the heel here saying
I got to go eat dinner with my kids, you know.
'Cause I have a feeling
you know, I'm gonna walk out of here, and you guys are gonna go
in there and listen to this stuff, and it's like...
That's not right. ULRICH: That's not.
I mean, if I want to listen to it,
I'll go and listen to it.
But we should at least listen to it... So we should stop earlier.
But I know you'll sit there and start talking with Bob.
Maybe Bob doesn't want to sit in there and...
When I'm gone, things get talked about
and then decisions are made and I feel I walk into something
that's already kind of decided.
And it's a total uphill battle for me a lot of times.
I don't like that feeling.
Well, that's like... just like the last 15 years.
- Yeah. -For me. - Well, let's talk...
let's-let's talk about this tomorrow then.
Or do you want to take the time out?
No, I don't have time right now. Okay.
It's past 4:00. Okay.
It's hard to introduce structure into this.
TOWLE: Uh-huh. And I'm trying.
TOWLE: So what do you think, Lars?
Can we hear the song from yesterday?
That we all heard together.
HETFIELD: How is that different?
Because we all heard it together already.
TOWLE: Well, what he wants, to be a part of everything. Was I in there?
He wants to be a part of everything. Yes, you were.
We all heard it together. ROCK You came in.
HETFIELD: All right, as long as you don't talk about it.
You know what I mean. TOWLE: Is that a way around it or is that just
That is definitely a way around it. ULRICH: No, it's...
it's interesting to hear TOWLE: How about if we just
what we're doing. How about if we just save up the tension.
Seriously. I mean, it's okay 'cause it's gonna...
Tension produces results. (door slams)
(motorcycle roaring)
TEACHER". To the right.
(clapping)
TEACHER: Above.
Below.
(whispering): Shh, quiet.
I'm excited to see what you learned here.
Go up and back.
Up and freeze.
What is this called?
CHILDREN: Arabesque.
II'
So proud of you, sweetie.
I'm so glad I got to see it. I 'm working on... really hard
on being the best dad and father and husband I can be.
And the best me. (chuckles)
I don't want to lose any of the-the stuff I have.
I know it could all go away at one time.
And that's a tough part of life.
And, and... it's just...
it's a total rebirth for me.
Looking at life in a whole new way and, uh...
You know, all the other drinking and all the other junk
that I was stuck in, it was so predictable.
So boring.
I'm-I'm out there looking for excitement
and all this stuff.
The results are the same, man.
I wake up the next day somewhere in some bed.
I don't know who this person is next to me and I'm drunk,
completely hungover and have a show to do.
And the result is the same.
You know?
When life now is
is pretty exciting.
You don't know what's gonna happen,
when you're kind of clear and here and in the now,
in the moment.
(music blaring, muffled)
HETFIELD: ♪ My lifestyle determines ♪
♪ My death style, a rising tide that pushes to ♪
♪ The other side, my lifestyle ♪
♪ Determines my death style ♪
♪ A rising tide that pushes to the other side... ♪
I think those two feel the best to me.
It's a tough one to decide. They all kind of got...
some charm, don't you think? Yeah, and I'd be interested to hear the first one.
The first pick. Well, let's play it.
Is it okay? Are we allowed?
Yeah, we are. Do we have...
We never really settled that, did we?
TOWLE: We didn't settle it.
ULRICH: Yes, we're allowed.
Well, I'd like to hear it.
Feel free to leave the room,
whoever doesn't want to be part of that.
♪ Do I have the strength to know how I'll go? ♪
♪ Can I find it inside J' HETFIELD: I felt like it was an agreement.
We're gonna work from 12:00 to 4:00.
And then we would not work.
ROCK Well, I-if Lars
and I listen to something or go through the Presidio stuff,
it's not because we want to do something behind your back.
It's for you. Right.
And basically what I heard is, "No, I can't do that."
What the f*ck is that? Oh, my mind, it gets lopsided.
The more it goes in a different direction, the harder it is.
The harder it is to get that back.
TOWLE: What is it you have to get back?
Some control. Some sense of...
involvement in-in the band.
ULRICH: When I was running this morning,
thinking about seeing you, saying the word "f*ck"
just comes up so much.
Seriously. It's really true.
HETFIELD: Is that in a...
anger... Just... f*ck!
f*ck.
I just think you're so f*cking self-absorbed.
And what makes it worse is that you always talk about...
you always talk about me.
You use the word "control" and "manipulation" a lot.
I think you control on purpose,
and I think you control inadvertently.
I think you control by the rules you always set.
I think you control by how you always judge people.
I think you control by your absence.
I think you-you contr...
you control all this even when you're not here.
(sighs)
I don't understand who you are. I don't understand
the program.
I don't understand all this stuff, okay?
I realize now
that I barely knew you before.
And all these rules and all this...
sh*t, man, this is a f*cking rock-and-roll band.
I don't want f*cking rules.
I understand that you need to leave at 4:00.
I respect it.
Don't tell me I can't sit and listen to something with Bob
at 4:15, if I want to.
What the f*ck is that?
You know, I-l...
I don't want to end up like Jason, okay?
I don't want to be pushed away.
I don't want it to happen twice.
Let's do it and let's f*cking do it full-on,
or let's not do it at all.
f*ck.
See? f*ck.
f*ck!
f*ck!
Yeah! (whoops)
Yeah!
Metallica, yeah!
Rock and roll.
(indistinct chatter)
(whoops)
(playing bass)
(laughter)
(gong bongs)
(playing bass)
(laughter)
(playing bass)
(fans booing)
(gong bongs)
(playing bass)
(fans cheering)
MAN: Let's hear it for Elena!
(cheering and applause)
HETFIELD: ♪ Ooh, all right ♪
We're not anywhere near getting any issues resolved.
TOWLE". Well, let's get 'em.
That's what we're here to do.
I don't know, I guess the playing part, being in the room,
and then mainly being in the room with Lars,
playing music together, I guess I had higher expectations and...
I don't know, maybe I'm disappointed in myself.
Maybe... I don't know.
Want to talk about that? I mean, what does that mean?
I'm not enjoying being in the room with you, playing.
♪ Searching, you ♪
♪ Seek and destroy ♪
♪ Searching, yeah ♪
♪ Seek and destroy ♪
♪ Searching, yeah ♪
♪ Seek and destroy! ♪
ULRICH: If you are not having any fun,
let me let it be known to you that I'm certainly
not having a lot of fun either.
But I've... I am not interested
in playing music with you if you're not happy in there.
I just don't want to be a... become a f*cking parody.
Okay? So if you're not happy playing music with me...
(laughing)
ULRICH: ls there enough that connects us to hold on
for a...
a way through this?
I don't know.
There are moments where I really doubt it.
Really doubt it.
I'm glad you said that.
'Cause I really, deep down,
feel sometimes that it's just...
there's just some empty, just...
just an ugly feeling inside.
Just...
I don't know.
How much work are we gonna put into this?
(soft chuckle)
(clears throat)
Then you're doing the... Yeah.
Burn, burn, burn, burn. ♪ ♪
ROCK". Let's do our
little round table thing right now, quickly.
Everybody's got to participate.
Lars?
Come on.
II'
Hey, Castor, why don't you look at
all of the boys-- the men, I should say--
and say bye to everybody.
ALL: Bye, Castor.
ROCK Thank you for coming.
Is my dad going bye-bye? No, your dada's staying here, okay?
Oh.
Bye. See you.
So what's-what's the deal?
How's everybody feel about what they heard?
Of course, lyrics will
definitely work in that fear. ROCK: Yeah.
That kind of intro bit that's on there. It's marked. Mm-hmm.
What about you? What do you think?
Sounds good.
Do you think it's good? It's a lot of stuff there.
Was there anything in particular that you...
No, I wasn't paying attention that detailed.
That's just, it's-it's a lot of good stuff.
ULRICH: I can take you back, when me and him
were alone in my room, in 1981,
listening to New Wave British heavy metal singles.
As soon as there was somebody else in the room,
it just became this, like...
It just had a very different energy to it.
Any of that, that was usable?
Yeah.
That's a f*ck... Maybe let's...
That's a f*cking bitch. Let's-Let's do another version of it, okay?
ULRICH: The first time I-I got a real awareness of it was when
Mustaine came into the picture.
When James was with Mustaine,
he became like he never really cared about me.
There was one time during the recording
of the Ride the Lightning record where me and him
went out and... So, 42 beers later, is like,
"Ooh, dude, I love you."
But it could never have materialized
until it got to that 42-beer point.
And we were alone.
(exhales)
ROCK That was good.
Are you sure I don't have to play it again?
Yeah, I'm sure.
It's good practice, though.
For what?
The road.
When?
Couple years.
HETFIELD: From day one, it's been competitive.
And, in a way, that's what has made Metallica what it is.
That's what's driven us further.
ROCK What feels good to you?
Uh, b... We'll try a bunch more.
Can you try maybe, like a...
(softly sings melody)
Almost like a strum.
HETFIELD: My parents split when I was 12 or 13.
And then my mom passed on when I was 16.
The only thing I felt that I really had,
at that point, was music.
My wanting to keep everything under control
and, you know, it's out of a fear of my abandonment issues.
I'm afraid to get close to people, 'cause I don't know
how to do it; I don't know how you're supposed to do it.
ROCK Cool!
Yeah, that last one was pretty good. Yes.
That's the first amp I ever owned.
That right there.
II'
I think we have it.
HAMMETT: Okay.
ROCK: Okay. Now we got to talk about it.
ULRICH: You started talking about
the idea of the guitar solo as we have known it
maybe being something that was a little...
outdated, and maybe
reintroducing some riff-a-rama things.
But can I say something that I think is bullshit?
This whole f*cking solo out...
you know, dates the whole thing--
that's so bullshit, you know?
If you put a guitar s... Or if you don't play a guitar solo
in one of these songs, that dates it to this period.
And that-that's cemented to a trend
that's happening in music right now.
I think that's stupid and I think it's
totally trendy. I know that's not what I said.
ULRICH: It's always been about, like, where could it go
that's kind of new and interesting
instead of just repeating something from the past?
HAMMETT: I'm not interested in playing traditional
guitar solos anymore. You know, that's just...
For me it's... it's just boring, you know. And you told me that.
ROCK To me, if you can add
a color to the song that-that satisfies you
and works for the song, then that's
what we should do with it.
But I don't want to get in the position
where it's like, we put something down on the tape
to satisfy your ego, my ego,
Lars's ego or James's ego.
I think it should serve what's going down.
Like, in other words, there shouldn't be,
like, a rule of no solos.
There shouldn't be a rule of solos.
It should be... And I agree.
I mean, it really is, to me, all about
serving the song, and, you know,
I feel much better about that,
because, you know, I-l...
I just don't want to follow certain trends that I see
other bands following. We don't
necessarily have to stick to our traditional way,
but we also don't have to follow that trend.
II'
I'm actually very, very comfortable
with my role in the band, you know?
I've actually always been very, very comfortable
with my role in the band.
I'm not a really egotistical person.
(phone rings)
In fact I've... I've spent a large amount of my time
trying to, like, downplay my ego,
and get it even smaller and smaller.
That's part of my beliefs.
I try to be an example
of being egoless to the other guys.
(drum b*at playing)
HAMMETT: Hi.
This is Kirk from Metallica.
And if you want money, you'll listen to us.
And then some other guy's gonna give you some cash.
ULRICH: 20 years'
worth of integrity, and,
you know, credibility and all that.
The next five minutes is gonna change all that.
Hey man, uh, keep it locked right here, and...
What?
"We'll help you score $1 ,000." Oh.
This is James from Metallica. Survey says... you need cash.
(laughs) (laughs)
Your money sh*t to snatch a bunch of cash is coming soon.
In order to suck both nationwide radio chains off,
we, uh, are now standing here,
having to do this f*cking stupid thing.
Up to 50 m*therf*cking grand, g*dd*mn it.
Win a bunch of money.
And walk away. (laughs)
This is stupid!
Sharpen that booger-picking finger
and be the 50th...
Hey, it's Lars from Metallica here. I'm about to stick
50 grand up your ass. (laughing)
HETFIELD: One dollar
at a time. (laughing)
I was telling Lars last night--
that was hard for me to see you guys squirm like you were.
Yeah. I... Because I want to say anything,
and it's not my place to say anything.
I can't imagine, uh,Bono
or The Edge going on the radio, saying...
what you guys are being asked to say.
Dad, can I have one of those? Go for it.
CLIFF BURNSTEIN: Should we catch up on all this radio stuff?
ROCK: Yes. HETFIELD: Uh-huh.
Okay. Now, they're
the biggest chain in America.
You know, it's like 75, 80 stations or something.
And if you guys think it's crappy,
as a radio thing... those guys think it's good.
I mean, that's their idea; we didn't come up with that.
So, strategically... HETFIELD: Why are we doing it, then?
Just to make... them happy?
Yes. That's exactly what they're doing.
And they won't say,
"f*ck you, you never do anything for us.
We're gonna f*ck you on the next record."
People would do that?
Because you didn't give us something, we're gonna f*ck you?
Yes, James. (laughs)
They would.
I'm not saying that they can always get away with it.
That's so funny.
I'm glad it's your world.
But it wouldn't stop them from trying.
I understand the "wash your back, you wash mine" thing.
You know, wash my...
I'll wash your back so you don't s*ab mine.
Right. That's more like it.
Okay. Why don't we get off the phone then?
MARC REITER: Well you know, we should have those conversations
some more next week.
Later. BURNSTEIN: Okay.
REITER: See you. BURNSTEIN: Bye-bye.
HETFIELD: That's insanity.
We're gonna hurt you 'cause we didn't get something.
HAMMETT: I wash your back so you don't s*ab mine.
TOWLE: Well, that's a good line for a song.
HETFIELD: I guess I just want something
to rhyme with "mine" right now.
(Rock laughs)
ROCK Wash your back so you won't...
Wash your back so you won't s*ab mine.
Step on a land mine. I want to keep you in my back pocket.
ROCK: Blind leading the blind. You don't...
I'll rip out your f*cking spine.
HETFIELD: Okay.
II'
♪ Wash your back so you won't s*ab mine ♪
♪ Get in bed with your own kind ♪
♪ Wash your back so you won't s*ab mine ♪
♪ Get in bed with your own kind ♪
That was really good. Are you pulling my mic?
That was really good. HAMMETT: It was.
Really good. HETFIELD: Let's do another... another part.
♪ ♪ Land mine.
Land mine.
No land mines.
♪ No land mines ♪
♪ Rock lobster ♪
♪ Wash your back so you won't s*ab mine ♪
♪ Get in bed with your own kind ♪
♪ Ah ♪
(cackles)
There's a witch at the foot of my bed.
ROCK: Did you... Did you hear what Lars said? No.
He says, "Yeah, Kirk stopped reading and I stopped moping."
(all laugh)
That's what you said.
No, that's not what I said. What'd you say?
I said I stopped sulking. Oh, sulking.
II'
ULRICH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
(crash) sh*t.
In the 11 months since he's parted company with Metallica,
ex-bassist Jason Newsted has been apparently
more musically active than his former band mates.
While Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was pursuing Napster
and singer James Hetfield battled alcoholism,
Newsted hooked up in the studio
with legendary metal band Voivod.
Our own Ian Robinson got all the answers
on Newsted's new ventures and the current state
of his relationship with Metallica.
ULRICH: A good friend hinted
that Jason would really like to join the band again.
Man.
I popped his little bubble for a second, and I don't know, man.
ROCK I'll be quite honest.
I think the heart
and soul of Metallica, from this point on,
and has been for a while, since Cliff d*ed,
is the three of you guys.
I think you will never, ever, ever
find a permanent bass player.
My opinion.
WOMAN: There was also tragedy in rock this week.
Metallica's bassist Cliff Burton was k*lled
in a bus accident while the band was on tour in Sweden.
He was 24.
MAN". Metallica bassist Cliff Burton
was buried on Tuesday in the San Francisco area.
The remaining members of the band...
MAN 2". Jason Newsted.
He replaced Cliff Burton,
who was k*lled in an auto accident in September.
Jason told MTV...
it pisses me off that Cliff left us, because
we'd never have that initial four guys just going on and on.
And, you know, when I talk about it, it's, like...
that happened for a reason.
And we're... we're dealing with that.
TOWLE: I got to capitalize
on what- what's being said... Just got to deal with it.
Right here.
The Cliff message that I get from him to you guys is
that treasure the three of you.
Treasure every moment that the three of you have.
And the four of you have.
You know, treasure...
treasure it, because... you never know.
And one of the sad things that happens when somebody dies
is that people have never taken the time
along the way to really
embrace each other every day, you know?
It's a sin if you... you know, if you let that go.
(sighs)
HETFIELD: Phil has been
like an angel for me.
He's been sent to help me.
And, you know, I've got my own thoughts about all that.
You know, and a father figure,
the dad that never was, and all of that,
that it makes me comforted; it comforts me.
But, also, we don't want
to have our hand held through life.
We'd like to be able to stand proud ourselves, and...
and-and-and move on.
There'll be a time for that.
And we just have to discuss when that is.
II'
TOWLE: You know, there is purpose
behind the way I do it.
I think it's very effective.
I have to decide whether I'm going to push it, or not.
It sometimes is a distraction.
So, what part of our career are you going to manage today?
I thought I'd do the whole thing, Huh?
Since you guys can't do anything.
I mean, you know, if you guys could run something,
then it would be easy to step back. (laughter)
'Cause you can't, you know... it's... got to be someone.
Is today the first day you're going to play drums?
I don't want to get into that. Okay.
You know... I don't think I'm gonna do the drums.
I think it's time... Maybe I should.
Uh, yeah, I think it's time. Yeah?
Although, actually, I'm kind of...
Well, it's about the only thing you haven't done.
Mm-hmm. Mm-mm. I-l haven't sung.
All right. What?
We, um, got to a point where
we sat down and told Phil that we wanted to scale Phil back,
urn, to, uh, every other week.
And, uh, we were getting ready to implement that
four weeks from when the decision was made.
And two weeks after the decision was made, urn,
we had to sit Phil down and say
that we were not ready to do that.
Because we got really, urn...
I don't know, uh... scared, I guess.
There were some things that were going on at the time
that really Phil helped with a lot.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the news leader in Northern California,
news center four, Night b*at.
The Metallica versus Napster b*ttlefield moved
to San Mateo today.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich
delivered a list of screen names
of people who have downloaded the band's music online.
MAN". Metallica is suing Napster,
a Web site that provides software
which allows people to download music
on the Internet without paying.
MAN 2". Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich
testified before a senate committee earlier this month
that Napster has quote, "h*jacked
our music without asking."
MAN: The band said that over 350, 000 people
are downloading its music for free.
WOMAN: A group of former Metallica fans staged
a protest at the courthouse.
I don't want anything to do with Metallica anymore.
I'm going to be crashing their CDs.
I took all my CDs, and I'm going to be destroying them.
Are you proud of what you achieved
with the whole Napster thing?
Are you proud, in hindsight, of what you pulled off?
Being the most hated man in rock and roll?
(laughs) Yeah, that was, uh... that was my goal.
"I got an idea. I'm kind of bored this summer.
"Everything's going a little too well.
"Let's see. Uh, I want to turn myself
into the most hated f*cking assh*le in rock and roll." Yeah.
Like, good afternoon.
My name is, you know, like, Lars Ulrich, from Metallica.
I worked for years to get where I am today.
Me and my buddy like James Hetfield here have shed
blood, sweat, and m*therf*cking beer to get where we are today.
Beer! Good!
Who do you think you are?
I mean, just you know, because you, like, made us rich,
you think you can get free stuff?
Songs that we spent upwards of, you know,
like 24 to 48 hours writing and recording.
Our team of lawyers and researchers have
your names, and you Napster users,
we'll see you in jail getting g*ng r*ped.
ULRICH: Some minutes, I have all this strength,
and I can stand there, and just go,
"f*ck you! f*ck you! f*ck you!
"I'm bulletproof. It doesn't matter.
I got Hetfield and Hammett, and we're a team, and f*ck you."
Do you know what I mean?
And then, five minutes later, it means nothing,
and I just become really vulnerable.
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... ♪
ULRICH: You know, we never sat there and thought about
where Napster was going to end up.
We never sat there and talked about
what sh*ts we were going to take.
We just sat there and thought about,
this was something that we had to do.
MAN: So, wait a second.
(band stops playing)
That was awesome!
It's like I had to stay on the course that I was on,
and stay to my convictions, but it was eating away at me inside.
And then, maybe it could go lyrically to, urn,
"What difference did I, slash we, actually make?"
It's a great question. Great.
And if that could...
It's like if that question could get thrown out there,
but remain unanswered...
Mm.
...I think that's really strong.
♪ All the sh*ts I take ♪
♪ What difference did I make? ♪
♪ All the sh*ts I take ♪
♪ I spit back at you ♪
♪ Oh, oh... ♪
(Spits)
"All the sh*ts I spit back at you."
T hat's awesome, dude.
f*ck me. Right on.
And the "What difference did I make?" fit right in.
Really awesome. Right on.
These two kicks-- are they the same as...?
GILLIES: It's different.
Okay.
Go to the master. What...
really gets my d*ck hard is boom... starting on "boom boom."
We can do that.
(humming rhythm)
You know, there.
Then these are awesome.
(instrumental interlude, featuring guitar and drums)
CRAZY CABBIE: Lars, what I want to know is...
What? Do the four of you
just go in there and just jam?
You're hearing
excerpts of three-hour jams.
You're hearing... It...
Look at it as a funnel.
You're hearing the very part at the bottom of the funnel.
Right.
You can almost equate what we're doing now to arranging.
Right. ULRICH: Yeah.
CRAZY CABBIE: You're like Pollack, the painter.
He is-- he's Pollack, the, uh, funnel arranger guy.
CRAZY CABBIE: It's gonna sound f*cking amazing
at the stadium with 100,000 people,
and f*cking raising the evil horns up to the sky,
and saying, "Metallica, baby."
(gasps happily)
Oh. ROCK: Oh, my God.
Can we fast forward to that right now?
(cheering and chanting): Metallica! Metallica!
II'
(whistling and cheering)
BURNSTEIN: I think what I 'd like to do is,
I'd like to talk about this touring thing that has come up.
We're very cognizant of the fact
that, you know, things have changed for you guys.
And they've changed
for many, many reasons.
Why can't we figure out
what works best for everybody in their personal lives,
plus, what works best as a business?
What if you just do a stadium tour
where you play Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
and then, you go home the rest of the week?
I just want to put out that, you know,
it might be a kind of an uncomfortable vibe here,
'cause people might not know
how I'm feeling about touring,
and I don't really know, either...
(laughter) you know, until I get there.
Yeah. And...
you know, I I want to tour.
I don't want to fall off the wagon, you know.
I don't want to go out there.
I don't know what it's like.
Doing things for the first time again--
as I think I've said before-- it's a little scary.
(applause, cheering and whistling)
I don't know about you, uh, but, uh,
it's, like, summertime and to me,
it's, uh, f*ckin' beer-drinkin' weather, yeah?
Yeah.
Well, I'm gonna take time right now
and f*ckin' have myself one, and, uh, just want to say cheers
to all you guys and f*ckin' thanks for coming down
and getting nutty with us, man. Cheers.
(Hetfield singing scales)
(singing scales)
(singing scales with piano): ♪ Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy ♪
♪ Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Morn. ♪ MAN: Good.
♪ Huckoo, cuckoo, coo ♪
♪ Huckoo, cuckoo, coo... ♪
I blew my voice out on The Black Album
doing, uh, "So What?" the cover song.
And we had a bunch of Metallica songs
to do after that.
And, uh, I went to this coach.
I didn't I didn't want to go. I was scared.
Thought he was gonna make me sing operatic.
(chuckles)
But I went there, and, uh,
we just did warm-up stuff like this, and this is the tape.
And I've had this same tape for... since then.
(vocalizing in falsetto range, then sings down the scale)
REPORTER". Was there a turning point?
ROCK". Yeah, I think when
we had accumulated what we thought to be,
you know, a great kind of, uh--
I don't know-- cross-section of material,
we took stock, so to speak.
The only songs that are going to make it to the album
are the songs that all four of us vote on.
And out of 30-plus songs,
only four songs got all four votes.
♪ Ooh, sweet Amber... ♪
♪ Ooh, sweet Amber! ♪
(instrumental interlude, featuring guitar)
♪ Ooh, sweet Amber ♪
♪ How sweet are you? ♪
♪ Ooh, how sweet does it get? ♪
♪ How sweet are you? ♪
♪ How sweet does it get? ♪
Yes. TOWLE: Yeah, right.
BURNSTEIN: Wow. I mean, there's some expl*sive playing.
The sh*t just takes off.
It's like you guys have spent all this time
to come back to find yourselves.
That's what it sounds like to me.
ULRICH: That's, uh, like, 17 to go.
(laughs) Yeah.
How are you doing? Do you want to hear more? Yeah.
Want to hear some more? Yeah, I'm just getting started.
Yeah. Okay.
♪ Squeeze all within my hands ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ Choke within my hands ♪
♪ I'm madly in anger with you ♪
♪ I'm madly in anger with you ♪
♪ I'm madly in anger with you... ♪
♪ At the world of hurt I'm in ♪
♪ At A' I' Times, times, times like this I'
♪ My! ♪ ♪ God, what's it comin' to? ♪
♪ Self! a' I' Destructive power we live on... l'
♪ Draw a line across your spine ♪
♪ So that gets broken, too ♪
♪ Oh, do it... ♪
♪ Temptation, fill no hole ♪
♪ No! ♪
♪ No, no! ♪
♪ Temptation... ♪
BURNSTEIN: You know, the...
the first four songs you've played me
all pretty much knocked me out, okay?
But if you've got it going,
you want it to hammer all the way through.
You want people
to be able to really listen and say,
"Jesus Christ, there's no letting up from these guys.
"There's no f*ckin' let-up."
"f*ck ballads." You know?
There definitely is some Presidio stuff that I felt
maybe... you got to analyze it.
Maybe you're...
watering it down in some way.
That's all. (chuckles)
It's your call. HETFIELD: Yeah.
HETFIELD: "Temptation," I remember writing that thing.
It came out... it flowed totally instantly.
"Temptation" kind of sums up
all the lyrics that are in this new...
kind of...
project... so...
And that... And it's cool, because that was done
long before "Recovery" and all that,
so... HAMMETT: I mean, I can tell that you're singing
your-your heart out. You're...
definitely wearing your heart on your sleeve in... on that song.
ULRICH: To me, it's more like a jam.
Urn, is there a song in there? Urn...
potentially. Urn...
You know, there's almost nothing there that can't be turned into
something better than it is or something that could...
probably get pretty f*ckin' close
to being something on a Metallica record.
You know, but then it just goes away
from what the purpose--
at least what I see the purpose being today--
which is show up with what you...
you know, what are your A-pluses?
You know?
Well, when I hear Lars talk about we can whip anything
into decent shape, I agree.
And we did that on Load and Reload.
HAMMETT: Yeah. And this is us trying
to choose before we take it to those extremes, you know? ROCK: Exactly.
That makes sense. Yeah.
HETFIELD: That was a pretty major thing
that I think Lars and I clicked on together,
that, wow, I'd heard him and he heard me.
Huh.
It's like, "Oh, okay." It's like it takes the cutting edge off
of it, or the personal att*ck off of it, you know?
Things are a lot less dramatic than they used to be
within the chemistry of the four of us.
Less head games, abuse of power
and soap opera bullshit.
But... Can we just do one thing?
For lack of a better word, when it comes in with the drum...
uh, drums, I just want you to scream "f*ck"
as hard as you can f*ckin' scream.
HETFIELD: ♪ Can you stand up? ♪
f*ck...!
ROCK: Okay. It should be slower.
It should be more like... f*ck.
Aah!
I want four of them.
Do it again.
STEVEN WIIG: Lars is selling paintings
because he's ready to move on to the next...
ten years or next decade
or next phase of his life.
And a lot of what these paintings and a lot
of what this house represents is the last ten years,
versus 8...
husband and father of two.
He's getting rid of...
some pretty major and important pieces
in the majority of his collection.
He's wiping the slate clean.
ULRICH: Midnight, New York City.
One last look at the paintings. Oh, well.
This is a celebration. It's a celebration.
(chuckles) Of how far you've come.
It's a celebration. With Phil Towle.
This is a celebration. Oh, yeah. Right.
Some paintings have visited us for a while,
and now we want to share them with other people. Nice.
Okay? It's a choice. Right, yeah. That's it.
Okay, cool.
I never looked at it as an investment,
but I always looked it as... versus
some of the other guys that may be, like, taking a big pile
of money and parking it in the bank.
I would always, like, take a big pile of money
and park it on my wall.
Wow.
I can just feel some of the adulation
that other people
have thrown at these paintings, and that makes me proud.
Wow, I've never been this close to it.
These are great paintings,
whether they sell for a dollar or for $100 million.
The only thing that matters is what pleasure and what feeling
you get out of that moment you have with that painting.
And it's never been about dollars and cents.
It's always been about something greater than that.
But, f*ck, they do look awesome.
I mean, f*ck.
(laughs quietly)
(grunts)
It's been a good time.
And it will be a good time. To the future.
I feel better about this than I thought I would, actually.
It's weird.
I don't know why. Yeah.
sh*t.
AUCTIONEER: $300,000 on the telephone.
It's two of you in the room. Selling right,
fair warning, at $300,000.
Jean Paul, $300,000.
21 is the, uh, to modern, uh,
on the reverse, the Jean-Michel Basquiat
showing on the screen there on my right.
All right, here we go. Be strong, my friend.
At one million... One-nine, two million.
(sighs)
(laughs) All right. $1,100,000.
$300,000... $680..
ULRICH: Can we get more cocktails?
25... $200,000..
ULRICH: $600,000... ...go for 580...
AUCTIONEER: For one million, eight...
ULRICH: 720. $3 million.
Come on. Four.
Or you, sir. $260,000.
$680, 000.
And selling at $5 million.
Brett, yours at $5 million.
All right. All right.
Whoo!
It went well.
I, urn, got myself drunk to numb the pain.
Urn...
but it went well.
I'm “EDDY-
TOWLE: Like, let's talk about the zone for a minute.
There is a way
to help a person get... persons get in a zone.
To... I mean, you could
consider seriously doing some meditative or...
app-apply the meditative principles to music, all right?
I hope this doesn't sound too way out, but if you do that,
the four of you are out there and you do it anyway,
unconsciously, you do a... you do a musical meditation
by starting to-to jam
with each other.
ROCK I just think,
no matter how you look at it--
I've been making records a very long time--
and it really comes down to how much work you put in
and how much, you know...
It's just tough.
Sometimes it's just... it's just tough work.
And I like to stretch the frontiers
of what people accept, okay?
And I understand about that, and I...
I don't want for my mind to settle...
"The zone... admission is believing."
Well, I guess I'm not gonna be playing today then, huh?
Well, I'm gonna go out and make phone calls.
So everybody's...
TOWLE". You know, we've had
a fabulous few weeks with a lot of great productivity,
a lot of really good stuff going on.
The more we feel good about ourselves and each other
and the higher we ascend, the more challenging it will be...
it will be to our psyches.
You-you know, I understand it, I embrace it and all that stuff,
but someti-sometimes it just bugs me.
I think the, uh... that thing was kind of
buggin' me yesterday. All of them around the studio,
it was just kind of like...
That way of thinking, it just doesn't work
for me all the time.
And I was a little pissed off, uh, at it because right now
in my life it's not really working for me.
L-I'm glad to know that's what you think. I agree with that.
Wholeheartedly.
And if you feel that way and wish
to share that more directly, I'd appreciate that, too...
ROCK: Rather than tearing the signs down? Yeah.
We pay him $40,000 a month to be pretty much available
at our beck and call.
So when this record's done,
do we want to collectively
end the $40,000 a month...
full-on thing?
I'm afraid he's under the impression that he's, like,
in the band, you know? HAMMETT: Yeah.
And I see him coming on the road, maybe, for a week.
But after that, I don't...
I don't see him...
uh, holding our hand any further than that.
So is that something we want to present to him then?
HAMMETT: Yeah. I think, um... Okay.
I think it's something... Yeah, I think it's something
we need to do for our own well-being.
Yeah, 'cause I'm-I'm feeling uncomfortable.
(playing riff on guitar)
ROCK Are you there?
Hello. Hello, hello.
Are they on the phone?
ROCK: Yeah, they're on the phone and they need you now.
Oh, okay.
ULRICH: James Hetfield is
in the room. Hey, there.
CLIFF BURNSTEIN: Hey, James, how you doing?
HETFIELD: Pretty good.
BURNSTEIN: I'm gonna let Marc...
do the talking here, because Marc was the one
who's been talking to MTV.
REITER: Okay, so, um,
this afternoon, the official offer came in for Icon.
Assuming you want to do it.
ULRICH: Let's do it. Cool, man.
Right. Yeah, I'm jazzed about it.
The only thing that you guys are required to do
is show up for rehearsal and then show up for the show
on the third, and at the end of the show, you guys
take the stage and perform a little bit.
So what's Jason's role in all this? What? Who?
BURNSTEIN: Okay. REITER: But if I... I mean...
I don't think Jason has any role.
BURNSTEIN: He lost his icon status when he left Metallica.
(laughter)
REITER: Nice one, Cliff. Thank you.
I think MTV would like the fact that this would most likely be
the introductory performance of Metallica
with a new bass player, whether it's the new member or whoever.
When is it supposed to be? May what?
REITER: May 3. Saturday, May 3.
See, that means you'd have to hire someone by the second. (laughing): Okay.
I think it can happen.
You'd be required to be in Los Angeles for all of two days...
Because we didn't get a new bass player,
I think a lot of people thought maybe
that we were having trouble finding one.
We never started looking for a new bass player
until two months ago.
We worked on ourselves, identified...
what part can we work on,
so when someone else steps in,
it's clean.
They're not stepping in our sh*t, you know?
HETFIELD: All right, thinking about bass players, finally.
So...
we're gonna need a fourth member.
You know, we know you're a great bass player.
It's the vibe, you know. We need to make sure...
TOWLE: Jason kind of triggered this whole thing
a couple of years ago and, urn... I can't believe
it's been two years, you know?
And then we've gone through some...
ULRICH: We realized that we kind of wanted somebody who was,
like, our age; somebody who had been around the block
a couple times. Right, right.
We've-we've grown a lot, man. These three guys
in this band. Urn...
ULRICH: And last time, when we did this 14,
15 years ago... Uh-huh.
16 years ago, I guess it was,
we literally sat down and...
started auditioning bass players,
you know, the day after the funeral Mmm.
For Cliff, so now it's 16 years later, different circumstances.
When Jason left, he took his basses with him.
You want four or five?
Uh, whatever.
What-what five-strings do you have?
This one's five-string...
♪ Keep searching ♪
♪ Keep on searching ♪
♪ This search goes on ♪
♪ This search goes on ♪
The band... These guys collectively probably own,
like, 500 to 600 guitars, so they're not all here.
Wow.
♪ On and on ♪
♪ Frantic, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tock ♪
♪ Frantic, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tock ♪
♪ Frantic, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tock ♪
♪ Frantic, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tock! ♪
(music stops)
You went into another voice there, dude. Sick.
Which one of me are you talking to?
ULRICH: I think that we should just spend
the next two-and-a-half hours with this guy.
(sniffles) Don't you?
L-I had a vision of us jamming with him the last hour.
L-I guess I just feel this is kind of, like,
weird to keep, like, just doing our own thing.
It just feels not welcoming. This morning, I heard him
say he was pretty comfortable.
(all talking at once)
It's not about what he says.
It's about what I feel.
HETFIELD: All right. ULRICH: Are we cool, James?
Yeah. I-l guess the only other thing I'd like to say is,
you know, when we leave this up to just how we're feeling,
a lot of it depends on how you're feeling.
You know, when you say
those things. ROCK Um, not
that I want to break up what you guys are discussing,
if you want to go deeper, you know?
But, I-l think what might be really good is-is to...
treat this with respect, go out and do this...
II'
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know any Metallica stuff?
Urn, I could, uh...
I could try "Battery."
"Battery"? Yeah. HAMMETT: You can play
that fast with your fingers? Yeah.
HETFIELD: ♪ Battery ♪
II'
(Hetfield cackles)
(chuckles) ULRICH: That's a f*ckin'
pretty mighty bass sound you got going there.
Yeah, it's working. TRUJILLO: I don't know. It's the Mesa in the Haiwa.
ULRICH: ls there anything else you know
as well as that?
II'
II'
ULRICH: Cliff... it was just, like, you saw Cliff,
and me and James went,
"He's in our band, there's no question."
He hit it out of the park.
And that's where it sort of gets interesting.
Because if Cliff Burton showed up today,
maybe he wouldn't be the guy, either.
HETFIELD: I mean, the three guys that I like
all have unique features
that I would love to Frankenstein, you know?
HAMMET: Yeah. Definitely.
ULRICH: Like some kind of monster. HAMMETT: That would be great.
ROCK". I don't think you should settle.
I think you should get the right guy.
If you don't hit it out of the park with one of these guys,
then you're gonna end up, four years down the road,
in the same situation you did with Jason.
HAMMETT: A four count and then ba, da, bup, bup
and into the solo right away
Just follow us.
(growls)
ULRICH: He was the first guy
of any of 'em that didn't look like he was struggling with it.
HAMMETT: That's what I told Bob.
But do you know what I mean about, like, it...
you know, with some of the other guys,
it was sort of ten percent over their capabilities
Mm-hmm. Yeah. or something like that. And you don't
feel that with this guy at all.
It's like, the last three songs...
Like, "Sanitarium," "Nothing Else Matters," and...
What was... There was some, uh... HAMMETT: Uh...
HETFIELD: "Sad But True." "Sad But True." I mean,
they were flawless.
I looked over at him during "Whiplash" and he was just
right in the pocket and in there.
And then, afterwards,
when he played it alone with his finger...
it-it hadn't been played that way since Cliff.
(imitating fast playing)
It's just, like...
Huh? (chuckles) Yeah.
Yeah, his finger's a pick, you know?
Yeah. Yeah, it's three picks. (imitates fast playing)
Playing... So you want to sack Bob now?
(all laugh)
II'
Hey. (applause, cheering)
(whooping)
HETFIELD: Well, the second time you came back,
I mean, that was, for me, when I noticed that
you make us play better, man.
You make the band sound... Hell, yeah.
...so much better.
Wow. HETFIELD: So solid.
HAMMETT: How do you feel about that, man? Oh, I feel awesome, man.
You're the chosen one.
You looked coolest. Yeah.
And we want you to be a real member of this band
not just a hired hand. Right. Right, absolutely.
And, um...
Oh, wow. We'd like to offer you, uh, basically
to give... to show you how serious we are about this,
offer you a million dollars, uh, to join our band right now.
(exclaims, laughs)
And, um... Right, okay.
And as a good... as a kind of a good faith thing about how
serious we are... HETFIELD: It's an advance. It's an advance
on some percentage you're gonna be making with the band. Right.
Here's money up front. Mm-hmm.
To get you kicked in and inspired. Right.
And this is a reality, this is my future.
This is what life can hold for me... Wow.
With my new family.
Ooh.
(soft laugh) I can't really talk right now.
(all laugh)
♪ Invisible kid never see what he did ♪
♪ Got stuck where he hid ♪
♪ Falling through the grid ♪
♪ Invisible kid got a place of his own ♪
♪ Where he'll never be known ♪
♪ In a word, he's grown ♪
♪ Invisible kid, never see what he did ♪
♪ Got stuck where he hid ♪
♪ Fallin' through the grid ♪
♪ Invisible kid got a place of his own ♪
♪ Where he'll never be known ♪
♪ In a word, he's grown! ♪
NEWSTED: There's things that I miss, and I'm kind of sad
that it couldn't work out and thing... you know, like that.
But there's way, way, way, way more times and way more days
and even hours that go by and I'm reminded, dude...
All right.
You did the right thing.
You know, you did the right thing for yourself.
II'
HETFIELD: I don't know if it's the right time
to say this but...
I don't know, I've been thinking about our... our talk,
about, you know, you and us
and our future and all of that stuff and... (clears throat)
Uh, you know, when I heard that you guys were moving here
and all of that, that brought up a lot
of fear around, "Wow, what is Phil's perception of, you know,
his, you know, longevity with Metallica?" You know?
That scared me a little bit. Well, I appreciate that. I w...
I w... If it scared you, and that's part
of the-the issue going forward,
then let me say we haven't decided we're moving here.
I've tried to make it clear
that... that, urn, we're selling...
I think pe... uh, we've told people we're selling our house
in Kansas City, but that doesn't mean we're moving here.
Okay?
And we won't likely move to San Francisco if...
if there's not a future out there with Metallica,
'cause it you know, that's my...
I want to make sure that the...
the bass player's intact, I want to be sure that the tour's on,
and I-And I also, as I said, have performance coach visions
for each of you and for the band.
And I... to me, the work isn't over.
Urn, I'd like us to honor
what we had, and...
if you want to be away from...
you know, on your own or something,
for the couple months that... Right.
You're heading back in June, then that's... (chair scrapes)
Then that's... Keep going back. Okay. I got... I don't know, I guess I have
a problem sometimes, Phil, with the "let's see how it works out,
let's see how it happens." And then,
"No, let's honor what happened, you know,
six months ago," you know?
That-That's kind of strange to me, you know?
Because I think that you use those things
when they're convenient at times, you know?
Personal stuff or business things and...
I-I don't know, I don't know, they're... the boundaries are...
I don't know, becoming more clear to me.
Urn...
There's-There's that element of-of...
trust that just kind of floats with you, with me.
And I... And that...
I-I'm really sorry about that.
That-That. .. you know.
L-I been up... swimming uphill on that one
for a long time with you, and I'd like...
I'd like for us to be able
to resolve it. But maybe we can't.
ULRICH: I've got to tell you that I... You know,
if the client-- either James or us-- says...
You know, then...
I-I really think that needs to be respected without...
you know, just, you know,
the old "turn the Kn*fe" thing in there.
You know, it just... it-it... you know, if the client
says, you know, "Time out for a while"--
time out. Yeah, I... That is great.
Although, with our process, to honor what we usually do,
we take... But then it should be put on the table
but left on the table.
And should be able to walk away
without what you're saying right now,
which is now there are trust issues and stuff.
I don't know how to separate... separate out
In its simplest form. I ju... l-l think it's
a conflict of interest that you tell him
that he needs you around more. If he has...
If he wants to take a break. No, no, no, no, no . I'm not saying that.
I'm saying... I just... I see that as a conflict of interest.
Look, I am saying you guys
have made a decision.
It's okay for me to say I'm-I'm not happy with that decision.
The premise is you guys don't need me.
And-And I... I'm good with that.
Anyway, you're going... it's, uh...
Anyway...
let's jam. Great, I'll see you guys.
I'm taking off. I'll see you, uh...
next week. Have a good one.
Thanks, man.
♪ Who's in charge of my head today ♪
♪ Dancing devils in angel's way ♪
♪ It's my time now... ♪
♪ It's my time now ♪
♪ It's my time right now ♪
♪ It's my time ♪
♪ Look out, m*therf*ckers, here I come ♪
♪ I'm going to make my head my home ♪
♪ The sons of b*tches try to take my head ♪
(reporters shouting)
♪ Try to make me something... ♪
You've been in the band for five minutes,
and already you're an icon?
It's such an honor.
And, you know, I'm stoked, so...
II'
(cheering, whistling)
PATERNO: "Your voting interests will equal
"your percentage interest in the new Metallica account,
"while each of our voting interests will be one-third
of the difference between 100% and your percentage."
This is about as lawyer as you get.
But it's really...
Sort of.. laying out...
PATERNO: Yeah, it lays out the deal, okay, so...
For instance, in the first period,
you have five percent, okay?
TRUJILLO: Uh-huh. PATERNO: So when we do a vote,
you get 32 votes, you get 32 votes,
you get 32 votes, you get five votes.
In any vote, okay?
ULRICH: But this doesn't mean anything.
HETFIELD: I think it's crap.
I mean, I-l... ULRICH: I think in the,
in the spirit of what we're trying to do,
we've gotta do 25,
and then Q-Prime's the tie-breaker, that's...
PATERNO: That works, that's fine.
That's cool.
II'
(audience cheering wildly)
What's up?
II'
PATERNO: Now here it also says
you will not be required to fund
any losses in the new Metallica account,
but we will be entitled to recover
any losses out of future profits.
For instance, buying the-the, uh...
documentary, it's not your problem.
If the documentary
loses money and the company
never makes any more money again,
it's these three guys' problem.
ULRICH: Yeah.
(all laughing)
Well, sh*t. "What'd you do with your money?"
I went and bought a new car, I bought my mom a house,
and we went and bought a documentary. It was great.
(all laugh) You know, it was just... trying to
keep in the spirit of this whole thing...
II'
BURNSTEIN: By the end of this week,
we're going to have an album title.
You could say, in three days,
we're not going to have to agonize about this anymore.
HETFIELD: Well, the thing that stood out
to me was St. Anger, there's...
it's strong.
I mean, there's iconic strong, you know?
HAMMETT: Yeah, I agree.
I hear you.
L-I, I like that title quite a bit.
It's so easy just to say "June 17th is St. Anger's Day."
Yeah, no, it's true, that's cool. You know? I mean, it's...
ULRICH: I think "Frantic"
is a better album title.
I think that's...
I don't know.
...It's more about the record.
HAMMETT: But St. Anger's a good...
REITER: It's an original statement.
It's an original statement. St. Anger, St. Anger.
HETFIELD: Well, this is an angry record...
Right. ...but you read the lyrics,
it's angry in a healthy way. Right.
Yeah, this is also a frantic record. Getting stuff out.
BURNSTEIN: Frantic is more like, they're trying things
that they don't, they don't...
they're not exactly sure of.
They don't know what they're doing.
They're trying to climb back up the...
the mountain again. MENSCH: Right.
They're not sure of themselves.
I mean, we don't have to take it... I mean, that's a fair...
I mean hello, uh, that's a fair thing.
I mean, if you think that "Frantic"
has a negative connotation to it,
I never thought of it like that.
If it's St. Anger, they're going to form an image of
"These guys are angry, I know it.
"They're angry about Napster, they're angry about
"the new stuff that's coming in,
"they're angry about their lives.
I'm angry, too. I get it."
II'
REITER: I think you guys know
the idea about trying to sh**t a video in San Quentin.
HETFIELD: Wow.
ROCK". So let me get this straight:
you're going to go to a maximum security prison
and Metallica's going to play "St. Anger" really loud.
HAMMETT: Yeah!
♪ St. Anger 'round my neck ♪
♪ St. Anger 'round my neck ♪
♪ He never gets respect ♪
♪ St. Anger ♪
♪ 'Round my neck ♪
I've been asked to come out here and talk a little bit about, uh,
what this song means to us. Anger's an emotion
that I've-I've struggled with
for pretty much all my life.
♪ St. Anger ♪ ♪ You flush it out ♪
♪ 'Round my neck ♪
♪ You flush it out, you flush it out a'
♪ He never gets respect ♪
HETFIELD: There's a lot of misspent anger
that has come out sideways for a lot of people.
Including yourselves.
And if I hadn't have had music in my life,
it's quite possible
I could be in here or not even in here, be dead.
And, uh, I'd, uh...
I'd much rather be alive.
♪ Madly in anger with you ♪
♪ I'm madly in anger ♪
♪ With you, I'm madly in anger ♪
M With you r
♪ I'm madly in anger with you ♪
I'm pretty nervous up here.
Don't really know what to say; I'm just trying
to share some of what's going on for me-- I'm not here
to sell nothin', that's for damn sure. Urn...
(inmates cheering)
Everyone is born good.
Everyone's got the same size soul, and we're here to connect
with that, so we're very proud to be in your house
and play some music for you.
Thanks.
(cheering, whistling, applause)
HETFIELD: More than any other record--
I don't know if you guys feel that--
but, for me, this is, like, a product of
what we're just doing hanging out,
you know what I mean? It's like...
HAMMET". It's almost like a diary. Yeah, a diary.
It's like, "Here's our memories on CD, you know?"
ULRICH: It's like we've proven that you can make
aggressive music without negative energy.
Yeah. Okay, and I don't think anybody ever thought
that that would be possible. Do you know what I mean? Right.
You can make something that's aggressive and f*cked up, okay?
With positive energy between the people creating it.
HETFIELD: Yeah.
It hit me, you know? This...
project's coming to an end and, I don't know,
I think I'm kind of bummed about that.
I'm kind of just...
kind of liking the schedule that happens
or the safeness in that.
Coming here, being able to talk, creating,
you know? And...
And, uh... I don't know.
I've been kind of...
coming down from this for about the past month.
I mean, getting up at 5:00 in the morning and just...
pacing my apartment.
Just not really knowing what the hell I'm doing either.
So I'm with you.
Like, I don't want to let you go home.
I mean, man, I don't know.
ROCK: (chuckles) I really appreciate that.
That's really nice of you to say.
HETFIELD: I don't know. I could feel myself
kind of protecting myself with some depression
or something, wanting to just kind of isolate.
And I don't want to do that.
I want to feel the sadness of...
I mean, I-l didn't feel depressed, I felt sad.
That's when I knew it was something different
than just me... my old stuff, you know?
I mean, there is some of that, but...
(chuckles) Sadness
and depression-- I guess I don't really know the difference.
And, Phil, all the stuff that you've brought here to, like...
You've set out all the tools, you know?
And you allowed us to build what we've built, you know?
With guidance.
I really appreciate your bringing...
your bringing this forward.
And there is a difference between sadness and depression.
Clearly.
(sighs)
This is the hugest chapter in my life.
(sniffles)
(crowd cheering)
(fans whooping, shouting, whistling)
(fans shouting indistinctly)
(crowd cheering)
♪ Whoa-oh, whoa... ♪
♪ Oh, oh... ♪
All right!
♪ Whoa-oh ♪
♪ Ah-oh, oh! ♪
♪ Whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh ♪
♪ Whoa-oh, oh, whoa ♪
♪ Oh, oh... oh, oh... ♪
♪ Whoa-oh, oh-oh ♪
♪ Whoa-oh, whoa-oh-oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Whoa-oh-oh ♪
♪ Whoa-oh, oh, oh ♪
(crowd cheering)
♪ Whoa-oh, oh... ♪
♪ Whoa-oh, whoa-oh ♪
♪ Whoa-oh... ♪
(audience cheering)
(Hetfield grunts)
♪ If I could have my wasted days back ♪
♪ Would I use them to get back on track? ♪
♪ Stop to warm at Karma's burning ♪
MAN: Stand back, stand back.
Keep away from the cameras.
L-I love you. I love you, too.
(all clamoring)
♪ Can I find it inside to deal with what I shouldn't know? ♪
♪ Can I have my wasted days back? ♪
♪ Will I use them to get back on track? ♪
♪ You live it or lie it ♪
♪ You live it or lie it ♪
♪ You live it or lie it, you live it or lie it ♪
♪ My lifestyle... ♪
(chuckles) Whoa!
♪ Determines my death style ♪
♪ Keep searching ♪
♪ Keep on searching ♪
♪ The search goes on, on and on ♪
WOMAN: Aw! MEN: Chug, chug!
♪ Keep searching ♪
♪ Keep on searching ♪
♪ The search goes on ♪
♪ On and on... Frantic ♪
♪ Tick, tick, tick tock frantic ♪
♪ Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick tock ♪
♪ Frantic, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick ♪
♪ Tock, frantic, tick, tick ♪
♪ Tick, tick, tick tock! ♪
(cheering)
Go!
HETFIELD: Thank you so much
for supporting Metallica
through all the rough times and all the great times.
Metallica loves you!
(cheering)
Yeah!
(screaming)
Yeah!
f*ck, yeah!
(audience cheering)
AUDIENCE (chanting): Metallica! Metallica! Metallica!
♪ These are the eyes that can't see me ♪
♪ These are the hands that dropped your trust ♪
♪ These are the boots that kicked you round ♪
♪ This is the tongue that speaks on the inside ♪
♪ These are the ears that ring with hate ♪
♪ This is the face that I'll never change ♪
♪ This is the fist that grinds you down ♪
♪ This is the voice of silence no more ♪
♪ These are the legs in circles run ♪
♪ This is the b*ating you'll never know ♪
♪ These are the lips that taste no freedom ♪
♪ This is the feel that's not so safe ♪
♪ This is the face you'll never change ♪
♪ This is the god that ain't so pure ♪
♪ This is the god that is not pure ♪
♪ This is the voice of silence no more ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ This monster lives ♪
♪ This is the face that stones you cold ♪
♪ This is the moment that needs to breathe ♪
♪ These are the claws that scratch these wounds ♪
♪ This is the pain that never leaves ♪
♪ This is the tongue that whips you down ♪
♪ This is the burden of every man ♪
♪ These are the screams that pierce your skin ♪
♪ This is the voice of silence no more ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ This is the test of flesh and soul ♪
♪ This is the trap that smells so good ♪
♪ This is the flood that drains these eyes ♪
♪ These are the looks that chill to the bone ♪
♪ These are the fears that swing overhead ♪
♪ These are the weights that hold you down ♪
♪ This is the end that will never end ♪
♪ This is the voice of silence no more! ♪
(growls)
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ This monster lives ♪
♪ Are we the people? ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ Some kind of monster ♪
♪ This monster lives! ♪
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)
Moderator: Maskath3