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Dec. 16, 2016 - The Joe Rogan Experience
01:56:28
Joe Rogan Experience #887 - James Hetfield
Participants
Main voices
j
james hetfield
01:15:35
j
joe rogan
38:16
Appearances
Clips
j
jamie vernon
00:02
j
josh olin
00:02
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Speaker Time Text
james hetfield
I don't know much about moose.
joe rogan
They're awesome.
So fucking big.
Such a giant animal.
Two, one, live, boom!
Live with James Hetfield.
How are you, sir?
james hetfield
Doing awesome.
joe rogan
Any friend of Jim Brewer's is a friend of mine.
james hetfield
Awesome to hear.
joe rogan
So you're in.
Hey man, I listened to your new shit in the gym today and You know what's amazing about it?
You guys still fucking rock hard.
I love Aerosmith.
I was a huge Aerosmith fan when I was a kid, but somewhere along the line, they became a ballad band.
Somewhere along the line, they started doing music for movies that appealed to adolescent teenage girls.
Something happened.
james hetfield
Yeah.
I got you.
And then other people start writing your songs.
That's, I think, the ultimate kind of not giving up, but you've lost your way.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I wanted to talk to you about...
There's a transition that very successful people make, and either they make it or they don't.
And the transition is to go from being hungry and filled with all this angst to being stupid, wealthy, and famous, but still keeping your art relevant.
How do you do that?
james hetfield
We're super competitive people.
We're really perfectionists and we hate to let each other down.
There's always a better riff coming.
There's always a better album.
Maybe there's the never satisfied part to us that will keep us going till we die.
You know, there's always the ultimate lyric that's going to connect to everyone in the world or something.
There is always a better something that we haven't got yet.
joe rogan
So it's that mindset.
I guess in the beginning you just want to do it, right?
You want to be a successful band.
You want to make it.
You're young.
You're filled with angst.
But your music has the same sort of intensity to it.
Like today in the gym, I got in there.
I hadn't listened to your new album at all.
I fucking cranked it up to nine and I just said, let's go!
And I turned it on and Right from the jump, I was like, whoa!
Like, there's something about a good fucking hard rock album that just gets you pumped up.
And you guys, 100% A-plus succeeded with this one.
james hetfield
Awesome to hear.
Well, that's why we do it, too.
We write music, we record music that we want to hear.
Because we're not hearing it out there sometimes.
And that's how it's been since day one.
And, you know, as you...
We're pretty honest in our music, too.
So I love the fact that from album one to here, we're doing it our way and we're writing songs for ourselves.
And there's an honesty that has to be in it.
Or people can see that shit if you're not honest.
joe rogan
Yeah, they definitely can, right?
They're like little animals.
They smell it.
Right?
Don't they?
james hetfield
And they smell.
joe rogan
Yeah, they smell it.
The whole deal.
It's refreshing to see a band that's been at it for a long time, that's super successful, that still goes after it.
james hetfield
Yeah, the thing that bugs me a lot is when people say, you know, okay, now that you're sober or now that you're matured, now all this, and you've worked out all your demons and things like that, that your music's going to be all soft and flowery and...
I tell you, if I could exercise all those demons, I would have.
But it's something you embrace.
It's a part of me.
And I get to celebrate it in my music.
I get to communicate it.
I get to use it as a therapy to help my own insanity.
And other people do too.
So when you get those like-minded people together in a place and play live, music does something to people.
Like you in the gym.
I get to watch people at our shows transform from, God, I just took my tie off, or I still have my friggin' briefcase, you know, like, handcuffed to me.
I want out of this, and I get to let loose, and I get to see these people transform and watch music do stuff to them.
joe rogan
Yeah, transform's the right word, right?
Because it's almost like music...
I think there's an element to music that doesn't get discussed.
That it does have some sort of an effect on the body.
Like when you hear a good song and you're in your car and you're like, fuck yeah!
It's like a drug!
I mean, it is.
It's like taking a shot of this caveman nitro or something.
More powerful than that, really.
Because it's instantaneous.
james hetfield
I got plenty of speeding tickets.
Plenty!
Well, that's the best place for Lars and I to listen to the music when we're putting it together.
Does it make the car test?
Because you're yourself in your car if no one else is in there.
You get to celebrate and listen and just go friggin' nuts in your car.
And that's past the car test.
joe rogan
That's got to be where most people listen to most of their music these days, with all the commuting people do.
james hetfield
Especially here in L.A., man.
joe rogan
Especially here.
It's a ridiculous place, isn't it?
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Where you living these days?
james hetfield
Hopefully we save people from road rage.
They get to just headbang instead of shoot people.
unidentified
You're not saving them.
joe rogan
You're ramping it up.
Well, there's not too much shooting people in cars anymore.
It was going on for a while in the 90s.
james hetfield
That's trendy.
joe rogan
Where do you live these days?
james hetfield
I live in Vail, Colorado.
joe rogan
Oh, no shit, man.
Wow, that's kind of cool.
james hetfield
It's very cool.
It's quiet, no friggin' traffic, and especially now, super quiet.
Snow...
Snow does something to calm you down a little bit.
joe rogan
I agree with that.
I remember when I was a kid in Boston, there was those days when it would just snow hard.
You'd go outside and you experience quiet like you'd never heard it before.
james hetfield
Right.
joe rogan
It's like everything gets filtered by that snow.
Mm-hmm.
james hetfield
Well, I like, you know, there's a lone wolf part of me that maybe you can relate to.
But I like being by myself.
But I also like, I need people to connect with as well.
But when I get out, you know, living in Vail, moving from California to Colorado was a great thing for me.
I feel really...
I feel a part of nature there.
And you don't want to be inside there.
There's something about it.
You just want to be outside all the time.
joe rogan
Well, it's so beautiful.
I'm going to Colorado this weekend.
james hetfield
Cool.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's fucking stunning up there.
There's just something about Colorado.
Those mountains are just the best natural artwork you could ever look at.
james hetfield
Yeah, no doubt.
We get to look at the Gore Range right out of our mountain, and I've drank plenty of Coors Lights in my life, and that's the one on the can.
Like, wow!
I'm looking at it.
And lots of 14ers there, lots of great snowmobiling, rafting, paddleboarding, you name it.
joe rogan
What's a 14er?
james hetfield
14,000 feet.
Peaks.
joe rogan
Oh, oh, oh.
james hetfield
Yeah, lots of 14,000 feet peaks.
joe rogan
Oh, people who were into climbing those crazy peaks?
james hetfield
Yeah, or hunting, you know.
joe rogan
What made you move out there?
Did you go there and visit first, or just decided you needed to separate from the hive?
james hetfield
Yeah, there's probably a multitude of things that made it happen.
My wife grew up there.
She was born in Argentina.
They moved to Vail.
She went to elementary school there.
You know, we were going to Tahoe a lot to do skiing and stuff like that, and she said, we gotta go to Vail.
This is not snow.
We'll go to Vail and feel snow.
And we went there a few times, and I loved it.
I'm not a huge skier, but I can ski, and I have fun doing it.
My kids love it.
And so that, my wife turns into a kid when we go there, which I kinda like.
It's a little more like me, you know?
She can be a little, you know, a little two on point and a little, you know, she loosens up and she becomes young again there.
So there's that.
I kind of got sick of the Bay Area, the attitudes of people there a little bit.
They talk about how diverse they are and things like that.
It's fine if you're diverse like them.
Showing up with a deer on the bumper doesn't fly in Marin County.
My form of eating organic doesn't vibe with theirs.
joe rogan
Do you have issues with that?
With the people you lived with up in Marin County?
With hunting?
Or is it just something you felt?
james hetfield
Yeah, you know, it's something I felt.
I probably made it up in my head a little bit.
joe rogan
Yeah.
james hetfield
Because I'm pretty good at that.
I'm pretty creative.
And I can start fights with myself in my head all the time.
joe rogan
A lot of people can.
james hetfield
Oh, yeah.
But there was.
There was just a...
I don't know.
I felt that there was an elitist attitude there.
That if you weren't...
Their way politically, their way environmentally, all of that, that you were looked down upon.
I think in Colorado, everyone is very natural.
People are not playing some game.
They're not posturing.
They're very into, oh, you like doing that?
Cool.
How's that go?
How you doing with that?
And they're less...
They're less obsessed with stopping what you're doing and more enjoying what they're doing, you know?
joe rogan
That's interesting.
That's an interesting way to look at it.
I love the Bay Area, but I've always felt like, I think you nailed it.
The Bay Area, they love diversity as long as you're diverse the way they're diverse.
It's so tech-oriented.
It's so absorbed with one aspect of society, technology and cell phones and the internet and electric cars.
And it's so locked into that one sort of mode of being that I think a guy like you goes out there and shoots an elk or something like that.
It's probably a little creepy to them.
james hetfield
Well, I just think I feel more at home in the Midwest or the mountains or something.
I mean, I love the ocean.
And I love the Bay Area.
I love what it's got to offer.
But there's just an attitude that it wasn't healthy for me.
Starting to feel like I was just fighting all the time.
And I just had to get out of my own head.
So Colorado does it for me.
joe rogan
You were doing that show, The Hunt, that show, what is it, on History Channel or something like that, where it was all about grizzly bear hunting.
You were doing the narration for that.
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
And I saw this crazy blowback because of that, where people wanted to boycott a music festival that you guys were on, and there was photos of...
Another guy, who wasn't you, they were getting circled around, they were saying it was you that killed a grizzly bear, and they were saying, we have to ban this, this is hard.
It was very strange.
What was your reaction to all that?
james hetfield
I kind of just took it as, okay, that's how it's been for me in the Bay Area.
People don't understand it.
I mean, it's just like with anything.
I don't think they understand that someone can be as passionate about something else As passionate as they are about what they are passionate about.
So if you're as passionate about something, there's someone who's the opposite.
And that's okay.
You can get along.
You can talk about it.
No one's right.
No one's wrong.
This is my life.
I like living it this way.
You like living your life that way.
I totally get it.
But we can coexist in this.
And let's really be diverse.
Going out, whether it's planting my own vegetables, having my own beehives, getting our own honey, harvesting my own meat on the ranch.
That's what I love doing.
I love sustaining my family with as organic as possible.
And, you know, I respect people that don't want vegetables.
The blood.
They don't want all that seen.
They would rather see their meat or whatever it is show up in a nice cellophane package and it's handed to them.
They don't want to know how it got there.
I respect that.
My kids are like that.
They don't want to see it going on.
But I want to be as close to the earth.
I want to be as part of it as possible.
I want to be part of every bit of it and respect it.
joe rogan
Yeah, I get that sentiment, and I always found it strange how many people get upset at what you do, but meanwhile they're eating meat.
I mean, San Francisco is filled with restaurants that are serving meat everywhere you go.
Every single store you pass by has meat in it, and to focus on you for going out and hunting is always a little weird.
james hetfield
Well, I guess I'm more old school.
I don't know whatever it is.
You know, I think the Bay Area prides itself and I'm glad there is a place that prides itself on being progressive, very moving forward.
Hey, we're creating the future here.
And I love the convenience and stuff of that.
But then there's a part of me that just maybe is like frontier style.
I just love that.
I would rather be simple.
joe rogan
Well, I think it's also probably you're performing in front of fucking hundreds of thousands of people all the time.
And you're just like, Jesus Christ, you need a balance.
I mean, you need some sort of an opposite end of the scale just to weigh things out.
james hetfield
Very true.
Very true.
You know, what about me?
I want me time, you know?
Chill time.
Pulling me all these different ways and stuff.
Certainly not complaining.
That's what I choose to do.
But I also choose this, too.
joe rogan
Well, that's where a veil completely makes sense.
So how long have you been raising bees?
james hetfield
Probably only maybe four years.
joe rogan
How'd you get started in that?
How do you start raising bees?
james hetfield
Start with one.
Well, actually start with two.
joe rogan
Really?
unidentified
No.
james hetfield
They're not like rabbits.
But they do produce quite quickly.
You know, my dad raised bees.
We always saw boxes out in the corner of the house.
We grew up in LA here, and the weather's so great, so there's lots of bee activity.
That's the bummer about being in Vail now.
Not a lot of bee action going on.
It's too high, it's too cold.
Certain vegetables grow there, but not a lot.
In California, the ranch, I love it.
I had a friend who Who, in his backyard, he probably had six hives, and he had this one really intense kind of rogue hive where maybe the queen had some kind of strain of Africanized or something, and his wife could not go out in the backyard without being attacked.
So he says, hey, can I go put my bees on your property so they can cycle this queen out?
They got some breeding, and it was just off.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ.
james hetfield
So he brought it out to the ranch, he pinched the bee, and then pinched the queen.
joe rogan
Pinched it?
What do you mean?
james hetfield
Killed it.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
joe rogan
That's a nice euphemism.
james hetfield
He didn't have to shoot it or nothing, you know?
Hold still!
joe rogan
So he just grabbed the queen and killed her.
james hetfield
Well, I just pinched it because she was reproducing.
I mean, they lay like a million eggs in their lives.
It's insane.
Basically, I could sit here and talk a whole hour about bees because they're so interesting.
joe rogan
Let's do it.
james hetfield
All right.
Well, the listener.
joe rogan
I'm not scared.
No, they'll listen.
Trust me.
It's interesting stuff.
james hetfield
So, yeah, put a new queen in there, and they cycled through all of the other bees.
I mean, they only live a month.
joe rogan
So a normal reaction when people go in the yard would be just disinterest.
They wouldn't care about you as long as you're not interrupting the hive.
james hetfield
Exactly.
joe rogan
But your wife would go out there, and they would just get crazy?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
But not with you?
james hetfield
Oh, yeah.
unidentified
They did it with you, too.
james hetfield
No, no, no, this wasn't me.
This was my friend's wife.
joe rogan
Oh, that's right.
james hetfield
I'm sorry.
But...
Yeah, but he's kind of used to it, and she was not.
She was out to go swimming or something.
joe rogan
So he would go out there, and they would get crazy with him, but he's like, this doesn't bother me, but she was like, fuck this queen, fuck this hive.
james hetfield
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
And there's certain things.
If you're wearing black, they all attack you.
Really?
They think you're a bear.
What?
Yeah.
If you've just eaten bananas, there's some...
I don't know, a smell or something in it that is similar to their attack pheromone that they set off.
So there's a few things I've learned over the years.
joe rogan
Don't eat bananas and don't wear black.
james hetfield
Exactly.
That's all you got to do.
But I learned this stuff being in the bee club.
joe rogan
You're in a bee club?
james hetfield
I was in the bee club.
Yeah, in the Bay Area.
Yeah, we'd meet down at the American Legion's Hall and have a monthly meeting.
joe rogan
Wow.
What are those dorks like?
james hetfield
People are super into bees.
Oh, my God.
We would just sit there and kind of laugh about them.
But we're sitting there.
I mean, we're here to learn some stuff.
But there were people up there that, okay, we inseminated the queen with this.
And, you know, there were counting bees.
You know, we put little numbers on every bee and we caught their flight pattern.
And how many were reproducing this?
And, I mean, it's all...
You know, it's all like they're doing research on how to make the bees stronger because the bees are, you know, going away.
joe rogan
Right.
james hetfield
But, you know, it's this mite, this little varroa mite that's killing a lot of them, too, along with the pesticides and herbicides.
But, you know...
People that are so into it and we're just kind of sitting there going, oh man, what have we gotten ourselves into?
But it's kind of, you know, it's funny in a certain way, but I'm glad that it's happening.
But, you know, I get, you know, at the end of the season, you got like 500 pounds of honey.
joe rogan
Whoa!
james hetfield
And you're handing them out to your friends and everyone's loving it.
joe rogan
500 pounds of honey?
That's insane.
james hetfield
Yeah, yeah.
And we're bottling it up.
My kids are filtering it.
We're, you know, bottling it up.
And, dude, it's just straight from the hive into a bottle, I mean, after you've filtered it.
And it really helps with allergies.
It helps with, you know, the whatever, getting the pollens and the nectars from the area.
So when you take that in, it helps build your immune system.
joe rogan
Yeah, I've heard that.
So you've experienced that personally?
james hetfield
Absolutely.
And I think being stung by bees helps you too.
It helps with something getting your immune system built up to the...
joe rogan
It's supposed to be really good for arthritis.
They take people, like literally take bees, people that have serious arthritis in their hands, and they sting their hands with it on purpose.
james hetfield
Right.
joe rogan
I think there's some people that do it for their lips here in L.A., I think you need people that are so deep, deep, deep in the bee world, because you're not going to do it and I'm not going to do it, but if someone's just so far gone, they're measuring all their bees and monitoring their flight patterns and checking their DNA, I'm just fascinated that there was a clear differentiation between a normal bee And the way these bees were behaving.
You could tell that the queen was kind of a freak.
james hetfield
But I tell you, those freak bees, the Africanized or whatever, now there's a zombie bee and we can get into that too.
But they are aggressive and an aggressive, you know, like any society, they do well.
They produce a lot of honey, and they're very, very prolific in what they do.
joe rogan
Yeah, I've had killer bee honey.
They make killer bee.
We sell it on it.
I don't know if it's any better.
Killer bee honey is better than regular honey, but it's just pretty dope to have killer bee honey around your house.
james hetfield
Well, yeah, you know, that and the, gosh, what's this stuff called?
I mean, there's lots of really cool healing properties in, like, even the kind of glue that they use to plug up holes and, you know, the royal jelly, which is, you know, comes from their, like, the brain, and that's how they produce a queen.
joe rogan
That's what royal jelly is?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's from their brain?
james hetfield
It's brain juice, man.
joe rogan
Holy shit.
How does it come out?
Does it come out of a hole somewhere?
Or do they have to scoop it out of their fucking heads?
james hetfield
I haven't seen it that close, but, you know.
They inject it into the queen cell, or there's a cell that they make when a new queen is being made.
So all the bees that are flying around that you see out here, they're all females.
It's all female society.
So the drones that are in there, which are the males, they're there just to reproduce, and then they get kicked out in the wintertime.
unidentified
And they die.
james hetfield
And they all die.
joe rogan
Whoa.
james hetfield
Yeah, man.
joe rogan
It's hard out there.
unidentified
It's brutal.
james hetfield
Brutal for us men in the B world.
joe rogan
So if they all die, how do they continue to reproduce?
james hetfield
Well, there's some, I guess, that...
joe rogan
Couple stay around?
james hetfield
No, they...
The queen makes more.
joe rogan
Wow.
So those guys are just dead.
The queen makes more and the new ones take over.
The new boys.
james hetfield
Yeah.
Yeah.
joe rogan
And they're just doing work.
james hetfield
They're just fertilizing.
That's what they're doing.
joe rogan
They're just there to fuck and then everybody else is doing all the real work.
james hetfield
You fuck and go die.
Wow.
That's what you get to do.
joe rogan
What a brutal world.
What a fucking crazy world.
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
And then the queen goes around the hive and finds the females, other potential queens, and stabs them while they're in the hive.
james hetfield
Pretty much.
joe rogan
Yeah.
james hetfield
Well, they're all females.
They're all females except for those drones.
And then, you know, if they're making, you know, she knows she's going to die or they're kind of pissed off with her.
She's not reproducing as much as she should.
She will take off with like half the hive.
And that's where you see a swarm.
So she'll go and form a new hive.
And then these ones have a little queen cell that they've laid eggs and start to make a new queen.
So that's how they reproduce.
And if there's three or four queen cells in there, the first queen that's born, she comes out and she kills all the other queens so she can rule.
joe rogan
Game of Thrones type shit.
That's fascinating.
james hetfield
You're going to get bees, I can tell.
joe rogan
Right now, I'm looking in my head.
I'm just looking at websites in my head.
I'm trying to find out where to get the bees.
Yeah, that sounds like an amazing way to get honey.
I mean, it just sounds like a really cool thing to do, too.
james hetfield
It tastes so good, and we've got, you know, we have a place in Hawaii, so we've got Hawaiian-flavored, Hawaiian-flavored, well, there's stuff, you know, that they get the nectar and pollen from over there, and, you know, Hawaii is nonstop, you know, so you're getting honey year-round.
joe rogan
What island?
james hetfield
In Maui.
joe rogan
Oh, man.
I love Maui.
That's a beautiful spot.
So, how do you know that a bee is Africanized?
Because that was the big thing that everybody was worried about.
Remember, it was like the early 90s.
Everybody was like, they found an African killer bee in New Mexico or something.
It was like, it's coming up.
It's going to swarm.
They're going to take over the country inside of a few years.
There was a big hysteria about that, right?
james hetfield
Yeah, and there are states where they are more prevalent than others, and they're just more aggressive.
They're more aggressive, and they're very protective, so you'll get stung if you're messing with them.
joe rogan
That's all it is.
I think so.
But there was a big concern that they were going to take over and that it was going to be that these bees were just going to come here and outbreed the regular bees.
You're laughing.
james hetfield
It's possible.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
There's some great movies about that, too.
The killer bees.
joe rogan
But there's no way to tell by looking at them?
james hetfield
I don't know.
I don't think so.
I'm somewhat into it, but I haven't investigated that part yet.
joe rogan
So these bees that came over from the perhaps Africanized bees that when they killed the queen and then introduced those bees to the rest of the bees, did everybody chill out?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
So it's just that one crazy bitch.
james hetfield
Well, yeah.
She's laying the eggs.
She's passing on the whatever DNA. But the forager bees, the ones that you see out and about, they only live a month.
So they will die out.
joe rogan
And how long does she live?
james hetfield
She can live between one to five years.
joe rogan
Wow.
What a bizarre culture.
Strange society.
james hetfield
It's really, really cool.
And without them, I mean, there's lots of, you know, orange, almonds, all kinds of stuff, especially here in California, in the center of California, all that farming.
If there's no bees, there's no fruit.
joe rogan
Yeah, what a bizarre sort of symbiotic relationship that we have with one weird insect.
Pollination.
I mean, you would have thought that that would have been taken care of some other way.
james hetfield
Right.
joe rogan
And it wouldn't be that a bee has to do it.
james hetfield
Well, there are others that do it.
joe rogan
What other animals do it?
james hetfield
Like butterflies.
Really?
I'll tell you, not just honeybees, but there's probably over 3,000 different kinds of bees.
They don't have a...
They don't have a hive society like the honey bees do, but all these other bees are like loners.
They live in the ground or something, and they just get enough pollen for themselves.
So they're kind of lone wolves out there, but the honey bees are the ones that have more of a society.
joe rogan
I raise chickens, and the chicken thing with us happened.
We just got a couple chickens, and next thing you know, we got this giant fucking chicken house with 23 chickens, and they're running around my yard.
Is that the same way with you?
Did you just kind of like slowly step into this and then get deeper and deeper?
james hetfield
Yeah.
I mean, just like getting your first tattoos.
Like, wow, that's cool.
I want more.
Right.
And yeah, you just start to appreciate it.
I think when I come off tour, It's like my head is just like ricocheting around.
I go and I sit and watch the bees.
Just watch them go in and out.
In and out.
There's like this friggin' landing strip that they come in.
And they look so busy, it relaxes me, you know?
It's like, wow, okay, I'm not that busy.
Just chill.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Just chill.
Now, is there a way...
Do you have like a glass wall in any way where you can see into the hive?
You ever seen those hives where they make them?
Do you have it like that where you can look in there?
james hetfield
Yeah, I've got one of the...
Yeah, well, that's like a display one we bring into schools and stuff.
joe rogan
You can see.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
james hetfield
I don't have one of those, but I got a couple different kinds of hives, and it's fun to see.
You know, sometimes you have the frames that...
Are already kind of pre-built, and then they just deposit their stuff in it, or you watch them grow their own comb from nothing, and it's pretty amazing.
joe rogan
How do you get them to stay there, though?
Like, how does it work?
Like, I see those boxes, and I know that bees do have hives in those boxes, but how does it initially start?
james hetfield
Well, it's the queen.
Wherever the queen is, that's where they go.
joe rogan
So if she decides to be in that box, how do you get her to stay in that box?
james hetfield
You have a place for her to lay eggs.
I mean, that's pretty much it.
Yeah.
And she will stay.
And if she's there, you know, when they go off to, they swarm to go find a new hive.
If you've ever seen a swarm up in a tree, just like a giant, like football size or even bigger, a shape of just bees, that queen is right in the middle and they're all just around her.
And then they send off the scouts to find a new spot.
They come back and say, hey, it's over here.
They do their little wiggle dance and that shows them how to get there and they all go there.
joe rogan
We had an incident once on Fear Factor where we covered these people with bees.
There was like a beekeeper there and he had his hive and a local hive came over and a group of bees came over and met with these bees and we had to clear the area out and they had to have a conversation.
It's literally what happened.
They were in the air, just floating around, and then they worked it out, and then our bees came back, and they went back to the hive, and their bees went about their business.
They were just like, what the fuck's going on?
You guys moving in here?
What are you doing?
james hetfield
Territorial.
joe rogan
Somehow or another, they worked it out, though.
There was no bee death.
There wasn't a bee fucking Braveheart war.
It's just they figured it out.
james hetfield
They had a good negotiator.
joe rogan
I wonder what...
Do they communicate with any...
I mean, are they using pheromones?
Like, how are they...
james hetfield
Yeah, smells.
Smells and dances.
unidentified
Dances?
james hetfield
That's how they do it.
joe rogan
Dances?
james hetfield
Yeah, some bee will find, like, a good...
Hey, man, I found, like, a garden somewhere.
And they'll come back and they'll see them do the little wiggle thing.
It's like, how many wiggles this way?
And then they turn left and then turn...
Okay, that's like a half a mile this way and then that way.
And then they all learn it.
And then they go.
Of course.
Hey, I found some water.
Here's a place to go.
joe rogan
So they literally can tell them where something is by their movements?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
Holy shit!
That's crazy!
So it's almost like a body language.
james hetfield
Pretty much, yep.
joe rogan
And they all know it somehow, instinctively.
james hetfield
Yep.
Wow!
Yeah, it's pretty bizarre.
There's a lot to learn about those things.
joe rogan
That's really bizarre.
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
I didn't know that.
They could tell each other where something is just by wiggling.
Like they have like, this means a mile, that means go left.
Wow!
Man, I'm going to get deep in bees, man.
What the fuck have you done?
james hetfield
All right.
unidentified
Yeah.
james hetfield
And I'm sure there's probably a feel of like, wow, there's a whole society right here in my yard, and I'm overseeing it.
There's probably a sense of importance, but I lay off them.
I mean, there are people that are checking them all the time and this and that, and oh, you got to put the...
Certain pads in there to kill the mites and you gotta do this and that.
It's like, ah, they're natural, man.
They've been around longer than we have, so just let them go.
They know what they're doing.
I don't, you know, who's to say I know what I'm doing with them?
joe rogan
Do they need specific types of plants around them in order to survive?
james hetfield
Yeah.
Well, something that they can pollinate.
And, you know, it's from...
It's good to plant.
I've planted stuff that, you know, okay, it blooms in the spring, and then there's other stuff that blooms in the summer, and then there's other stuff that blooms, you know, like in the late summer.
So they've always got something going on.
But they hibernate.
They hibernate in the winter.
joe rogan
No kidding.
It's like bears.
james hetfield
Yep.
joe rogan
So when you're in Vail and you have, obviously, really cold weather in the winter, what do they do?
They just shut down and stay in the hive and don't move?
unidentified
Yeah.
james hetfield
Well, I don't have bees in Vail yet, and I'm going to try and figure out how to do that.
But they, I mean, just like cattle, you know, you winter them down in the lowlands.
So I haven't found a place to have bees go where there's less snow.
But I'll figure something out because it's something I love doing.
joe rogan
That sounds amazing.
So in California, you have a whole ranch?
You're totally like a prepper almost.
You're sustainable.
Are you sustainable out there?
Well water the whole deal?
james hetfield
You bet.
Wow.
joe rogan
That's a dream of mine.
james hetfield
It is awesome.
I'll tell you.
And that's a place I could just go up and disappear.
I love it, man.
And just get lost.
Just get lost in the...
Anything.
You get lost in detail.
I've got lots of fun stuff up there, you know, quads and, you know, I've got my welder and whatever.
I just get lost in things and I love it.
You know, yeah, you know, hunting deer, turkey, stuff that we eat.
joe rogan
He hunted all up in the ranch.
james hetfield
Yep.
joe rogan
That's such a beautiful thing, man.
I remember hearing about Neil Young's place, that he's got some giant ranch up there, and Neil Young just goes and chills out.
Apparently he has speakers set up around a lake where he can be on a boat and push the boat out into the middle of the lake, and the speakers will broadcast.
It's perfectly set up.
Because, you know, he's a serious audiophile.
james hetfield
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Did you ever see his MP3 thing that he created?
It didn't really catch...
Catch on, yeah.
It didn't really catch on for some reason because people are just so attached to listen to music on their phones now, but it's an amazing little device.
To really put that much effort and intention into something that's not really necessary in the modern world just shows you what a serious audiophile that guy is.
james hetfield
Yeah, he loves it.
He loves music.
He loves the nature as well, and I've been up to his ranch.
It's really cool.
We played the Neil Young Bridge School Benefit like three times, and he invites people out there to the ranch.
It's beautiful.
He has buffalo out there.
unidentified
Wow.
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
How many acres does he have out there?
james hetfield
A lot.
A lot.
joe rogan
It's like 10,000 or something, I remember.
james hetfield
Something like that, yeah.
joe rogan
Wow.
james hetfield
But yeah, beautiful, you know.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean, for a guy like you that is...
I mean, I think you've found, like, this really amazing and enviable balance between the arena shows and all the fucking craziness of rock and then chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.
unidentified
You know, like, you've kind of like, ouch, ouch, fucker.
james hetfield
Slap.
joe rogan
I mean, it's really kind of cool, man.
Like, you've...
I mean, and also, like, being sober, like, you've kind of, like, found this interesting piece.
james hetfield
Yeah, yeah.
Slowly.
I'm not there yet, but more will be revealed.
It's a journey, and once I realize that it's just a journey, I'm okay with it.
Someone on another interview was just asking me, hey, you know, back in the early days, you guys released an album almost every year.
You've got like five albums in six years or something, and what happened?
It was eight years since the last one.
I was like, dude...
There's a lot more life to do.
There's a lot.
Vacations with families, watching my kids grow up, touring a lot longer than it used to be.
Back in those days, we had this many songs, and this is how many gigs we can do, and then we're back in the studio.
A lot is happening in life, and everyone in the band is on the same page, which is really a great thing.
We've all got kids.
We've all got other lives.
But we can't live without Metallica, man.
It's just something that joins us.
You know, we're these friggin' four married guys that know more about each other than anyone knows about us.
Maybe our wives.
But...
You know, Lars and I have known each other for 35 years.
joe rogan
Wow.
james hetfield
Even maybe 36. But I tell you, there's nobody else I've known longer except for maybe family than Lars.
So it's a brother.
You know, he's a brother.
I hate him.
I love him.
I want to kill him.
I want to hug him.
All that stuff, man.
joe rogan
Well, it's also, I mean, I gotta imagine that you guys have to realize what an unbelievably fortunate and amazing experience you guys are on.
I mean, how many people have a dream when they're kids of being a fucking rock star?
josh olin
How many people get to be in Metallica?
james hetfield
It's crazy, dude.
I wake up every day and think, I'm freaking blessed.
I mean, this is unbelievable.
What?
If I complain once today, punch me in the face, you know?
This is stupid, you know?
joe rogan
Exactly.
james hetfield
This is stupid that I would complain about something.
But I tell you...
It is hard at times, being on the road, doing stuff, and when you don't want to do stuff, you do it, but then you find something, you find someone, you find a thing, and it's usually someone in the crowd that's just, you know, I see myself right there.
It's like, I'm that kid right there at the Motorhead concert looking up at Lemmy going, this is fucking awesome!
And so I just suck that energy and go, all right, this is all I need.
This is all I need right now.
joe rogan
That's beautiful.
That was a hard one, right?
When Lemmy died?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
Lemmy went hard to the end.
james hetfield
No doubt.
joe rogan
He really did.
He fucking wore the brakes out, wore the tires out, fucking screeched right into the rocks.
Boom!
james hetfield
Oh my God.
Yeah.
And he didn't want anyone to know that he was really that sick.
And he just kept going.
And God, that's what he knew.
And it's what he loved.
And it's what he was.
And, you know, for me, I thought the man was immortal.
You know, he was just this icon of a figure.
You know, he was the godfather of heavy music for us.
Without him, there certainly wouldn't be a Metallica.
Certainly wouldn't.
He was the catalyst for Lars and I, you know, getting together, you know?
That ad in the paper, you know?
We like bands like Motorhead.
It's like, hey, somebody else likes Motorhead?
All right!
joe rogan
Ads in the paper.
Isn't that crazy when you stop and think about that?
That's how you guys got together back then?
That's how you found band members?
Ads in the paper, looking for a drummer.
Do you like Motorhead?
james hetfield
Straight to the H section.
The classifieds.
Pass up all the stuff, just get right to H, where it said heavy metal.
Like, well, there's my ad and there's his.
We should meet.
unidentified
There's only two of us.
joe rogan
Well, you guys have been through such a fascinating change in music, too.
Because, I mean, obviously, Lars was a huge figure in the controversy surrounding MP3s.
And that was, like, during the Napster days, that was the time where...
Everybody realized, like, holy shit, something just happened.
You know, and I don't think we realized it back then.
I think Lars, in a lot of ways, was one of the first people sounding the horn.
He was one of the first people going, hey, all this selling record shit is gonna go away.
Like, do you understand what's going on here?
People are just taking things and putting them online.
And this was a totally new thing.
james hetfield
Absolutely.
And that poor guy still, you know, he's taking bullets.
He's taking hits for it still.
Still?
joe rogan
Really?
Where?
james hetfield
Oh, everyone who's got a beef with any other thing than, you know, Napster.
It just gravitates towards that all the time.
That poor guy, yeah, he got beat up by that.
And we all stood behind him, obviously.
He was the spokesman for it.
He chose to do that.
Management said, hey, this is coming.
This is coming.
Let's be the ones that stand up for artists.
And he grabbed the flag and said, I'm going.
And there were lots of other musicians and people that were...
On board as well, but they weren't as vocal or taking the hits like he did.
There was something about, you know, even like a Dr. Dre, he was on board with it, but for some reason in the rap world, it's like, well, it's all about money anyway, so what?
For heavy metal, there was some kind of stigma around...
You know, you're an asshole if you're rich or if you've been successful or something.
It's like, we got to pull you down into hell with us, you know?
Don't be getting good now, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah.
james hetfield
So there was that stigma.
But there were other artists that would show up at shows saying, hey, man, I'm really glad you're doing what you're doing.
It's like, come on, you know, join us.
Oh, no, I can't.
Oh, no, my career would be over.
It's like, you fuck.
You know, it's so frustrating.
It's like, dude, do you believe in it?
Yeah.
Then stand up.
It's like, yeah, but no, it will fall apart.
Something will happen.
My fans, blah, blah, blah.
So they were concerned about their own careers and not the big picture of artists.
And obviously these days you can see.
There's no copyright laws.
There's no nothing, man.
You can rip this and that and whatever and do whatever you want with it.
There's a beauty to that and a lot of creativity comes out of it, but it gets watered down.
It gets, you know, I don't know.
We...
We acknowledge that, yeah, there's an inspiration somewhere for everything, but blatantly taking that and using it is pretty frustrating to me.
And we were at that point where we had...
Such a following we had such a strength in Metallica that we survived all of that stuff But there was a lot of bands that didn't you know They couldn't sustain themselves couldn't feed their families because of what happened and I think the frustrating part was no one really understood that Music is our life.
You know if you take that If you take our...
like the way we want to present our music is part of the art.
joe rogan
Like in an album, meaning like one song leads to the next song?
james hetfield
Well, like releasing an album.
Here's how we'd like to release it.
We don't want it leaked over here.
We don't want this happening.
A presentation is part of the art.
Like when you walk into an art studio, the artist has been in there putting it together.
Like, okay, I want you to see this first and then that.
And then you go here and you get BAM! There's a passion behind that.
And when someone just throws it out there, it kind of loses an impact.
So, if I'm complaining, punch me in the face.
But we have survived, and we feel good about it, and we've adapted, but the record companies certainly did not.
joe rogan
No, they took a hard hit.
But also, you know, when you look at the record deals, the deals that record companies make with artists, and you see, like, what are record companies selling?
Well, they're only selling your work, without your work, without your creativity, without your creations.
There's nothing to sell.
That's all they sell.
But then you look at these insanely one-sided deals that they cut with artists, especially emerging artists that might be a little bit more desperate, don't realize the potential, especially the potential for income that they might have in the future.
I mean, I've seen some of those.
I don't know.
There was that one that somebody said that Courtney Love didn't really write it, that it was ghost written.
I don't know who the fuck wrote it, but Courtney Love put it out saying that she wrote it, but it was a breakdown of how artists make money.
From the creation of an album, to having it sold in record stores, to where the money gets extracted, and how much is left for the actual artist.
It's pretty fucking disturbing.
james hetfield
Yeah, even, well, you know, a couple years ago, we got the rights to our catalog, our music, from Kill Em All up till now.
We own it, finally.
Which is weird.
I tell my kids, hey, you know, let's go celebrate.
We've got the master recordings.
We own it, finally.
And they were just looking at me like, what the hell are you talking about?
unidentified
Yeah.
james hetfield
You wrote it.
Why isn't it yours?
joe rogan
Right.
james hetfield
Okay, well, I had a little talk about how it was back then.
You would somewhat sell a little bit of your soul to get a bigger something.
Basically, the record company was a bank and a marketing tool to get you where you wanted to be.
So it was a necessary thing at that time, but it's great to have our stuff back and be able to...
We own our own record press.
How cool is that?
In Germany, one of our management people found a place that had some machines that were for sale, and we bought one.
So we press our own vinyl, man.
And we could kind of do whatever we want.
What color vinyl today, you know?
Or what crazy things you can do, you know?
joe rogan
You guys can kind of do whatever the fuck you want now, right?
Pretty much.
You don't need a record company.
You can do anything.
james hetfield
Well, it depends.
We have a record company.
We own our own in America or North America.
The rest of the world's a little tougher.
You know, there's a lot of countries out there, especially in Europe, and there's no way we can deal with the distribution in each different country.
So we've cut really good deals with other record companies that have a vision and have a love for Metallica and understand that this is powerful stuff and people love it and we want to be part of the family.
But having your own record press is a pretty darn cool thing.
It was really inspired by Jack White, of White Stripes fame, Raconteers.
He's done a lot of stuff, but he...
He loves that stuff.
He's pressing his own stuff.
He's coming up with different ways of doing vinyls and colors and hidden tracks and cool stuff like that.
And it's just another way to get creative in your career.
joe rogan
Is vinyl what's selling more than anything now when it comes to actual physical hard copies of things?
james hetfield
I don't know the numbers, and they probably vary all over the place, but vinyl has never gone away.
I don't know if it's coming back, but it's more popular than it was.
I think there's just something tactile about it.
There's something great that people are finally understanding.
That you can look at artwork, you can feel it, and then the ritualization of opening up the player, taking it out and blowing on it, cleaning it, putting it down, setting the needle down.
It's something really cool.
I came down to LA a few months ago and hung out with some high school buddies.
It's like, hey, what do you want to do?
Oh, let's listen to some songs.
And he takes out the Kansas, you know, album, puts it on and...
unidentified
Carry on our way with songs.
james hetfield
Exactly.
unidentified
I was like, dude, this sounds so great.
joe rogan
Wow.
unidentified
Yeah.
james hetfield
And we were actually listening to music, sitting down, listening to it.
My kids got into vinyl.
They got a, you know, like at Urban Outfitter, you buy the little, the setup now.
And that's where they, that's where you can get vinyl.
It's, it's, there, there are some record stores out there, but that's where they gravitate towards.
Got them this little player.
And, uh, They just picked out some album covers.
They didn't even know who they were.
It's like, this cover looks cool.
This speaks to me.
I'm buying this.
joe rogan
I remember doing that kind of thing, finding a cool cover.
james hetfield
Yep, that's how I discovered tons of bands.
So, they go into their room, and I leave them alone for a while, and they come back.
They haven't come out.
It's like, what's going on?
I look in there.
The record player's on the floor, covers and stuff strewn out all over the place, and they're laying on the floor listening to it.
It's like, that was me.
And my daughter comes out.
She said, Dad, you'll never guess what.
I'm like, what?
There's songs on the other side.
Oh my god!
Yeah, it's not a CD. She discovered some huge thing.
joe rogan
Wow.
Well, that was one of the things that was not...
What is this?
Vinyl sales outperformed digital downloads for the first time.
james hetfield
Nice.
joe rogan
Wow!
Shows a significant shift in how people are consuming music.
That's really interesting, man.
james hetfield
I tell you, that's just cool in general.
The more ways you can get music to people, the better.
joe rogan
Well, I think the other thing that you were saying, it's a whole presentation, the album cover.
You open it up, the inside, the artwork.
All that represents your vision of what you guys are trying to put out.
And that was one of the things that kind of went away with digital.
All of a sudden, there were no album covers.
The CD was that big.
It's like a tiny little piece of art.
And if you're downloading it, you're not even getting that.
You're just getting the music itself.
unidentified
That's it.
james hetfield
Well, you would get downloadable artwork, but you're not really looking at the artwork while you're listening to it on your mobile device.
So the event of sitting down and disappearing into the music You know, being a real music listener.
I mean, while you're driving, I get it.
It's keeping you from killing people on the road.
But when you go home and you sit and you just get lost in stuff, even like those, the cheap friggin' headphones, man, the little earbuds.
My kids were listening to stuff on that.
It's like, you guys haven't experienced music, like good sound.
Here, try these headphones on.
They're like, whoa!
I hear stuff I didn't hear before.
But just seeing my kids get excited about going to a live concert.
They go there and they absorb it in every sense.
You're not just having your ears hear something.
And that will never be...
I don't know.
Maybe the friggin' goggles or some kind of audio-visual stuff will reproduce live shows, but there's something about being next to a sweaty fucker at a gig and them pushing you or seeing someone headbang wildly or getting thrown over the top of you.
There's just so much smells, things like that, that just can't be recreated.
So live music, my daughter just like, I can't believe that guy just pressed a button on his computer and he's singing over his own music.
That's not performing, you know?
She discovered that on her own.
Hey, these guys are actually playing their instruments.
And they fucked up.
They fucked up a song.
It was so cool.
You know?
I saw something that I wouldn't have, you know?
Really cool like that.
joe rogan
Yeah, the lip syncing thing, man.
When you go to see a concert and you find out that people are lip syncing, that's so disturbing.
It's just, what have you done?
What is the point of this?
james hetfield
It is disappointing.
joe rogan
What is live performance?
Live performance is supposed to be your experience in this thing actually happening.
You're watching this person express themselves.
They're not pretending.
You're not supposed to be pretending.
james hetfield
Right.
Are you pretending you're you?
joe rogan
You should be able to get your fucking money back.
That's pretending.
That's not singing.
james hetfield
I've gone to see plenty of shows with my kids, and you can tell.
It's like, alright, the mic's way over here, and they're still singing.
It's like, well, they have to have the backing tracks because they're dancing and they're out of breath.
It's like, well, fucking stop dancing and do the song.
I mean, are you a dancer or are you a musician or a singer or whatever?
joe rogan
Or up your fucking cardio.
Start running hills.
It can be done.
james hetfield
There you go.
Come to Vail and run up the 14er.
joe rogan
Exactly.
It can be done.
james hetfield
But I've seen shows where there's that going on, and then they'll get real.
You know, like, sit down on a couch, plug it in acoustic, and sing at a key, and, like, really try and struggle with the song, or sing it, you know.
It's like, that's natural.
That feels good.
Who would not gravitate towards that than listening to the album?
I can listen to the album at home.
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's why it's cool to just see an acoustic set sometimes from people.
Mm-hmm.
It's as minimal as possible.
You're breaking it down to the bare bones, just a guitar and two people singing or something.
james hetfield
Yeah, that is pretty intimidating, I tell you, when we do like that Neil Young benefit where it's, you know, acoustic only, and you're friggin' naked up there, dude.
Every note is like, you know, and every fuck up on the vocal.
It's great.
I mean, it's like when, you know, you go, or you're gonna be on a TV thing and they put makeup on you.
It's like, why are you doing that?
joe rogan
Right, exactly.
james hetfield
Yeah.
So when people see me in person, they think, damn, you're one ugly fucker.
It's like, no, I want to be as ugly as possible to everyone.
So when they see me, they go, hey, it's you, you know?
joe rogan
Exactly, exactly.
Yeah, you're not airbrushed.
Yeah, you see a Photoshop of yourself, and it's like, you know, they smoothed out all your lines, and you're like, what the fuck are you doing?
james hetfield
What have you done to me?
Sometimes you gotta do it, or like, you know, if you're in a band, like I am, and the three guys get the stuff put on, and then I show up, it's like, dude, oh my god, you're shiny!
joe rogan
Exactly.
It's like people are going to go, fuck this band.
That dude's sweating.
james hetfield
Yeah.
Right, right.
joe rogan
When it comes to the Napster thing and what happened with Lars, I feel like...
There's two different things.
There's what's really happening, and there's how people look at it.
And what's really happening was all of a sudden this door got opened up, or this Pandora's box got opened.
And you guys were looking at it going, whoa, we're going to lose our record sales.
Do you understand that people have been consuming music in a certain way, you've been paying for music, and that paying for music is supported.
All these people that are a part of this industry that makes albums, there's this gigantic thing behind it, this is all gonna go away, because you just put a hole in the bottom of it and all the money's gonna get dropped out.
But then the way it looks is, look at this rich motherfucker, you know, he doesn't appreciate his fans, hey man, I can't afford your album right now, is it okay if I just download it for free?
A lot of people thought, well, hey, people who can afford it will still be downloading it, and then they'll buy it when they can.
But that wasn't really the case, was it?
james hetfield
Nah, I don't know.
You know, I'm all for convenience in the technology moving forward.
Getting music out to people is the important part.
But just make sure the artist gets what they deserve from it.
Because without that, it's going to become a hobby.
No one wants, you know, I don't want to see the paramedic show up at my house and it's like a hobby for him.
Hey, you know, I'm not really getting paid for what I think I should get paid for, my creation, but I guess I'll save your life, you know, maybe.
People didn't relate that to their career or something equivalent.
joe rogan
Well, I think because the money wasn't equivalent.
They looked at you guys like, you guys are already so rich.
What do you give a shit?
There's no way you're gonna be broke.
You guys made millions and millions and millions of dollars.
You tour all over the world.
And it became the touring thing was the way artists made money then, right?
james hetfield
Touring and merchandise.
And that's now how record companies are structuring their deals.
You know, hey, we get a piece of your merch and touring.
joe rogan
See, that's bizarre, though.
The record companies getting a piece of your touring, to me, is very strange.
And I've seen not just a piece, but an exorbitant amount.
And that disturbs me.
james hetfield
Well, that's the only way they can survive now.
joe rogan
They shouldn't be around then, because then you become a parasite, because you don't deserve it.
I mean, especially now where bands can literally become gigantic because of YouTube.
Didn't Justin Bieber become huge just entirely because of YouTube?
Jamie knows.
Look at him.
He's a fucking Justin Bieber fan.
He hides it.
james hetfield
Hey, me too.
joe rogan
First I heard him sing, I thought it was a girl.
I didn't even know it was a...
I didn't know.
james hetfield
Well, I tell you, the whole, you know, would you go up to the artist and take that out of his pocket?
Would you go into a record store and just lift that, steal it, run out the door with it?
Would you do that with, you know, okay, there's big corporations that are rich, and would you go walk in and just steal their stuff?
I mean, there's software companies that are massive.
Would you go in there and just rip their stuff?
unidentified
Yeah.
james hetfield
I don't get that mentality.
Call me old school, but you need to earn what you get.
And if it gets stolen from you, it doesn't make any sense.
It's hard to fathom.
And what it seems like to me, and I could be talking out my ass, but the record companies dropped the ball and the new record companies became iTunes.
They control it all.
Here's how much we're charging for your music, and here's how much you're going to get.
Everyone's even.
It's like some communist approach, you know?
And I don't understand that.
If we're an artist and we make a lot of money, that's up to us.
If we give all our money away to charity or we throw it back into a movie that bombs, which happened, that's our choice.
We're the fucking artist.
We get to do what we want.
It's our party.
You're invited.
And we can destroy this thing if we want.
I don't want you to destroy it.
joe rogan
Yeah, the iTunes distribution model is a very bizarre one.
It's very strange how they've...
james hetfield
They don't know what they're doing.
No one knows what they're doing.
And, you know, there was a system that worked, and I'm up for bucking the system and making it better, but it didn't.
It didn't get better.
It's like you said, the cat got out of the bag, and you can't put it back in, man.
You just can't.
So what do you do?
Oh, you got Spotify, or you got something else where streaming's gonna help get the artist their money, and...
It's, you know, companies like that are losing money a lot.
joe rogan
Spotify?
james hetfield
I don't know the exact workings, and I'm not going to speak for them at all, but it hasn't been figured out yet, is what I'm saying.
It hasn't been figured out how to make a music model work, and there's no one way.
Maybe there will never be one way again, and that's fine, but it's still unbalanced.
joe rogan
Well, this technology continues to evolve and change.
It's sort of in a lot of ways like Twitter.
Like how many millions and hundreds of millions of people use Twitter, but they can't figure out a way to make money with it.
It's this very strange thing where people just want to use stuff.
They don't want to give you any money.
So you have to figure out some way to extract money from all these people using stuff.
And if you have a streaming service, You know, and it's free.
It's a free streaming service.
And I see some of the fees that they pay artists for music that's been played millions of times.
Like, what was that one song?
I forget who it was.
Like, the most played song on Spotify.
And then they have the numbers that the guy got for that actual song.
And you're like, well, where the fuck is the money going then?
Right.
james hetfield
Well, you know, I... We're talking a lot about money here.
joe rogan
There it is.
Pharrell made two...
Oh, these fucking ads.
This is what's wrong with America.
Looks like you're using an ad blocker.
Yeah, I'm using an ad blocker.
To stop this, you fuck.
Jesus Christ.
How to display...
Here it goes.
Pharrell made only $2,700,000 in songwriting royalties from 43 million plays of his song that I can't look at the ad because it's a fucking ad blocker.
Is that Business Insider?
Hey, fuck you, Business Insider.
God damn it.
You can't have ads just pop up, you cunt.
Those are gross.
james hetfield
That's frustrating.
joe rogan
That's another thing, but that's another thing.
james hetfield
But that's how they're making money.
joe rogan
They're trying to figure out a way, because nobody wants to buy magazines anymore.
james hetfield
Well, that's how they're making money, not Pharrell.
joe rogan
43 million plays of Happy.
2,000 bucks.
james hetfield
Yikes.
joe rogan
That's fucking crazy.
It's a plane ticket.
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
For 43 million...
I mean, it's nuts.
james hetfield
We talk a lot about money, but it's not...
I mean, it's not about the money, and it doesn't...
It shouldn't be anybody's friggin' business how much you make, how much he makes.
I mean, if you want to reveal it, fine.
But...
Why is there such a stigma around being successful?
I don't understand that.
People will just want to rip you for it.
joe rogan
Well, there's a disingenuous approach to art if you're just doing art to make money.
And that's what people hate.
One of the things that I loved about your new album is it's totally clear 100% that this is a real Metallica album.
This isn't just some, hey man, we need to make some money, let's slap together some shitty ideas and make a Metallica album out of it, and we know how to do it.
No, it's a fucking Metallica album.
And that's because you're creating your art.
You're not necessarily doing it saying, hey, if we do this, we should be able to make money.
I think when people...
If you think that someone's just trying to make money, it drives them crazy.
People know in their head that that's not how great art is created.
The money might be a consequence of great art, but you don't say, let's make a movie that makes $100 million.
This is going to be awesome.
No, the fuck it's not.
That's going to be much of shitty CGI and explosions and a hot girl and the guy and the girl kiss at the end and fuck you, I saw it all coming.
james hetfield
It's been done before.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's been done before because you're just slapping together a formula, and that stuff drives people nuts when you know that someone is doing something just for money.
So whenever money gets discussed, people automatically get that sort of weird distaste, like, oh, it's money.
That fucking money's ruining everything.
They're going to be doing ballads on some teenage angst fucking movie next.
james hetfield
Right, right.
joe rogan
Fuck!
james hetfield
Right.
Well, that's not hardwired.
That's for sure.
joe rogan
No.
james hetfield
No.
We're still searching for it.
joe rogan
You're still doing it.
james hetfield
Still searching for the right, the best, the ultimate riff.
joe rogan
Yeah, but you're still doing it.
That's what's most important.
You're still doing it.
And it can be done.
I think when we were kids, there weren't old rockers.
You know?
I'm 49. How old are you?
53. When we were kids, who the fuck was an old rocker?
You know, Jerry Lee Lewis is pretty old.
He's still out there doing it.
Chuck Berry's still touring.
Holy shit, you know?
But now, you got fucking Mick Jaggers going crazy on stage.
He's fucking 70. He's still ripped.
james hetfield
He just had a kid.
joe rogan
He had a fucking kid.
How is that possible?
The last sperm, the fucking last survivor with a one-eyed sperm with a fucking axe wound across his face, marches through the battlefield and punches through that egg.
james hetfield
I made it.
joe rogan
Yeah, man.
Goddamn pirate comedy.
I mean, that guy's still out there smashing it.
I've seen him.
His fucking concerts are rocking.
He's got energy.
james hetfield
Not only him, but one person.
We get compared to the Stones.
Like, how long are you going to do this is the question.
I don't know.
If it's still fun, we're going to do it.
When it's not fun, then we'll let you know.
joe rogan
Yeah.
james hetfield
But yeah, Mick Jagger, the Stones, Mick Jagger for sure.
He's out there.
He's doing his thing.
He's all over the place.
You know, the Stones, music-wise, and the rest of the band, you know, they're doing what they've always done, but it's not the physicality like, say, Metallica has.
So, you know, Charlie Watts is not Lars Ulrich.
You know, like, you know.
joe rogan
Right.
james hetfield
At some point, your body's saying, oh boy, we can't do this for this long anymore.
Let's take a break.
So keeping yourself healthy in a physical, mental, and spiritual sense, you've got to do all that for sanity's sake.
Other bands that are out there that are doing it, Angus Young is probably the guy where I'd definitely take my hat off for.
That dude is insane.
And I don't know, he must sweat gallons every show.
And he's, you know, he's like the size, you know, he's like a little dude.
He is an elf.
And he's out, where's that water coming from?
unidentified
Where?
james hetfield
How can you sweat your body weight, you know?
And he's out there headbanging and rocking.
I mean, and he's up there in age, too.
So that's the person we're kind of...
I guess, seeing how long can this guy go?
joe rogan
He's the canary in the coal mine.
james hetfield
He is, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, but also, how does he not have fucking brain damage from all that headbanging?
Like, soccer players are getting brain damage.
He might, but he might not give a fuck.
Like, that's the price you pay.
Take some vitamins, get back out there, bitch.
james hetfield
Yeah, well, I'll tell you, out of the big four, if you know the big four, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, these four bands that are still going, and unbelievably, after 35 years, Myself, Dave Mustaine, and Tom Mariah have all had neck surgery from all of this headbanging.
joe rogan
You had neck surgery?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
What kind of neck surgery?
james hetfield
It was a partial discectomy in like C6. Okay, so you had a bulging disc.
joe rogan
It was repression on your nerve?
james hetfield
Pressed on my nerve going down my arm.
I couldn't pick my arm up.
joe rogan
The ulnar nerve, so it was like making your hands numb?
james hetfield
Yeah.
Well, I couldn't pick my arm up.
joe rogan
Did you ever do decompression?
Spinal decompression?
james hetfield
Decompression chamber?
joe rogan
No.
Spinal decompression, like they put a harness on your neck and they stretch your neck out.
Do they do that?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
Do you have one of those at home?
james hetfield
I don't.
joe rogan
You need to get one of those.
It's gigantic.
It's so simple.
It's just a harness that you put on.
It straps Velcro around it.
It connects to a door, the top of a door.
And you just sit down on a chair and it's like you're hanging yourself.
You pull it click-click like this and it just stretches.
It carries your weight a little bit on your neck.
You're still sitting.
That's it right there.
See it up in that screen?
I have one of those in my house.
It's fucking invaluable.
It's so giant.
Because it's the only way to legitimately stretch your neck.
And a lot of spinal decompression, a lot of bulging discs and the pain and discomfort associated with it, you can mitigate a lot of that with one of those things.
It's big.
james hetfield
I don't have to wear that shirt, right?
joe rogan
No, you can wear whatever you want.
You can go naked.
I got another thing I'm going to show you that's called the Iron Neck that'll strengthen your neck up.
james hetfield
We were looking at that.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I'll show you how to do it.
This guy just brought it in last week.
I'm obsessed with it.
It's fucking amazing.
And it's also good.
It's not difficult to do.
It's pretty easy to do.
But it's also good for not just strengthening your neck, but increasing your range of motion.
james hetfield
Hey, great.
joe rogan
But I can imagine that all the fucking...
Yeah, after a while, man.
james hetfield
Yeah, not just that, but just the posture of your guitar.
You're playing really low and you're down.
There's posture stuff, but I agree that making it straight, making your back straight is harder now than it was.
You know, leaning against the wall and thinking, wow, I don't want to be that old dude, you know, who's hunched over the middle of his back as like a friggin', you know, like the hunchback at Notre Dame or something.
joe rogan
It creeps in on you.
You don't even realize it's happening until it's too late, and then you can't straighten it back up again.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Do you exercise?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
What do you do?
james hetfield
I got a physical trainer in Vail.
Basically, keeping range of motion going, core, you know, lots of hiking, treadmill, stuff like that.
Not so much, you know, power, you know, bulking up or anything, but just trying to stay mobile.
I've got...
And I'm sure everyone at my age has some of it.
It's a, you know, a spinal stenosis where there's, you know, calcium and, you know, kind of arthritic buildup around your spinal cord.
So keeping that mobile, keeping things moving.
I go to a, like, holistic healer, too, who's breaking up calcium on fingers and toes and stuff.
And I'm doing all I can, doing all I can to get up there and be Angus Young still.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, if you're experiencing issues with stenosis, too, that machine can help that a lot, strengthen your whole spinal cord.
And I've got another thing in the back I want to show you.
It's called a reverse hyper.
It actually helps decompress your body.
It decompresses your spinal column and strengthens it at the same time.
It's created by that...
See that guy with the black shirt?
That guy's a fucking psychopath.
His name's Louie Simmons.
Great guy.
We interviewed him for the podcast.
He's completely out of his fucking mind.
He's been on steroids straight since 1976. He's never gone off of them.
james hetfield
Well, he's pointing at that lady like something's happening.
joe rogan
So fuck, Liz is explaining what it does to your back.
But that machine, man, anybody with back issues, any back issue at all, because what that machine does is it allows your back to actively decompress from the lower back all the way up to your neck area.
And it strengthens everything and decompresses it.
So it lengthens your spine.
It stretches all that tissue out and pulls all the fascia and all that stuff out.
You can see him demonstrating it here.
When this woman gets up there, see as it goes down, it's actually pulling your back.
And that's like the only exercise that I've ever seen that decompresses and then on the lift up, strengthens all those muscles, and then on the way down, it pulls them down.
I have a bunch of different things in the back, because I've had some disc issues myself, but I took care of all of them without surgery.
james hetfield
Right on.
joe rogan
But it wasn't, the doctors were trying to cut me.
That's their immediate thing, like, oh, you're going to need surgery, get in there.
Well, probably eventually you're going to have to have your discs fused.
I was like, what?
Wait a minute.
I'm moving around fine.
How come you guarantee that it's going to get worse?
Why is it that when you're at one state, they never think, well, you can improve this with physical therapy and it can get better?
Their immediate reaction is it's going to get worse, so count on getting surgery.
james hetfield
Oh, that's what they know.
And that's what they're schooled on.
And I love the fact that you're giving them the finger and say, hey, no, I don't have to go down that path.
I'm going to try it this way.
And there are lots of different ways to do that.
And unfortunately, mine was touching the nerve.
And I couldn't lift my arm.
And there was atrophy happening.
And so something had to happen.
But my back, yeah, I've gone on to, I've had like, you know, ruptured discs, spits.
Broken ribs, gone on tour.
Singing with two broken ribs, not fun.
But yeah, the back, man, when it hurts, you turn into a fucking baby, man.
It's just like...
joe rogan
I know, right?
You can have a torn calf muscle and you limp around, but you seem to be okay.
But your back, you're like...
james hetfield
I can't do anything.
My life's over.
But alright, we'll go see your torture chamber or your racks.
joe rogan
Do you do yoga at all?
james hetfield
No.
joe rogan
Oh, that's what you gotta do.
You gotta get involved.
Seems like everything wrong.
Like housewife, bullshit, maybe gay.
james hetfield
Dude, I don't care about any of that crap.
If it's gonna help me, I'm into it.
joe rogan
I think anybody over 40 in particular, yoga is gigantic.
james hetfield
Yeah, cool.
Well, I mean, I've done things where, you know, okay, we're going to ask your body some questions, and here, put this statement against your chest, or here, where are these colored glasses, and, you know, here's tuning forks on your body, you know, things like that, you know.
I'm totally, I'm an explorer.
I'd like to, and if it works, cool.
If it doesn't work, hey, I tried it.
joe rogan
What was the question you had to ask your body?
You wrote it down on a piece of paper and put it to your chest?
james hetfield
Yeah, what was the question?
unidentified
Am I retarded?
james hetfield
Never going full retard.
Look at Champagne, full retard.
No, didn't work.
Right, I don't know what the question was.
Like, why am I doing this?
unidentified
Why am I writing a piece of paper and putting it on my chest?
james hetfield
Something like, am I willing to get healthy?
Something like that.
I'd like to be friends with my body instead of abusing it.
Stuff like that.
joe rogan
Well, the intensity of your performances.
I mean, I just can only imagine the physical strain that it puts in your body.
That's why I wanted to ask you about fitness.
Like, you kind of have to be in shape to do Metallica concerts at 30. Forget about it, 53. Yeah.
james hetfield
We have PT on the road.
A therapist who will stretch us out.
We're all different.
My back, my neck.
Robert's calves.
He's this frigging...
unidentified
He's calves?
james hetfield
Yeah.
He's frigging Tarzan, that guy.
He gets way down.
He's a surfer.
Calves and his forearms from playing with his fingers.
They cramp up.
And then Lars's shoulder.
This one.
Hi-hat.
Right.
So we've all got our thing, Kirk's wrists.
And this guy's out there helping us.
And, you know, he'll give us things to try and work on.
And, you know, we all have to have our regiments out here.
It's like you take a part of home on the road.
You know, it's not like...
I need my hotel room decorated like my house.
Bring my bed on tour.
Not that, but it's people that can help me out on the road.
joe rogan
Some people do go crazy like that, right?
james hetfield
They do.
joe rogan
Some rock stars?
james hetfield
Yeah.
I want you to recreate that.
And I've heard stories, and it's kind of funny.
Maybe it's true, maybe it's not.
I don't want to continue a rumor, but just hearing that, yeah, some of the guys in the Stones will have their decorator come in and they've decorated their hotel room like their home or something, put their favorite things in there and all that, and then they're there for a night and then they go off to the next place, you know?
joe rogan
And the decorator meets them in advance and sets it up at the next spot, too.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, I guess if you're fucking Mick Jagger, whatever, do whatever the hell you want.
You're 90,000 years old, you're still getting chicks pregnant.
What kind of reality does that guy live in?
james hetfield
Who am I to say it's wrong, man?
Yeah, you do what you want and feel good about it.
When you go to bed, wake up and go, okay, I'm alright.
That's the main thing.
If I've gone to bed and say, man, that was stupid.
Actually, yeah, the other day I did something pretty stupid.
I gotta call this guy and tell him.
We were doing this...
What was it?
The guy, Billy on the Street.
You know that?
joe rogan
Billy on the Street.
james hetfield
What's that?
Billy Eichel, I think his name is.
He's on the street, just running up to people.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
Like a show?
james hetfield
Yeah, like quiz shows.
What's the name of Adele's album?
unidentified
No, you suck!
james hetfield
And then run off to the next person.
Really manic, kind of crazy stuff.
We did that in a store with him the other day.
We went shopping at a supermarket...
And in a shopping cart, Metallica's pushing his shopping cart around.
He's running up to people going, hey, what are you buying today?
Oh, you're making a salad?
Hey, do you want to get pumped up while you're shopping?
We got Metallica here to pump you up!
So we...
We press the play button in Sandman's Play, and we're like, yeah, come on!
At a supermarket.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And we're filling up their cart with stuff they don't need.
And they're like, ah, fuck!
And this one guy was at the salad bar, and he looked like he just took a break from work.
It was on his lunch break.
And I started filling up his salad with peas and all kinds of stuff, and we're throwing salad all over the place.
And I turned around.
To grab some more stuff.
Lars had put dressing on his salad.
I didn't know that.
So at the end, when we took off, I just...
I wanted to just throw it in his face.
Like, it was just a dry salad.
Oh, God.
And the dressing went all over him.
He's like, you fuckers!
Like, oops, that backfired.
Okay, we've gone a little too far.
I'm 18 again and trashing the hotel room.
Okay, we're at the supermarket.
Chill out, James.
joe rogan
Who organized this fucking thing?
james hetfield
It's just part of our promo tour thing.
We're trying to do funny, cool, different stuff.
Some of these shows, they get wacky.
I don't know if you saw the Metallica playing with the roots on Jimmy Fallon, playing Sandman on the little...
joe rogan
No, I didn't see that.
unidentified
Do-do-do.
james hetfield
We got little recorders and little drum sets, little kids' instruments.
That was a lot of fun.
So we're getting to have some fun and kind of not be too serious about all of this.
joe rogan
Well, that's a cool thing to see, someone who's as big as you are in a band that's just a goddamn gigantic, monolith, epic band.
But you guys are silly.
You guys are pretty goddamn epic.
unidentified
Alright.
joe rogan
You know?
I think you know that.
james hetfield
Well, the fact that we can...
Here it is.
unidentified
Give me some volume.
joe rogan
What's the matter?
james hetfield
I'll put it in.
joe rogan
Little one, don't forget my son.
unidentified
The roots are good, man.
james hetfield
They are a great band.
joe rogan
Jimmy Fallon is such a silly guy, too.
unidentified
We were having some fun.
james hetfield
Definitely having some fun there.
joe rogan
Well, that's also a cool thing to see from a fucking hard band, too.
I mean, you guys don't necessarily take...
I mean, you obviously take yourself seriously.
You're obviously serious about what you do, but you don't take yourself too seriously.
james hetfield
Well, we're serious about...
joe rogan
Your art.
james hetfield
Our art.
When we write a song, we're serious about this.
But when we go out, when we play live, I mean, we're...
We're not the best musicians separately, I would say.
And someone might disagree, but when you put us together, something happens, and we create something really cool.
There's an energy.
And I think back from the very beginning...
Like, when someone fucked up the song, we just stopped.
It's like, oh man, let's try it again.
We can do this better, you know?
And people say, what the...
You're not supposed to do that.
Dude, they're not very professional.
It's like, yeah, but that's what happened.
I mean, we're honest.
We want to do it better, and we know we can, so we're going to stop it and do it again, you know?
Or, I mean, just like the other day, I had like this friggin' brain fart on stage where...
We're up there, and they play the intro to One, which is like this army hit.
You know, all the war going on, and then I start this thing, and I started the wrong song.
I started Fade to Black instead of a different song.
I'm standing there going, um...
What do I do now?
And like this wave of shame comes over you like, you're a bad man.
And I'm looking over my roadie and they're going, not that song.
And I look at it and it's like, okay, I'll stop it.
And then I went to the other song and then I'm able later to go up and say, hey, want to hear Fated Black again?
You gotta joke about it or else you...
It's like you become...
It's like you gotta expose your vulnerable parts.
People...
People will make fun of that, and they'll take advantage of it sometimes, but most of the times, people will relate to it, like, ah, he's human.
He fucked up.
Okay, you know?
So trusting that there's more lifeguards than sharks out there most of the time, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah.
I think also people differentiate the big difference between a mistake and someone who's careless or doesn't give a fuck.
james hetfield
Very true.
Very true.
joe rogan
And that's just, you guys are obviously very serious about what you do, but everybody occasionally has a brain fart.
There's just no getting around it.
I've been in the middle of a UFC broadcast, and I fucking forget someone's name.
And I've called their fights a hundred times, and I can't remember why I can't remember their name.
And then, for whatever reason, I have to look down at my notes, and there it is, and I'm just angry at myself.
But just, sometimes it just doesn't work.
And there's no rhyme or reason to why your brain doesn't work right sometimes.
james hetfield
So you're tough on yourself?
unidentified
Oh yeah.
joe rogan
I'm horrible at myself.
james hetfield
You say things to yourself that you wouldn't even say to your worst enemy.
joe rogan
There's no words.
It's just feelings.
james hetfield
You asshole.
You suck.
joe rogan
I can have a show where I kill, but I fuck up one word and one joke and that's all I can think of.
There's no way...
If you care about what you do, that's just part of the program.
james hetfield
Absolutely.
And there's a healthy part to that.
And then moving on from it, it's easier now than it used to be.
It would live in me for a while.
Like, oh, dude, you forgot the words to that song.
And then it becomes a mental block.
You get up there and you go, oh, shit, like a kicker or something.
A guy going to kick a field goal is like, oh, I missed that one.
I can't believe I did.
Then the next one, oh, my God, now it's a thing.
joe rogan
Yeah.
james hetfield
You can see that with fighters.
joe rogan
When fighters lose a fight and then they come back, and then you can see the discomfort.
You can see the confusion and the fear.
I think psychological issues are some of the hardest issues that people ever overcome.
It's just literally like a pattern of thought in your mind.
But if you just decide that you're not as good as you used to be, you can manifest that.
Even though physically you can do all the same things.
james hetfield
It is so crazy.
The power of thought, the power of my mind, it's pretty dangerous at times.
And being creative, I make up all kinds of crap, you know?
Like, oh, Lars is doing that just to fuck with me.
I know it.
And then you talk with him later, it's like, what are you talking about?
joe rogan
He has no idea what you're saying.
james hetfield
Yeah, that's pretty, it's a curse and a gift, that creativity, you know?
joe rogan
How hard was it for you to get sober?
james hetfield
Fear was a big motivator in that for me.
Losing my family, that was the thing that scared me so much, that was the bottom I hit, that my family's gonna go away because of my behaviors that I brought home from the road.
I got kicked out of the house by my wife.
I was living on my own somewhere.
I did not want that.
Maybe as part of my upbringing, you know, my family kind of disintegrated when I was a kid.
You know, father left, mother passed away, had to live with my brother, and then kind of just all...
Like the family, you know, where'd my stuff go?
It just kind of floated away.
And I do not want that happening, you know?
No matter what's going on, we're going to talk this stuff out and make it work, you know?
And my wife's of the same idea, same thought, that...
You know, her family, she was the invisible kid too, you know?
So we relate a lot.
So there's no way we're gonna let, you know, any argument get in the way or just, you know, we're survivors.
We're survivors and we're gonna talk through it no matter how much.
And, you know, she did the right thing.
She kicked my ass right the hell out of the house, you know?
And that scared the shit out of me.
And she said, hey, you're not just going to the therapist now.
You're not just talking about this.
You've got to go somewhere and sort this shit out.
So that's what I did.
Rehab really worked for me.
joe rogan
How long did you have to go for?
james hetfield
Well, what worked for me was seven weeks someplace.
Like, basically tearing you down to bones.
Ripping your life apart, anything you thought about yourself or what it was, anything you thought you had, your family, your career, your anything, gone.
Strip you down to just, okay, you're born.
Here's how you were when you were born.
You were okay.
You're a good person.
Let's get back to that again.
And then they slowly rebuild you.
And then I went to another, they call them aftercare places.
I went there to a couple different ones.
And they fine-tune stuff and get you integrated back into life.
Because when you're in this cocoon, you're friggin' raw.
I mean, I was raw meat when I came out.
And you can see it in that some kind of monster movie.
I was pretty raw still.
I didn't know what I could or what I should or shouldn't do, you know?
So the last place we went to was a place that helps relationships.
So they got me and my wife together and we'd see people separately and then come together and talk about what we did and communication friggin saved my life, saved our family and working through that stuff.
So Very grateful for my wife.
She's the one that didn't ask for this shit.
She walked through fire with me and we walked out together stronger, way stronger than we ever would have been before.
And you know, my kids know my story.
My kids know my struggles and they respect that.
They respect me in a different way.
I don't have to tell them what to do all the time or just be like I'm this.
I can say sorry.
I can tell them, hey, here's what happened when I did that.
And, you know, I don't need to preach to them.
They got their own stuff.
But now they goof with me.
I ruined my trust with my family.
And now, by some miracle, they are goofing with me.
It's like, Dad, shut up.
I'm like, come on.
You're overblowing this.
Dad, you're taking up way too much space here, okay?
So they help me, and I realize that there is help in a loving way.
joe rogan
How long have you been sober now?
james hetfield
15. 15 years.
joe rogan
Did it start out when you first started doing it?
Did it feel like as you broke through and you went to therapy and you got out of rehab and you're going through this whole thing, was there a shaky leg period where you're like, man, do I know who I am anymore?
james hetfield
Oh, absolutely.
That was it.
That was...
That is, you know, the power of the mind.
Here's how my life works.
And to actually just completely throw that away and start over...
It's like, well, wait a minute.
Who am I without this?
I can't talk to people.
I'm anxious.
I'm shy.
I'm all of the stuff that I thought booze was helping me with.
Booze, drugs, women, shopping, eating, gambling.
There's so many things that can manifest out there.
It all goes back to one core thing.
It's like, I don't really know who I am.
So, it took years and years and years to figure out, okay, I like that.
That's part of me.
And this is part of me.
The anger, the quirkiness, the dork part of me.
All these little things that make me...
I gotta hug him.
I gotta accept him, you know, and quit running from him and pretending like I am some immovable object on stage that's tough and, you know, nothing can do, you know, nothing can hurt me.
But inside, you know, it's kind of a cliche saying, you know, the harder that external shield, the softer the inside and the more vulnerable and balancing that, you know.
joe rogan
Almost like you're concentrating so much on the hard outside that you ignore the inside.
james hetfield
Totally.
Totally.
And then forget what I really want.
And then you lose yourself in that other person.
And yeah, being in a band certainly accelerated that.
You know, there was drink and drug and all kinds of stuff just thrown at you all the time, and it starts off as a fun little thing, and then it turns into an escape, and then all of a sudden you don't remember why you're out there doing stuff.
I went on tour just so I could go to the strip club.
Hey, we're going to this place, you know, or we're going to drink here, and, you know, knew all that stuff.
But the actual playing on stage, it kind of got...
We get caught up in the rock star stuff.
There's a song on this album called Moth Into Flame that directly talks about how fame can be this crazy drug and it can completely take you over if you let it.
You're searching for that thing that's going to save you and it's you.
It's in you.
It's already there.
You just got to find it and accept it.
joe rogan
Well, you're a very down-to-earth guy, which is very unusual for someone who's as famous as you are.
And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you about this is because it seems like right now you're you.
You can be you.
But it seems like for someone who's as famous as that, who gets on stage and thousands of people just...
Going fucking crazy and you're up there.
I mean that has got to be intoxicating and confusing and oftentimes I feel like people are a prisoner to whatever image that either they projected initially or it becomes how the public perceives them because of all their success and because of the fact they go on stage and a hundred thousand people go fucking apeshit.
What What is that like trying to find yourself while you're also...
I'm kind of worshipped.
james hetfield
Right.
Well, Joe, you hit it.
I mean, the transitions from road to home are always somewhat difficult.
It's like there's a PTSD that goes along with it, you know?
You are, like you said, worshipped.
There's a lot of, you know, where do I get my validation, really?
That's where I have to step back and say, okay, am I who these people...
Say I am or think I am.
They have their own vision or version of me, just like I had my own version of Lemmy.
You know, there's this thing that it was strong.
And, you know, these people expect me to be a certain way.
And when they meet you in normal life, you're sitting with your family eating or you're frigging in the supermarket, you know, throwing salad on some guy, you're...
People want you to do the thing you do.
Hey, headbang, jump up on the salad bar and rock out or something.
Dude, music does that to me.
Playing music with these guys does that to me.
But when I'm not doing that, I'm just a dude, you know?
And they don't want that.
It hurts them.
It scares them.
Like, wait a minute.
Um...
I need you to be this certain way.
It makes me feel secure.
So when you're not that, you know, I don't want to sign stuff.
I don't want to take pictures, selfies with people.
I want to shake your hand and I want to talk with you.
I want to, hey, who are you?
What do you do?
Here's what I do.
You know, people think they know me because of the music and all the interviews and all the stuff.
I get that.
But I don't know you.
So when you come up and say, you know, I want to know you.
Because we're at a disadvantage here.
joe rogan
But if you get swamped by people and they all want to take pictures, how do you handle that?
james hetfield
Oh, I got to leave.
I mean...
There's an anger part of me that I still wrestle with, and things get stupid, and it's like it's a fight or flight thing, man.
It's like I'm being attacked.
Wait a minute.
joe rogan
You just get overwhelmed by all the people?
james hetfield
Yeah, yeah.
It's just so weird.
It's so weird.
We played in front of half a million people.
joe rogan
Half a million people?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
Where was that?
james hetfield
This was in Russia.
Holy shit.
This was in the airfield.
joe rogan
Oh my god.
james hetfield
So we've done that.
joe rogan
What the fuck was that like?
james hetfield
It was a sea of Russian people.
I mean, that's what it was.
That's insane to even see that many people.
This was in 1991. 1991 when the curtain came down and all of that, and Time Warner...
They wanted to basically get their foot in the door, and so they created a free concert.
It was ACDC, us, Pantera, and I think maybe a local band or some other bands.
I'm sorry if I can't remember, but they flew us in there.
We landed in this airfield.
Oh, Motley Crue was on it.
Landed in this airfield, and as far as I could see, it was a free concert, and it was just people.
And we get on stage and do what we do, but it was military.
You know, military in the front.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ, look at that photo!
Holy shit!
Holy shit!
Jamie, go full screen with that.
Just go with that one.
What in the fuck?
Oh my god, that's insane!
james hetfield
Is that it?
Is that the one?
That might be something else, but...
jamie vernon
It looks a little newer, but it says here it's from 91 Moscow.
james hetfield
Wow.
Yeah, pretty remarkable.
And there were...
Dude, imagine a sea of people like that.
And see, there's a helicopter.
Helicopter flying over people.
joe rogan
Oh my god.
james hetfield
What if that thing goes down, man?
They could be chopping up all kinds of folks.
joe rogan
Look at that photo...
Go right up there at that one, on stage, facing those people.
Oh my god, that is fucking insane!
james hetfield
And that helicopter would come down close, and they were yelling at people, like, stop!
You know, people were moshing or going crazy.
They didn't know what that was.
Oh, wow.
joe rogan
They thought it was like a fight.
james hetfield
They're a freaking communist country, man.
And they're like, wait a minute.
People are getting out of order.
This is chaos!
joe rogan
They didn't have the internet then either.
james hetfield
No way.
They didn't know what to expect of that.
So they're people throwing, you know, hitting people from the helicopter.
And down in the front there, there were guys in uniforms.
You know, there was police, military, same thing, you know.
So they're standing there in their uniforms.
And after like three or four songs, they're like...
Fuck this!
And they took off their stuff, and they're out there headbanging and having a good time.
So we saw the transformation of a closed-down society to freedom right before us, individually, in people.
It was awesome.
unidentified
Wow.
james hetfield
Wow.
joe rogan
What does it feel like to stand in front of 500,000 people?
What is the sound like?
unidentified
What is the sound of their roars like?
james hetfield
Pretty massive, obviously.
I lost count at, I don't know, 300-something thousand.
But I tell you, and they don't speak your language.
That's just such a...
That's the power of music, man.
That's a language in its own.
It connects people.
It is so cool.
So, yeah, we went to a place that no one spoke English or people were telling us, you know, I learned English from your lyrics.
Like, oh shit, man.
I failed English, just so you know.
I didn't do so well in school, but it's pretty bizarre.
joe rogan
That's intense.
That is intense.
That's an experience that...
Almost no one's prepared for, I don't think.
I don't think there's a single human being that can do that and not be somewhat affected by it, or at least need a lot of decompression, a lot of downtime to sort that out, which, hence Vale.
james hetfield
Yeah, it's like, you go out into the mountains...
Nature doesn't give a shit who you are.
Mother Nature will kick your ass, you know, and leave you frozen and, you know, lost.
joe rogan
When did you start hunting?
james hetfield
Well, I think it started out, my dad was a hunter.
I remember him, you know, skinning deers in the garage in Southern California here.
Skeet shooting.
Probably started with that.
Skeet and trap.
And then went duck hunting with my buddy up in Calusa and San Francisco area.
And then, hey, we're going on a pig hunt.
Let's go.
So slowly the animal got bigger and bigger.
Really enjoyed it.
Enjoyed the guy hang.
Just get away and just get scared together.
joe rogan
The guy hang is a big part of it.
james hetfield
It's awesome.
joe rogan
It is so cool.
james hetfield
Making fun of each other.
All the stuff that you don't get to do.
You just go and hang.
I like getting scared.
I like getting scared out there.
It's like, wait a minute.
I got this 60-pound backpack on, and I just came from sea level, and I'm up here at 11,000 feet, and I don't feel very good, guys.
unidentified
Yeah.
james hetfield
How the fuck am I going to get off this mountain?
I can't do it.
They're like, yeah, you can.
Come on.
And we'll carry you off if that's what it takes.
Like, okay.
Yeah, but the truck is, you know, it's like a three-hour hike to the spike camp.
And then another two hours to the base camp, you know.
You can do it.
And stuff like that, you know, pushing you to limits that you didn't know you could go to.
joe rogan
Yeah, I saw you had a guitar that had a Kuyu camo on it.
I'm like, oh, this dude's deep.
james hetfield
It's awesome.
joe rogan
You're deep.
james hetfield
Dude, I love the Kuyu stuff.
Yeah, I got turned on to it by those guys.
Yeah, you know, it can get pretty cold and scary up there, and it's fun.
joe rogan
Well, Kuyu represents to me this really interesting sort of integration of technology and almost like gadget geek mindset applied to hunting to make the very best stuff.
So as soon as I saw that you got a Kuyu pattern on your guitar, I'm like, oh, he's in deep.
james hetfield
Yeah, we contacted him.
It's like, hey, can we borrow your pattern?
joe rogan
That's pretty fucking cool.
james hetfield
Yeah, I love it.
joe rogan
How often do you get out?
james hetfield
Well, yeah, you know, at least probably, you know, a couple weeks every year is what I get to do.
And obviously, if it's, you know, elk season in Colorado, and then there's deer season in California and turkey season, so...
joe rogan
So do you get to hunt near Vale, where you live?
james hetfield
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
A lot of elk up there, man.
james hetfield
Oh, my God.
joe rogan
Colorado has twice as many elk as any other state in the country.
james hetfield
It is amazing.
And, you know, from the house or dropping the kids off at school, just drive up the road a little bit and be spotting, you know.
Hey, there's some elk up there.
And, you know, where the kids go to school, there's a sheep herd, you know, just up in the mountains.
joe rogan
Wow.
james hetfield
Oh, my God.
It'll take me about 45 years to draw that tag, but might as well start.
joe rogan
Yeah, get those points up.
james hetfield
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Yeah, so that's another good reason to live in Colorado, right?
james hetfield
Absolutely.
joe rogan
You're out there near, I mean, mule deer, whitetails.
I mean, that's a pretty game-rich state.
james hetfield
Yeah, the elk.
You know, I like the venison, but elk, that's probably the thing I would eat nonstop.
joe rogan
Yeah, people who have never tried it before, really, I mean, you can get it in a restaurant, but you're getting it from New Zealand, and it's not going to be as fresh, and it's not the same, but it's an unbelievable meat.
james hetfield
Well, pulling it out of your freezer and making it there for your kids, I mean, there's nothing more organic than that.
joe rogan
Especially when you know specifically where it came from.
You were there.
james hetfield
Yeah.
This is not mixed up with some other crap from some other farm or something.
This is it.
This has been cut and prepared for you.
So I see that massive, thick bastard out in your entryway.
joe rogan
Yeah, that was my latest one.
james hetfield
Dude, that is something.
joe rogan
That's a big boy.
james hetfield
Where is that?
joe rogan
That's from Tahome Ranch.
I should have let you guess.
james hetfield
No, I was going to guess New Mexico.
joe rogan
No, that's from here, California.
Tejon Ranch, they put Rocky Mountain Elk in Tejon Ranch in the 1950s.
And because California, it's about a half hour outside of Bakersfield, so it's sort of like mid-California.
And because of that, it's not cold.
They get snow up there, but not enough snow where the elk have to struggle for food.
So they eat a lot.
A lot of mountain lions up there, though.
james hetfield
Dude, that's a massively thick mountain lion.
joe rogan
It's a big animal, yeah.
He was huge.
He was like a thousand pounds.
It's a big ass elk.
james hetfield
Bow?
joe rogan
That one was a rifle.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I've shot one there last year with a bow.
This year I went with a bow.
We unsuccessfully hunted for five days and pulled out a rifle and got it done in an hour.
james hetfield
Yeah.
I go back and forth with the bow.
Do you?
joe rogan
It's not cheating.
I mean, it's hunting, but if you want meat, it's the best way to go.
james hetfield
I'm a meat hunter, and that's the way to do it, you know?
joe rogan
How often do you bow hunt?
unidentified
Uh...
james hetfield
I do it on my ranch at home in California.
It's just tough.
It's tough with the blacktail.
You know, you gotta...
joe rogan
Blacktail's a fairly small deer, too.
james hetfield
Yeah.
It's pretty tough.
I just like pulling it.
I like, you know, target practicing and stuff.
You know, I have gone bow hunting.
I'm taking a pretty nice elk with it.
When it's the rut, I mean, that...
unidentified
Yeah.
james hetfield
It's so amazing.
And it scares the shit out of you when they're screaming.
unidentified
They're screaming.
Yeah!
james hetfield
A friggin' frothed beast coming running down at you, ready to kick your ass or fuck you, yeah.
unidentified
Okay!
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a pretty intense moment.
james hetfield
Right.
Um...
But I've missed some stuff so much, and I just, you know, I'd rather use...
I want to get the animal down and done.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, rifle's definitely the best way to do that.
But bow hunting requires so much more discipline.
It's just a constant pursuit.
But for me, it's a great meditation, just the practice of archery, not even just bow hunting.
I'm a big fan of just...
I love to do it.
Like, I'll leave here, I'll go home, I'll shoot 100 arrows.
unidentified
Cool.
joe rogan
You know, just to clean my head out.
It's a good way to just, because you can't think about anything else other than that target in order to do it right, especially when you're shooting it like 70 yards or something long.
james hetfield
Yeah, yeah.
So, what bow you got?
I saw you got a...
joe rogan
I use a Hoyt.
james hetfield
Hoyt, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, I have a Hoyt Pro Defiant.
It's the newest model.
Just a fucking awesome bow.
This is the coolest thing about bows is that, unlike rifles, I mean, rifles, the technology is at such a high level, but...
I have a rifle from three years ago that's awesome.
It's just as good.
But a bow from three years ago, well, it's like a little behind the times.
So true.
You've got some new technology.
You could still use it.
You could still kill something with it.
But the newest stuff, the technology and bows, they essentially innovate every year.
james hetfield
I agree, yeah.
And, yeah, I had a Matthews from, you know, three years ago, and I went in to get it tuned up, and the guy says, oh my god!
It's like, you know, a computer.
That's a few years old?
Wow, it's, dude.
joe rogan
If you want to get hooked up with Hoyt, I'll have one sent to you.
james hetfield
Okay.
joe rogan
I'll hook it up.
james hetfield
Let's do it.
I got a Matthews that I really love, and who knows, next year, like you said, the technology, just the way they pull, the way they balance, and all that stuff that, like you said, with a gun...
You know, guns have come a lot of ways, a long ways too.
I got this awesome fierce gun that, you know, carbon fiber barrel and it's super lightweight for packing in, you know, it's down to like six pounds, you know, with the scope on it.
So, yeah, lightweight, good.
joe rogan
Yeah, if you're going sheep hunting or something like that, you're going way up into the mountains.
I know guys who cut the bottom off of their toothbrush in order to save weight.
I mean, literally.
They do everything they can.
They cut every ounce.
james hetfield
What do you think I'll bring a toothbrush for?
joe rogan
They're going to brush your teeth up in the mountain.
You don't brush your teeth?
unidentified
No way.
joe rogan
They're going to smell your stinky ass fucking breath before anything.
That's probably the first thing they smell.
james hetfield
That's why I'm unsuccessful.
joe rogan
I know guys who actually eat, like, they'll take pine leaves and chew them up inside their mouth just so that their breath doesn't come off as some meat-eating monster predator to a deer or an elk.
james hetfield
Interesting.
joe rogan
Yeah.
james hetfield
All right.
joe rogan
Because I think that's probably, like, one of our big smells is the breath.
james hetfield
Right.
joe rogan
You know, B.O. and then your breath.
A lot of people's breath smells worse than their B.O., right?
You gotta think.
james hetfield
Especially old guy.
joe rogan
Yeah.
james hetfield
Old guy.
joe rogan
Rotten insides.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
All that fucking funk.
james hetfield
So you spray up, you do all that stuff, and get...
joe rogan
I don't spray up, no.
I've used ozonics, you know, those ozone things in a tree stand.
I've used that, where they blow ozone on you, and it confuses the scent.
That actually works.
It's very bizarre.
It has to be directly on you and the ozone somehow attaches itself to your scent molecules And then when the deer gets it he's like what in the fuck is this?
But it doesn't blow off all those red flags where he just wants a you know He smells a predator and he wants a bolt, right?
Yeah Yeah.
james hetfield
Wow.
Well, I guess that'd be, you could see the results of it if you're in the same spot year after year or something.
But I'd never know if that stuff works, you know, because we're traveling, doing different stuff, different places all the time.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, most of the hunts I go on are spot and stalk, so that's not really, it doesn't really apply.
Right.
In that sense, when you're doing something spot and stalk, you just have to play the wind.
If your wind is going towards them, you're fucked.
That's what they're designed for.
I mean, they can smell things.
The way I describe it to people is like, you know how you could smell a skunk if it got killed like five blocks away?
That's how a deer can smell.
That's how an elk can smell.
They can smell you like a skunk.
They're like, fuck, let's get out of here.
They smell skunk, they bolt.
I've seen them smell you from a hundred, two hundred yards out and they just catch your wind like boing, boing, fuck this.
Just bound away.
james hetfield
So brush your teeth.
joe rogan
Yeah, you gotta brush your teeth, bro.
james hetfield
Thanks for the tip.
joe rogan
Probably a good idea.
unidentified
53, I gotta tell you to brush your teeth.
joe rogan
It's hard to tell a rock star to do anything.
Yeah, I mean, that's one of the things that some people like about hunting is that you don't have to wash.
You just go out there and wear the same goddamn clothes for five, six days in a row.
james hetfield
Yeah, and that doesn't send off a signal?
joe rogan
Oh, it certainly will.
But if you're wearing merino wool, especially like base layers, it actually absorbs most of the smell.
james hetfield
So you think the baby wipes do good or bad?
joe rogan
Well, baby wipes, it's probably better not to smell like shit, especially human shit.
james hetfield
You don't want to smell like a fake cleaning product either.
joe rogan
Maybe the fake cleaning product won't.
I think anything odd to a deer is probably not good, but I think there's probably specific predator smells that we, you know, unless you're like a strict vegetarian who also hunts.
I would imagine you probably smell like a killer.
I don't know what they're smelling.
I would like to know if they could tap into the mind of a deer when it smells a person.
What alarms go off?
james hetfield
That would be bizarre.
Like the red flag and the cape on the bull.
It's not really red.
It's just something's moving.
What do they see?
What do they hear?
What do they smell?
Yeah, I guess once we figure that out, then it's really on.
joe rogan
How much shit did you have to deal with when there was the blowback from the Hunt show?
james hetfield
You know, I wanted to get into voiceovers, so I took the gig.
joe rogan
You have a great voice for it.
I didn't even know it was your voice while you were doing it.
It was kind of interesting.
You know, you did it in a very professional manner, but it's a controversial show because it was grizzly bear hunting.
james hetfield
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you know, I took the gig.
I wanted to get into voiceover stuff, so that was offered to me.
Yeah, I probably could have had a choice whether I did it or not, but that's what that was.
I think the main head-butting happened when I did that show and then we went to go do Glastonbury, which is like the ultimate celebration of English hippiedom.
And they somehow caught wind that I'd been, you know, Oh, he's a hunter.
And he did this show.
And it was like, boycott Metallica.
Don't play the show.
We don't want that.
And wow.
So what we did was we made this silly video.
There's always something going on in England where there's something.
There's a controversy that's going to happen with the show.
You know, so when an artist shows up, they do something.
They want something special.
That's what they want.
So the fact that I was, you know, I did this bear hunting show, and so we made this movie about...
And it was a guy in England, put this movie together that depicted old school English huntsmen.
You know, they're on horseback fox hunters, you know, and release, release the fox and all the hounds go.
And they go galloping through the the the the English countryside.
And they come to a spot and they start getting shot at.
And it's these bears come out of the woods and they've shot the hunters and they become the hunter.
And the crowd loved it.
They, oh yeah, right, you know?
Arm the bears, you know?
So it kind of just instantly diffused all that bullshit, and, you know, when you're able to, like, We said earlier, make fun of yourself and make fun of controversy.
Then it kind of goes away.
And then you just get on, you know, get back to business, you know?
joe rogan
Was it frustrating when they were distributing that picture that wasn't even you?
There was a photo of some guy that looked kind of like you in front of this giant brown bear.
james hetfield
Well, that to me just told me about them that they're ignorant and that it's not even me.
So, you know, there are people out there that just want to throw the fuel on the fire and make it crazier and get upset about stuff.
And, you know, I got no control over that, man.
Once it's out there, I don't want to spend all my time justifying what I do or don't do, and it's not even something that I did.
So, yeah, it's a waste of time.
joe rogan
Do you bear hunt at all?
james hetfield
I did.
I did.
But now I wear clothes.
Do you hunt bear?
That was really stupid, man.
Sorry.
joe rogan
I like stupid jokes casually.
james hetfield
Do you hunt bear?
I did.
I went to Russia.
Went to Kamchatka and hunt bear.
Yeah.
It was a crazy, crazy adventure.
joe rogan
Was it brown bear or what do they have up there?
james hetfield
Yeah, it was brown bear.
joe rogan
Did you eat any of it?
james hetfield
No.
No, I did not.
And that's one regret I have.
And I mean, getting the meat, I mean, for some reason they didn't allow you to bring meat from Russia into America.
But we did have meat there.
They had meat from other bears.
And so that's how we sustained ourselves out in the middle of the Kamchatka.
joe rogan
What does brown bear taste like?
james hetfield
You know, bear doesn't taste great to me.
It's super fatty, for sure.
This was less fatty because it was, you know, spring bear, and then, you know, they were out, you know, they just come out of hibernation, so it's not my favorite thing, so I probably wouldn't hunt it again, because I do like to eat what I harvest, so...
It wasn't great, but we had Lynx.
We had all kinds of different stuff there that they, you know, they were out in the middle of nowhere.
unidentified
You ate Lynx?
james hetfield
Yeah.
joe rogan
What does that taste like?
james hetfield
Tastes like chicken, you know?
Everything tastes like chicken.
You know, it depends on how you cook it.
I mean, it's meat.
I mean, it tastes like meat.
And we were in this little hut that was super short because, you know, it's really, really cold out there and there was like about eight feet of snow.
And, yeah, you're in this little hut that's really short to keep warm, you know?
And the hunter, the guides out there, they had AK-47s, you know, It was pretty scary.
We took a military helicopter.
We probably flew two hours in this thing that looked like it survived World War I. Well, it wasn't around World War I, but survived World War II. And it was exhaust down the side and no seats.
And we're sitting on the metal floor.
And we get dropped off in the middle of this nowhere place.
And these guys have snowmobiles.
And you can't get around because the snow is so thick.
You need a snowmobile.
And the guides show up and they're, you know, here's Russians with AK-47s.
We're Americans.
Hi!
You know?
Hey.
joe rogan
How common is it that they have these hunts out there?
So they knew what they were doing.
This is a normal thing they do.
james hetfield
It was set up.
You know, it was like, you know, through the safari club, you know?
And it was just one of those crazy things.
It's like, hey, I'm going to try this and get scared.
And I was.
joe rogan
Wow.
Listen, man, you've got to get out of here because I know you're supposed to leave it, too.
It's a couple minutes later than that.
So thanks for doing this, man.
I really appreciate it.
It was great meeting you.
It was great talking to you, and it was just an awesome conversation.
james hetfield
Well, likewise, brother.
I appreciate you, and keep doing what you're doing, man.
joe rogan
I will.
james hetfield
You, too.
joe rogan
All right.
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