James was born to Virgil Hetfield (a truck driver) and Cynthia Hetfield (an opera singer). They were devout adherents to the Christian Science faith. At an early age, he was surrounded by many kinds of musical things. His two older step-brothers played a variety of different instruments consisting of drums, guitar, and piano. At first, James tried the piano but as soon as he picked up an acoustic guitar, he was hooked. He has said "when I was younger I had an acoustic guitar, a melody type thing, and I would hear Sabbath and Aerosmith, and those guys play so good, but I just flailed up and down on the damn thing. I was always asking 'Why don't I sound like those guys yet!?!' Hehe, but I loved the instrument." He would also sneak his older step-brother's Black Sabbath records when he went to college and would get caught when he returned. He stated his main influence as Aerosmith, which inspired him to play guitar. Among other influences are Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Thin Lizzy, and Queen. In high school, he formed his first band, Obsession, composed of the Veloz brothers on bass and drums, Jim Arnold on guitar, and Hetfield on lead vocals, later before the Veloz brothers quit Fernando Martinez (Alvarez) joined to take James Arnold's place temporarily. The band spent a lot of time in the Veloz brothers' garage jamming, with Ron McGovney and Dave Marrs acting as roadies. Marrs and McGovney subsequently joined the band itself when the Veloz brothers quit. After a few more bands like Phantom Lord and Leather Charm.
His parents divorced in 1976 when Hetfield was 13. They were very strict Christian Scientists, and in accordance with their beliefs, they strongly disapproved of medicine or any other medical treatment and remained loyal to their faith, even as Cynthia was dying from cancer. This upbringing became the inspiration for many of Hetfield's lyrics during his career with Metallica, most notably in the songs "Dyers Eve" and "The God That Failed" from ...And Justice for All and The Black Album respectively. Cynthia died of cancer in 1979 when Hetfield was 16 years old. After the death of his mother, Hetfield went to live with his older half-brother David.
Hetfield eventually needed another drummer. Danish drummer, Lars Ulrich, posted an ad in the local newspaper looking for a band to jam with on NWoBHM songs. Hetfield, in his eagerness to get a band started, answered his ad and as they say the rest is history!
Hetfield has been involved in a number of onstage accidents, most notable for being an incident with pyrotechnics at Olympic Stadium in Montreal during the Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour on August 8, 1992. Hetfield was the victim of a pyrotechnics accident during the song "Fade to Black", in which a pyrotechnic charge reacted. Hetfield's guitar protected him from the full force of the blast; however, the reaction struck his left side, burning his hand, arm, eyebrows, face and hair. He suffered second and third-degree burns, but was back on stage 17 days later, although his guitar duties were delegated to former guitar tech and Metal Church guitarist John Marshall for four weeks while he made a full recovery.
Hetfield also suffered a broken arm a number of times while skateboarding, which prevented him from playing guitar on stage, and subsequently caused Hetfield's management company, Q Prime, to put a clause in Hetfield's contract, forbidding him to ride a skateboard while Metallica was touring. During a live performance on tour for Metallica, Hetfield experienced complications with his vocals after performing a cover of the Anti-Nowhere League song "So What?", forcing him to take vocal lessons for the first time. He did basic warm-up exercises to piano keys with his vocal coach, who also gave him a cassette tape of the piano warm-up for future use. Hetfield still uses the same cassette he was given in the early 1990's to this day before any live performance or any recording Metallica does. Hetfield talks about his vocal training endeavors in the Metallica documentary film, Some Kind of Monster
During the recording of the band's eighth studio album St. Anger in 2001, Hetfield went into rehab to address his alcohol usage. He rejoined the band after seven months in rehab and four months recovering with his family. He is now clean and sober, and is determined to remain so, all of which is featured in Some Kind of Monster. Some Kind of Monster also shows the making of the St. Anger album, and documents the various conflicts and issues the band were facing at the time including the departure of Jason Newsted, alcoholism, family commitments, and the future of the band with many in the rock press questioning whether the band would even still be together to see the completion of the St. Anger album.
Since completing his stint in rehab James has not had a sip of alcohol, in a sense of irony, though, Metallica sells their own beer and whiskey!
Hetfield enjoys a variety of activities, most notably hunting; farming and beekeeping; customizing cars and motorcycles in his garage; watching the Oakland Raiders, the San Francisco Giants, and the San Jose Sharks; and going to hot rod shows. A 1968 Chevrolet Camaro was used in the video for "I Disappear" and was given to him as a gift upon the video's completion. Years later, Hetfield donated the car to the Hard Rock Cafe which is featured in the movie Hard Rock Treasures. He put his 1968 Chevrolet Camaro up for sale on eBay, with the proceeds going to a Music for Schools program raising a to $70,000.
"Slowburn", his 1936 Auburn boat tail speedster, won the 2010 Goodguys West Coast Custom of the Year. James Owens a plethora of classic cars including
1932 Ford Roadster
1934 Packard "Aquarius"
1936 Auburn Roadster
1948 Jaguar "Black Pearl"
1936 Ford Coupe
1937 Ford HT
1937 Lincoln Zephyr "Voodoo Priest"
1968 Camaro
1938 Delaheye, 1948 Jaguar Saloon
1952 Oldsmobile "Grinch"
1956 Ford
Quite often enough, James love for cars would mesh pretty well with his love of music and of course the other way around. It isn't rare for James to actually sing and write lyrics about cars and the fact that he loves them. In the 1997 album Re-Load, James sings about his love of all that is supercharged and roaring down the raceway in the song aptly named, "Fuel." In the song, he talks about the desire a motor head feels for his car and the need for speed. The music video also tells the story in a visual way of course, but adding to the theme.
James is an avid hunter & has come under criticism over the years for it. He narrated a series called The Hunt on the History channel, which follows a group of marksmen shooting bears in Alaska. Animal rights activists got wind of this & made a vain attempt to ban him & Metallica from playing at Glastonbury in 2014 saying "This is incompatible with Glastonbury Festivals ideals" A Facebook petition gathered 30,000 likes but this didn't stop him putting on the best show the festival has ever seen! As a fuck you to the snowflakes the band poked fun at the Britons who protested their appearance over frontman James Hetfield's support of hunting with a video titled Glastallica directed by Glastonbury documentarian Julian Temple. They kicked things off by running their usual intro clip of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly but switched things up about 90 seconds in to focus on a fox hunt. As the video shows wealthy statesmen readying themselves for a big hunt, a voice calls out, "What does the fox say?" and chaos begins, with rifle-wielding bears, played by the band itself, exacting their revenge on the hunters.
James has a lot of guitars, he started out with a relatively cheap Gibson Flying V copy which he used on Metallica's debut album "Kill 'em All", but soon replaced it with a couple of white 1984 Gibson Explorers that served him well for the next two albums. Since the late 80s he's been almost exclusively using ESP guitars, equipped with a pair of EMG 81/60 pickups – which eventually led to James' own signature pickups dubbed the "Het" Set released in 2009. To date he has 68 guitars to his name & each has it's own unique name. His latest is Carl which is made from wood salvaged from the garage at 3132 Carlson Boulevard in El Cerrito, California, where Metallica were based during their breakthrough years from 1983 to 1986. James also has 8 signature ESP guitars that he helped design.
James is the brainchild behind Metallica's All Within My Hands Foundation. The foundation aims to assist and enrich the lives of members of the community who have supported the band for years, as well as encourage participation from fans and friends. All funds raised are donated to a cross-section of national and local charities... every penny from your donations will go directly to our charity partners. During the World Wired Tour the band played 25 shows this summer during the Europian leg and made large donations through its All Within My Hands foundation in each city it visited totalling a whopping $1.65m! James & the Tallica boys have hearts of gold.
James has dabbled in film & television. He stars in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile where he plays Bob Hayward, the policeman credited for the arrest & capture of Ted Bundy. He has also voiced a number of characters in a number of animated series, computer games & narrated documentaries.
James has made guest appearances for a number of other artists, he provided backing vocals on "Man or Ash" on the Corrosion of Conformity album Wiseblood & "Twist of Cain" and "Possession" on Danzig's debut album, Danzig. He played guitar on "Eclectic Electric" from the Primus album Antipop. Though previously believed to have been sung by Trey Parker, the song "Hell Isn't Good" from the film South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut was actually sung by Hetfield. He admitted to doing so in 2000, confirming what many Hetfield fans had already recognized as his trademark growling style.The Playboy Interview: Metallica (April 2001).
Hetfield sang on the Gov't Mule song "Drivin' Rain" with fellow guest Les Claypool, which appears on the compilation album Crank It Up with NASCAR.
He also performed at the Outlaws Concert in 2004, alongside Hank Williams Jr., Cowboy Troy, Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, and Kid Rock. Hetfield played one of close friend Waylon Jennings's songs, "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand," the very same he recorded on the tribute album to Jennings, I've Always Been Crazy. At this same event, he performed Metallica's "Mama Said" with Jesse Colter, the widow of Waylon Jennings, though this was cut from the television broadcast. Hetfield and filmmaker Justin Hunt were interviewed about the documentary Absent, which was directed by Hunt and features Hetfield and takes a look at the effects of absent fathers on their children, on Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends program on March 30, 2011. Hetfield appeared on an episode the MTV show, Celebrity Deathmatch in which he killed Limp Bizkit vocalist, Fred Durst.
Hetfield was ranked at no. 8 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists and no. 24 by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. In Guitar World's poll, Hetfield was placed as the 19th greatest guitarist of all time, as well as being placed second (along with Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett) in The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists poll of the same magazine. Rolling Stone placed Hetfield as the 87th greatest guitarist of all time.
Now, some of the regular members amongst us may remember back in June of 2018 he came in to our top 50 influential rock stars at 32! This time he drops in at #n31! Why so low? James is a powerhouse of energy, when he's on stage he puts in 110% till the final whistle. He whips the crowd up into a frenzy, interacts with them & makes every one there feel part of the crew. He is the greatest instrument playing front man that takes to the stage today, a true heavy metal legend that should be ranked higher on here but hey, that's my opinion.
That's all folks, week 7 of this mammoth poll has come to a close. As always it's been emotional, tears of joy & sadness, heated debates & a few 'meh's' have been thrown around. The weeks roundup will be up this evening, have a cracking weekend whatever you're doing an as always Keep Rocking
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