The one band James Hetfield always wanted to join: “I wanted to be that guy”
There was no other choice for James Hetfield other than to become a metal singer back in the day.
Music was his saviour in every sense of the word whenever he made his first records with Metallica, and since his home life wasn’t always the greatest, he could always get transported to a different place when he had the right song to keep him company. But long before he had heard of who Black Sabbath and Diamond Head were, Hetfield was already starting to fall in love with what classic rock had to offer.
Because there was no way that Hetfield’s first calling on the piano was going to work out. He had been taking lessons when he was nine years old, but for someone who was listening to some of the biggest names in rock on the radio, he probably wasn’t going to be creatively satisfied if he was playing the occasional Elton John song. And when you hear him attacking the guitar, you can tell that he’s right at home with that instrument.
In fact, a lot of what Hetfield is doing whenever he plays has a lot more to do with percussion than anything else. He has said numerous times that he’s playing drums on guitar half the time that he plays, and when you listen to how erratic Lars Ulrich can sometimes get behind the kit, that makes a lot of sense when looking at Hetfield’s track record. He’s the real time keeper in the group half the time, and a lot of that came from practising steady rhythm until everything sounded perfect.
Rhythm playing might be considered the “less good” version of lead guitar, but when you look at Hetfield’s heroes, it’s not like he was trying to half-ass his way into playing guitar. Keith Richards was responsible for some of the best Rolling Stones songs without having to play lead all the same, and when you’re talking about nasty rock and roll songs, no one could make the guitar scream as Malcolm Young could in AC/DC.
The Australian legends made a name for themselves playing the loudest rock and roll ever conceived, and they were never going to be satisfied with playing ballads. They wanted to leave their audience delirious whenever they were done playing, and when Hetfield first laid eyes on Angus Young doing his signature duckwalk across the stage, he knew that he needed to do everything he could to have a job like that.
These people looked like they were having the time of their lives, and while Hetfield had his other favourites, Angus was responsible for his musical awakening in lots of ways, saying, “I was a big Aerosmith fan. But I had no idea that AC/DC was that cool. I went with my older brother. I remember him pointing at Angus and saying, ‘That little guy running around was annoying!’ But I wanted to be that guy!”
Which makes a lot of sense given Hetfield’s stage behaviour. There was no way that he was going to be like Steven Tyler crooning to the audience all the time, but Angus’s way of prowling across the stage and doing most of the talking with his guitar made a lot more sense. But what Hetfield did when he had the microphone was something that could never be copied by anyone, hard rocker or otherwise.
He didn’t want to become a frontman in the first place, but when you look at the way that he sings today, his way of attacking the guitar and singing is almost superhuman to a certain degree. Angus may have been the gold standard for him, but with a bit more attitude and speed thrown into the mix, Hetfield turned himself into the kind of musician that’s almost too fast for his own good.
