Metallica - Detail - Radio Interview

James, how does it feel to play in front of 80.000 people as you just did at Rock Am Ring? Is it just a sea of people?

James: Well, it is that wonderful drug that we’re addicted to, you know, on the road. We’ve been on the road since we got out of highschool pretty much. (chuckles) And, yeah, when you walk out there and your intro tape, which already give you goosebumps, and you’re kind of, you know, pounding fists with all the crew, everyone’s pumped up, pumped up, we do our little huddle, then when you head out there it is, it takes your breath away and you… but you also know why you’re there, you’re not some god up there or sorts, but you’ve got a mission, and the mission is to get as much energy out of these people into you and vice versa. So there is an exchange of family energy there.

It was 15 minutes past midnight when you said: “Germany and Metallica are meant to be together.” It looked like that, didn’t it?

James: It was pretty crazy. I thought about that after, on the car ride out, I thought: “Wow, I said something pretty cool.” And it just came out, you know. (chuckles) And it’s very true, Germany has been so loyal and dedicated to Metallica - even through the rougher times, you know, the “Load” and “Reload”s of our careers and, you know, even when Metal was uncool, you know, all of that. Germany has stayed constant, it’s amazing.

So what do you do with all the adrenaline that you built up during a gig like that?

James: Well, you hop in a car and you drive three hours to here, to Nürnberg, at 240 km/h and (laughs) you stay up. I wasn’t driving, but it was like I was, I was watching this driver, it was like a videogame, and I could not sleep the whole time. Yeah, what do you do with that? You kind of savor it (laughs), you savor it and you enjoy it and you finally wind down a couple of hours after.

Meaning: No more TV sets going out of the window?

James: Oh, no, no, no. No, no. They’re too expensive these days. (laughs)

And why Rick Rubin instead of Bob Rock? What were you after with this one?

James: Well, the decision to move on was made before the decision to hire Rick Rubin. We felt that “St. Anger” was… it was a cleansing, a very big cleansing for us. And we had so many people around us, and it was time to… it was time to just get back to the essence of us again. So the four of us in the studio: “Let’s write some songs.” Bob, I think… not that he reminded us of the past, but he was such a part of us, and it became almost too comfortable. We needed to stir it up a little bit, that’s what we like doing. And it was time, it was time: new bass player, new attitude towards life, new songs and a new producer – made sense.

Not to forget a new way of writing. This is the first time you actually wrote in the studio. But then you moved out to LA to record, which you haven’t done since “The Black Album”.

James: Yeah right, yeah. You know, HQ for us is a comfort zone for sure, and I felt we’d be more productive if we went to LA and be closer to Rick Rubin - it’d be so much cheaper, too (laughs). You know, Rick he’s got a… he’s a status symbol himself, so when he travels it’s not South West Airlines, it’s not economy. So when we went down to LA, I was under the impression that we would get it done quicker, because we’re somewhere where we don’t really want to be, we’d rather be at home, so get it done. And that’s what happened, it turned out pretty quick as far as drum tracks go, it went faster than most drum tracks did in any other record.

Because “St. Anger” was all cut and paiste, wasn’t it?

James: Yeah, yeah. See, pro tools is a great, great, great demon, I guess you can call it. You can use it to edit songs together, like you just mentioned with “St. Anger”, take all these insane bits and throw them together into a song that… I don’t know if we could even play that whole straight through live, we’d die - it’s so intense and so relentless. No, we record onto pro tools, because you’re able to transfer them quickly, you’re able to bring them to LA, you don’t have to lock around the tapes. Tapes die after a while, pro tools is just… it’s pretty much the norm now. But it depends on how use them, if you’re chopping it all up to make something that it isn’t, that’s certainly what we had in mind and what Rick Rubin had in mind for this album. You know, Rick Rubin is, he prides himself on being very organic and wanting it to sound like the band, sound like the band playing. You know, all the Johnny Cash stuff, you listen to that, it’s like: “The guy is sitting right behind my speaker, that’s him.” It’s dry and he´s there, and it’s got character, that’s what we were really after on this.

So this is sort of your Johnny Cash album?

James: Yeah, we were after… we´re gonna make the next Johnny Cash record, what it would have been like (laughs), except Metal, Metal style.

Well, “Load”, “Reload”, and “St. Anger” were about changing and moving forward. This time however, it seems to be about reinventing classic Metallica, or?

James: Yes, that’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? It’s near… it’s impossible, first of all, and we realize that. And we’re not going to write “Master Of Puppets 2”. Like quite a lot of fans would like us to do (laughs), but a lot of people don’t know what’s good for them, including myself (laughs), as you can see in a certain movie. But I understand that people liked those albums because it reminds them of whatever… stability for them. It’s… they can hang on to that and be ok with that. The change, they fear change, possibly, possibly for us we crave it and we need to kinda keep moving and morphing. And even though it’s not gonna sound completely different, it’s still us. We wanna try some things… that didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but for Metallica to go backwards is tougher than it sounds, you know. There are a lot of bands that are very good at doing a very stable thing: Slayer, AC/DC, Bon Jovi… a lot of… pretty much you know what you’re gonna get when you buy the record.

What about Metallica then?

James: I don’t know. I think you can put on different albums and say: “Wow, these are pretty different.” But, when you hear it hopefully you’ll say: “Hm, that’s Metallica.” (chuckles)

So you had to go through all the “Loads” and “Reloads” to get where you are right now?

James: Oh, absolutely. I mean, every path we’ve taken had to be, you know. Me sitting here, I had to go through all the stuff, you know, to talk about it. The making of this record was long, but the vision was, when Rick Rubin sat down with us it was: “Imagine you are a new band.” - “Yeah, right.” (laughs) “And you’re hungry, you want to write a setlist to do a showcase, so you can get signed. You’re out to impress some people.” - “Yeah, that sounds good, but OK, what do you mean? Unlearn everything?” You can only go back so far. You can dress the way you used to, you can listen to the music you used to, I’m not gonna go and have the same girlfriend I used to that’s for sure (laughs). But, you know: ”What were your influences back then?”, that’s what he was trying to get us into, you know. “What were you influenced by? What were you listening to? What was the vibe you guys had?” You know, back then we all lived in the same house together, it was a mess (chuckles), but it was an awesome mess, you know, that we had to live through to get here. So stripping away all of the material parts of that, the assets of Metallica, what was it that made us wanna play like that, that made us wanna sound like that. So hopefully this record represents that time in Metallica; but obviously with the now, because there is nothing wrong with now attached to it.

So back to James’ World?

James: Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, the whole... you’re talking about lyrics, I suppose. The whole involving of everyone in the lyrics I think was absolutely necessary, it had to happen, probably to take down some walls, to share some fears, share some ideas with each other, get real with each other. And I think once you start writing stream of consciousness you become very vulnerable, and the more you’re vulnerable with your bandmates, the safer you’ll feel when they don’t, you know, step on you or stab you or something you’re able to feel safer with them. So I think all of that that went on, which is… I think… I think I remember this quote from Phil Towle, our part–time therapist (laughs), band coach. He said: “The work you’re doing on this record is not for this record, it´s for the next record.” And it makes total, total sense, total sense. Because now we’re on our own, this record we don’t have the therapists, we don’t have the Bob Rocks, we don’t have all these people holding our hands making sure that the boat stays afloat. Everyone left or we pushed them away. It was like: “Ok, we are now going to jump off the cliff and see if we can fly again. We need to fly, and fall we need, but we’re on our own here – the essence of Metallica.“

I assume you haven´t seen “Some Kind Of Monster“ in a while?

James: I have not! (laughs) I’ve looked in that mirror twice and maybe a few more times than that, but I think that was enough for me to realize that this is not the me I wanna be, and this is not… yeah, I think everyone else in that band has looked at themselves and said: “Wow, that’s me? I don’t like how other people see me right now in that film, I’m gonna be different - or at least work towards being a better person.”

What about “St. Anger”? It got trashed by the Metal press, didn´t it?

James: Yes. It did? Yeah, I don’t really read that anyway. But yeah, I had heard some stuff that, yeah, that it was terrible and that it wasn’t Metal or… I was just like, wow, I mean that is… it was pretty relentless, it was pretty furious sounding. Yeah, the album itself was, I agree, very one-dimensional, but it was cathartic, it was a cleansing. You know if you weren’t identifying with it, then you couldn’t get it. But if you were in that space, it was your album (laughs). And that was my space.

The new album is called “Death Magnetic”. But what about song titles then? Why are you so secretive this time around?

James: We’re not sharing it with the world quite yet. We’re still letting the pets create their characters. So we can name the songs and get the album artwork together, the photos, the… You know, all the lyrics are writing, all the songs are done, we’re mixing now. And, you know, this is probably the first time we’ve been ahead of schedule (chuckles) on a record. And, you know, we’re out here on tour, doing what we love best and talking about the new record, trying to find a new way to, you know, have everything hit at once, you know. Have the album come pounding out and, you know, whatever the album is called, the songs are really good. We got… it’s not one-dimensional like “St. Anger”, it is very deep, very deep. We wrote 24 songs, we had to twiddle it down to 14, then we’ve twiddled it down to ten or eleven now. They’re somewhat long, but there’s instrumental, there’s ballady songs, there’s fast, short, fast songs, mid-tempo, banging stuff, so à la “Master Of Puppets” where you’ve got diversity within the record.

There is some funny stuff on missionmetallica.com. Like Rob talking about the pineapple cover artwork…

James: Rob has his moments for sure (laughs). Yeah, there is a lot of footage that doesn’t need to be seen by everyone, but (laughs) there’s a lot of fun stuff, too.

Plus there is working titles like “German Soup”. What´s that all about? Any scary experiences with German food or where does it come from?

James: No, where did it come from? Boy, there are so many stories around song titles, you know. One of the song titles was “Casper” just because it was written in Casper, Wyoming, in the tuning room. “Flamingo”, that was in Argentina maybe, no, where was that? One called “Black Squirrel”, because we were in Toronto, and what we remember in the park there were a bunch of black squirrels running around. But “German Soup”, where did that come from? I think that was two songs put together. You’d have to ask Lars that. My memory’s bad. (chuckles)

Are you going to tour straight after the album´s release or are you taking some time off?

James: The plan is to hopefully hit... you know, release in September, head out I think somewhere around the end of October, start off in the States, and then make our way over here beginning in the next year.

Because you haven´t played any new songs on these festivals, have you?

James: Not, as of yet. We’re still… I don’t know, we’re still discussing that. You know, I’d love to, you know, we played some new stuff last year? The year before? No, last year. That is long gone now (long) the long gone songs of the record. (chuckles) So those are out there and about but they have not quite made the record. I don’t know, we’re thinking about playing some new stuff. There’s one song in particular we think is really good that we’ll play.

What was that rumor about you being hold up as a terrorist at Luton? Did that really happen or was it just a scam?

James: Oh no, our photographer, whom we’ve had for many years, we broke up with him and got back together, Ross Halfin, you know he’s one of those characters and has a tendency to stir up stuff (laughs). He can be… yeah, he can be somewhat annoying at times. He’s got this blog, you know he’s one of the blog people who lives his life on the internet, or he types in everything he does, so maybe someone can read it, I don’t know. But he wrote something up there, just as a joke, you know: “Yes, we were held up at this airport and because of James’ Taliban-like beard”, and that was it. And all of a sudden someone got a hold of that and it went off. So, it was… no, we were just… there wasn’t a hold up, there wasn’t anything about being detained or anything, because of that. But it was very interesting, yet scary that the news got to… you know, it was in the AP, it was… I heard people… friends in New Zealand were calling me, I mean, it was all over the place, like wow. This is pretty scary, like too much information that is not true. So…

Is that why you shortened it down again?

James: Oh, it grows back. It gets short, I get tired of it, I get tired of it being long, then I cut it, then it comes back, I’m never satisfied, you know. That’s just how it is, new facial hair, new hairstyles every year, whatever. (chuckles)

But you still got your hot rods, bikes, cars and all that?

James: Yeah, yeah, it’s somewhat growing. And for some reason I like collecting them more than selling them, so (laughs) there’s quite a few.

Have you become a better mechanic by now?

James: No, definitely not. I break down and I… oh, I do have my own tour truck now, so that’s a good addition to the fleet (laughs). But, no it’s just again, one of those hobby type things that… you know, I’ve got friends that are in that world that could care less about Metallica, so it’s great. It’s kind of a world that I can hang out in and not get special attention, you know.

Like customized bike-shows and stuff like that?

James: Yeah, not as much bikes anymore, I’ve kind of gotten away from that, riding a little bit less. Just, you know, you can call it maturing you can call me a pussy (laughs), whatever you want, but riding a bike has become pretty scary to me. I’ve had some people that I know have been killed recently and it’s just not worth it, not worth it to me to go on a nice ride in the back country and some drunk guy in a truck comes around and (claps)… the end, you know. I wouldn’t wanna be my kids if that happens, so.

Is The Beast still alive though?

James: Oh yeah! I got all the vehicles. No, I still have the bikes and every once in a while we go out, but it’s not one of those daily drivers anymore.

With the current gasoline prizes that´s quite an expensive hobby, isn´t it?

James: Yeah, yeah, it is somewhat, well the bikes are cheaper. (chukles) But, yeah, so who knows one day when there are no cars they’ll be worth some money, who knows? But I just do it for a hobby, it’s a lot of fun.

How do you feel about alternative fuel and stuff like bio-diesel?

James: Oh yeah, bio-diesel, corn and all that stuff. Yeah. I think we’ll invent something. I trust man, I have faith in man that we have adaptability. I feel that just as, you know, gasoline was a waste product of oil, which is in everything, everything we use, we’ll find a waste product that really is a waste product, you know. Trash would be great to be able to burn as fuel somehow. And there will be some brilliant mind out there that’ll come up with that. You know, a waste product.

And who do you support in the upcoming presidential election? Do you think a new president is going to change anything?

James: Oh. I don’t know. Politics are one of those that I get into for a few minutes, and then I get disgusted and turn it off, it gets so frustrating. I listen and I listen and I try to learn and want to like these people, and no matter who it is… you know, if you got money (laughs)… it’s almost like a sports team: If you got the money you can have the best team, and it’s disgusting the money they spent on this. And what they’re telling people whenever they’re in front of… you know, I go out to the German crowd: “You’re the best audience in the world.” Yeah, I might mean that. Then I go over to Portugal: “You’re the best crowd in the world.” I might mean that at the moment, but it just looks and sounds wrong. With these politicians, they’re going places telling people things that they wanna hear, you know, it’s a popularity contest, you know. And it’s somewhat frustrating.

Maybe you should run one day?

James: Oh hell no, hell no! I’ll run away (chuckles). No, politics are a way supposedly to bring people together, but it’s the exact opposite. Especially what I see, the two parties, there has to be two parties, I understand that, but they´re always… it’s like, you know, two brothers fighting, fighting, fighting always (laughs).

Can you recall the 1st album you´ve ever bought?

James: First album I ever bought with my own money… Well the first thing I ever bought was a single, back in the days of ‘45s, it was Lynyrd Skynyrd “Sweet Home Alabama”. (chuckles) But soon after that it went downhill, you know. (laughs)

What was next then?

James: Oh no! Like the Partridge Family, let’s see what else was in there. There was some Elton John, you know, “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” was a pretty good song, and I decided that I would try and hear some other songs and they weren’t so good. “Band On The Run”, Paul McCartney… but then soon after that Aerosmith. You know, that was just such a beautiful time, going to the record store, thumbing through… I remember when I had got “Rocks”. Aerosmith “Rocks”, that record, I think somebody got it to me for Christmas and I loved it so much that I went to the record store to see what other albums they had, and it was like: “Wow, here’s a new one, here’s another new one, here’s n a new one.” But no - it was like these are old. And I was like: ”Wow, you can get old stuff, too, it’s great.” (laughs) So discovering… that was like the… something had opened, you know, this big door to a whole other world had opened for me.