Go, Hetfield!!

Beth has a great post up right now about one of my favorite rock star bad-asses of all time: James Hetfield of Metallica. I ate up every word of her post.

I kind of never “get over” Metallica, and I’ve been listening to them for years. Beth says that Nine Inch Nails is her other “favorite” – and for me, it would be Nirvana. If we have to call favorites. Like: no matter how many times I hear “Rape Me” by Nirvana, i still feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise up. I never “get over” it. Metallica is the same way. I also love how Beth brings up the great GREAT double album they did called S & M – which is a live concert recording they did with the San Francisco Symphony. It is truly an inspirational and exciting album. Metallica with a full orchestra jamming out? Classical musicians jamming out with JAMES HETFIELD? I love love love that.

Here are Beth’s eloquent words on Hetfield himself, but I highly recommend you go read her whole post:

He has a distinctive style, biting off the ends of his words so viciously as to add syllables – “But the devil-uh take that woman-ah, yeah, for you know she tricked-uh me easy-ahh…” And his voice is a blue-steel baritone, smooth and cold and purposeful. No hoarseness and an even, highly masculine tone. His speaking voice, too, is that of a man’s man – a growl slightly tinged with Southern accent and the same pitch as his singing voice, not too low or too high.

That vocal consistency hints at what truly makes James Hetfield transcendent – unlike so many rock stars, his persona onstage is not much of stretch from his personality off it. This is in contrast to a surprising number of his fellow frontmen – Marilyn Manson sounds like a dysfunctional librarian when not performing; Trent Reznor is a bashful, softspoken loner (in stark contrast to the shrieking nutcase he becomes onstage); even Alice Cooper and Gene Simmons seem more like corporate marketers or used car salesmen when out of stage drag.

James Hetfield, meanwhile, is every bit as intimidating in all the interview or behind-the-scenes footage I’ve seen as he seems behind his signature flying-V guitar and the microphone. It’s one thing to look like a demon next to blaring amplifiers and surrounded by blazing heavy-metal pyrotechnics; it’s quite another to look in the most casual Mtv segment like someone you don’t want to cross, ever.

Let us just pause a moment and revel in the perfection of this phrase: “Marilyn Manson sounds like a dysfunctional librarian when not performing”

hahaha

Anyone out there see Some Kind of Monster? FASCINATING movie. I blithered about it here and here. What really struck me was Hetfield’s emotionalism – his fear of the band breaking up – which was really just a fear of rejection, of being abandoned – how really he was like a little kid, being afraid that he wouldn’t get picked for kickball. And if you think that’s a condescending remark, then you obviously do not remember school recesses – when everything was SO important, and being picked for teams was a moment of stark emotionalism, when your entire social status – whether or not you are LIKED and ACCEPTED – was revealed to all. Hetfield had that kind of childlike emotion underneath his bad-ass self. (Think about the persona of Enter Sandman, one of their biggest hits. A small child afraid of the dark, praying “If I should die before I wake …” All alone. And yet … it’s feckin’ James HETFIELD singing – a scary-lookin’ Alan Embree-esque – yet hotter – dude. That’s his dichotomy – that’s the demon he deals with.)

I think his intimidating stance is not a pose. Or a “look at me, I’m a badass.” To me, it seems to come from an inability to lie. He is unable to not show his emotions. If he’s bored in an interview, he shows it. If he is annoyed by a question, he shows it. He does not suffer fools gladly. Don’t waste his time.

Thanks Beth, for a great post about one of my favorite rock stars ever!

[Uhm … is mine the only blog in town that can go from James Joyce to James Hetfield in a nano-second? Should I care? Or should I repeat to myself like a mantra:”A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds “?]