{"id":3444,"date":"2005-08-03T21:50:19","date_gmt":"2005-08-04T01:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2022-10-09T19:09:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T23:09:18","slug":"go-hetfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3444","title":{"rendered":"Go, Hetfield!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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.<\/p>\n

Here are Beth’s eloquent words on Hetfield himself, but I highly recommend you go read her whole post:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

hahaha<\/p>\n

Anyone out there see Some Kind of Monster<\/a><\/i>? FASCINATING movie. I blithered about it here<\/a> and here<\/a>. 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.)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Thanks Beth, for a great post <\/a>about one of my favorite rock stars ever!<\/p>\n

[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 “?]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178618,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions\/178618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}