60 MINUTES with James HETFIELD by Vic Garbrini

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by Vic Garbrini (Guitar World)

When we asked Metallica's James Hetfield for the hour's worth of music, he'd bring along the proverbial "Tour From Hell," he called from England to explain that he already was on the Highway to Hades (or was it Birmingham?), "I'd want some music that could really get me hepped up and ready for another day on the road," he said. For Hetfield, that means a lots of dueling guitars, humongous riffs and outright weirdness. Here's the dirty dozen that help him get a load of his mind. "THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN"

Thin Lizzy
Jailbreak
(Mercury, 1976)
"Those guys introduced me to guitar harmonies. I love that dual guitar stuff, which especially influenced me on Ride The Lightning [Elektra, 1985] and Master Of Puppets [Elektra, 1986]. That song's one of the easier songs, so I learned it first. We use it on our pre-concert intro tape, so it's a little special." "SYMPTOM OF THE UNIVERSE"
Black Sabbath
Sabotage
(Warner Bros., 1975)
"A slightly fucking heavy - if not the heaviest - riff in the universe. That one sums up Black Sabbath for me." "BLACK WINGS"
Tom Waits
Bone Machine
(Island, 1992)
"What I like about Tom is that he instantly brings you to another place. A couple of lyrics in and you're already with him in some gutter, ot you're a barfly hanging out somewhere. He gets me in a kind of strange, goody mood. It's very American, I think." "ON A ROPE"
Rocket From The Cyrpt
Sceam, Dracula, Scream!
(Interscope, 1995)
"I didn't know any good bands came out of San Diego, but I guess there is one. It's a pretty happy little ditty. Their stuff reminds me of the early Misfits crossed with Elvis Costello. It's poppy, but it's got a lot of energy." "THE SHIP SONG"
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Live Seeds
(Mute, 1993)
"I got turned onto them by [producer] Bob Rock, and then I went back and checked out their whole career. This one's energetic and a little corny. It reminds me of a German beer garden song, something to swing your stein by." "SIMPLE MAN"
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Pronounced Leh'-nerd Skin'-erd
(MCA, 1973)
" 'Sweet Home Alabama' was one of the first records I ever bought. Now I've got a juke-box at home and Skynyrd takes up half of it. Definitely plenty of guitars going on there. The lyrics to 'Simple Man' are really extra meaningful for me. In the middle of this huge rock and roll machine, it brings you down to earth." "TEMPORARY SAINT"
Gov't Mule
Gov't Mule
(Relativity, 1995)
"Warren Haynes just blows me away. Our accountant worked with him in the Allman Brothers, and turned me on to Gov't Mule. You listen to this song and sense there's a solo coming up, and you really hear certain shit in your head, and that's exactly what he plays! His voice is amazing as well. There's a lot of Stevie Ray and maybe some Robin Trower stuff in there. He gets a little hippy-dippy, but he definitely puts you in a trance." "THEM BONES"
Alice In Chains
Dirt
(Columbia, 1992)
"There's plenty of great Alice songs. That's one I warm up to before we go on stage. It's short and sweet and it's fucking strong. The drum beat's very cool, and so is the vocal line." "STONE DEAD FOREVER"
Motorhead
Bomber
(Roadrunner, 1979)
"That's a song that really gets me hepped up. Not the most beautiful bunch of guys, but they fucking rock. Lemmy's a total inspiration. We learned a bunch of Motorhead songs when we played at his 50th birthday party at the Whiskey in L.A., and one of them was 'Stone Dead Forever.' They still make the biggest amount of noise for three guys. It's incredible. They went on at one in the morning and did a one and a half hour set and it was fucking strong. His endurance just amazes me. I think if he stops, he'll die, you know?" "TURN THE PAGE"
Bob Seger
Greatest Hits
(Capitol, 1994)
"I fucking hate Bob Seger, but that song is great. Okay, I don't really hate him, but he was one of the guys I'd hear on the radio all the time polluting my ears with [whines] 'Get your old records off the shelf...' That really annoyed me. But being on tour as long as we have, I've got to say that one song sums up the whole road experience really, really well." "WAKE UP"
Mad Season
Above
(Columbia, 1995)
"The junky troop, or wharever's going on there. There's some really psycho shit on that record. This song's very moody, and seems pretty heartfelt from the guy. I also like the way they experiment - using old keyboards, the drummer playing with his hands, and goofing around with percussion stuff." "THE GREAT SEAL"
Laibach
Opus Dei
(Mute/Elektra, 1988)
"They're Yugoslavian or something, they've been around for quite a while. They're definitely, uh, fascists. They've done some really intense industrial stuff - they were into it way earlier then Reznor and all them guys. That song has a very military march kind of feel, which I get into every once and a while."

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