The frontman and co-founder of Metallica, James Hetfield has reminisced about the period when he got out of rehab back to making music with his band and unveiled that he was pretty anxiety-ridden at this time.

During the recent interview he gave to So What, the legendary vocalist James Hetfield has talked about the experience of getting out of rehab once again and planning new musical projects with his bandmates right after that.

As you know, Hetfield went into rehab in 2019, stating that he’s been struggling with addiction on and off for many years. Amid the tour, the band announced that they postponed the shows in Australia and New Zealand, stating as soon as health and schedule permits, they intend to come back.

After James Hetfield has completed his treatment process, the band has come up with their new live album, ‘S&M 2,’ on August 28, 2020. Following the album, they’ve also performed a drive-in concert and appeared on The Howard Stern Show.

As Hetfield has taken part in these events one after another, he has been wondered by his fans if he’s doing great regarding the aftermath of rehab. In his most recent conversation, James has satisfied the curiosity of people and explained that getting back to work was scary at first.

He added that, in addition to everything going on personally, the COVID has made things worse by forcing them to take extra precautions by using double masks, face shields, rain slickers, and hazmat suits.

After almost a year away from the music industry and his bandmates, James Hetfield admitted that he’s had nightmares, but, as soon as they played together, everything felt just fine.

Here is what James Hetfield said during the interview:

“Getting back into work, I’ve been playing, writing kind of nonstop, and trying to slow down and trying to have the other guys present some stuff that they would like to play in Metallica.

So getting back together with the guys was anxiety-ridden. I mean, it really was. Getting on a plane, traveling. And then what we really had to do was make the least comfortable person comfortable with all of this COVID and testing and whatnot.

So double masks, face shields, rain slickers, hazmat suits, you know. Walk into a – whatever the little smoking things that they had, little fogger to fog your backpacks, and there was every precaution taken that was available.”

He continued:

“Some people just feel a little more freaked out by this, feel safer with a different cautionary level. So I think we did a great job in that department. But getting back and playing was just scary.

After almost a year, you get up there and, ‘Wow, I can’t play as quick as I used to, I can’t this or…’

And it’s all the same stuff that’s happened over the years, where we have nightmares before getting back together, and then as soon as we play, everything’s fine. It’s just that messed up creative mind that’s the blessing and curse, you know?”

You can check out the rest of the interview here.