Metallica frontman James Hetfield talked in a recent interview with Terry L. Karges at his latest car collection exhibit in Los Angeles and revealed what he really thinks about Van Halen legend Eddie Van Halen.
In the conversation, Papa Het mentioned his first met with Lars Ulrich and how he involved Metallica at the beginning of his musical career. While doing that, he also revealed the importance of Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen for the whole rock and metal community and the generation.
Here is what James Hetfield said:
“In the ’80s, in L.A., guitar players, everyone was trying to be Eddie Van Halen, and there was millions of guitar players, Every band was looking for a singer: ‘Singer needed.’ ‘Singer wanted.’ So I sold my guitar, sold my amp and bought a P.A. and a mic, and I wanted to be a singer. That was the next goal.
And then when I met Lars again, I told him, ‘Oh, I’m not playing guitar anymore. I’m just singing.’ He was, like, ‘Well, we’ll look for a guitar player.’ And then no one could play the guitar like we needed, so I went back to playing the guitar. ‘We’ll just look for a singer now.’ And then no one could sing like we wanted them to, so I said, ‘Okay, I’ll sing until we find a singer.’ … It just became out of necessity.
There was a need. It was challenging for me to do, but I pushed through it, and I got a lot of support. And a lot of people said, ‘This is cool. You don’t need a frontman running around. Why don’t you do that?’ And then it kind of stuck. So, people around me gave me the confidence to grow in that.”
Click here for the source and you can watch the conversation below.
