On the latest episode of ‘The Metallica Report,’ James Hetfield shared his thoughts on the structure of words in songwriting.
“Having access to the sources and dictionaries and things like that nowadays is so great,” Hetfield explained while talking about his own approach to writing lyrics. “I mean, somebody will send me something and I’ll look at a word and I don’t know what that is. I highlight it, look it up. Hey, great. I got that. I will thumb through books just to see cool words and put ’em in a little pile and figure out where they belong. So it is kind of like building a vehicle, building a whatever, collecting lots of little words. And how do they fit together? What does this really mean? Is this enough for a subject matter?”
The frontman then discussed some of Green Day’s famous lyrics, and clarified that they were not ‘literary geniusness,’ a set of words he ‘just made up.’
“Then I go and I watch a band like Green Day, and they have some simple — ‘know your enemy’ or ‘do you know your enemy?’, something like that. It’s, like, it’s so hooky and great, it sticks in you, but that’s not really literary geniusness. So ‘geniusness’ is another word I just made up. And there are times when I’ll make up words just to get a point across too.”
“For me, putting words into the song, it is like another instrument,” Hetfield added. “So if ‘and,’ ‘the,’ ‘if,’ those things get in the way, just get rid of ’em. You just want the meaty words to get in there and get the point across and be vague enough. But I’m not a storyteller. I’m not that,” he added.
In the same podcast episode, Hetfield shared his frustration about how difficult it was to write lyrics for 45 tracks during the recording of ‘Load’ and ‘Reload.’ He felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of songs and believed that focusing on fewer, stronger lyrics would have been more impactful. “I was discouraged when we did ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ with the amount of songs. There were 45 songs I had to write lyrics for and I felt like, ‘Wait a minute. I’ve gotta write 45 songs’ worth of lyrics. It’s insane.’ All those 45 songs would not be as potent as one really well-written lyric — to me. And being more comfortable with stuff that I think brings the point across.”
The frontman also discussed the controversy about some of his lyrics, particularly the use of the word ‘cancer’ in the song ‘Inamorata.’
“‘Oh, yeah, that word. I’m not sure.’ It’s, like, ‘Well, just let me sing it. Let me get it out there.’ Even something like ‘Inamorata’ [with the lyrics] ‘Resentment like a cancer grows.’ He’s, like, ‘Ah, the word ‘cancer’. Nah, you can’t sing that. It’s too…’ Like, dude, come on. I mean, I’m not trying to win any P.C. awards for anything. Cancer is a f*cking powerful word. It’s hated, and to apply it to something gives it that power,” he added.
The 2025 leg of Metallica’s M72 world tour will continue the band’s tradition of ‘No Repeat Weekend,’ where each pair of shows will feature completely different setlists and support acts.
The M72 tour will also feature two festival headlining sets. The first will take place on April 12 at the Sick New World Festival at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. The band will perform two headline shows at Sonic Temple Festival at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio on May 9 and 11.
