Metallica frontman James Hetfield has expressed his love for cigars and talked about the private gang he has.
In the most recent episode of ‘The Metallica Report,’ the frontman opened up about his health and his love for smoking cigars. It has become a ritual for him to enjoy a cigar right before going on stage for a live performance. This tradition became such a serious thing that it turned into a private gang. The rocker now meditates over cigars with his gang. He explained:
“We have a cigar fellowship back home and we get together every Thursday and have a puff, and just get real with each other; you know, check in with each other. There are a few guys in the area that are not real social and we get together once a week… they’re looking forward to that day of the week, which I enjoy.”
Apparently, Hetfield doesn’t even need to be there for his friends to enjoy in his house:
“When I’m not there, they’ve got the code to my garage; they can get into the house and they enjoy it while I’m away too… Just to know that people are gathering, getting together at my place when I’m not there is cool. That wouldn’t have happened earlier on, opening up my house to that.”
Hetfield smokes even in places that don’t allow smoking. However, he enjoys it:
“There’s probably the rebel part of me that enjoys the, ‘Sir, you’re not supposed to smoke here…’ ‘Yeah, I know!’ It’s an expression of freedom for myself. It’s not for everybody, and that’s fine. It’s just a connection I enjoy with some people.”
Do Cigars Affect His Voice?
The frontman himself hasn’t said anything about this issue, but there are some theories that cigars might affect his voice.
According to Ed Masley from the Arizona Republic, Metallica’s gig at State Farm Stadium on September last year had a 14-song lineup, a couple of tracks shorter than their usual opening nights since the ‘M72’ tour in the US. Normally, they would end with ‘Master Of Puppets’ after ‘Seek & Destroy.’ They started playing the intro to ‘The Day That Never Comes’ but switched to ‘Hardwired’ as the twelfth song.
Setlist.fm also mentioned that Metallica dropped ‘The Day That Never Comes’ and ‘Master Of Puppets’ from the set because of issues with Hetfield’s vocals.
Additionally, the rocker is aware of fans that are concerned about his health. During the same episode of the podcast, he said:
“There’s a lot of people around me that are concerned about that and the health and what not. I feel that I am kind of singing the best that I have in a long time and I am doing my best, and I get to enjoy that as well, so we’ll see.”
