During the latest episode of The Metallica Report, James Hetfield discussed their latest album, ’72 Seasons,’ and picked his favorite songs to play live. He admitted that he loved playing ‘Nothing Else Matters’ in front of fans since the song makes it impossible not to feel vulnerable. He stated:
“‘Nothing Else Matters’ is always a song that I enjoy playing. You see people hugging each other, crying… It’s a very different emotion in the show from just, ‘Lose your mind, mosh, and go crazy.’ It’s like that, but goes inwards, you know. I love seeing people’s vulnerability to emotion during that song.”
After choosing his favorite song to perform live, the lead singer picked a few of his favorites from their latest studio album:
“It depends on the gig, on how I’m feeling… ’72 Seasons,’ ‘Lux Aeterna’ — love playing those songs. ‘Shadows Follow’ [is] kind of the next one that I really enjoy. It’s just a forward-moving, pushing, and it’s not your typical song. You need to pay attention to it, because there’s little things here and there [that] you got to remember.”
Hetfield On Love Songs: A Sign Of Weakness
Before writing their current hit ‘Nothing Else Matters,’ Hetfield apparently thought love songs were a sign of weakness since the band always wrote songs that included heavy riffs, lyrics consisting of destroying and destructing, and such. Still, he wrote a slower song about missing his then-girlfriend Kristen Martinez while on tour. He admitted that, at first, he did not want to play the song on stage, but he eventually did, and the song became the top hit of their self-titled album. Now, it is one of the best known songs of the band, and some people even pay to listen to the hit live once.
It seems that even Kirk Hammett was shocked to see his bandmate write about missing someone and to see his sensitive side. Writing a love song, in Hammett’s words, took a lot of balls for him.
You can listen to the recent episode of the podcast below.
