The Metallica Song Inspired By James Hetfield’s Rehab Days In The 2000s

James Hetfield had struggled with alcohol addiction during a significant portion of his career in Metallica. To solve this issue, he went into rehab during the recordings of the band’s eighth studio album entitled ‘St. Anger’ in 2001. After seven months in rehab and four months of recovery time he spent with his family, Hetfield rejoined Metallica. This period is also documented in the film ‘Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster.’

Although Hetfield recovered from alcohol addiction, he once again entered rehab in 2019. Due to that, Metallica had to cancel the Australia/New Zealand leg of their WorldWired tour. So, it is fair to say that Hetfield had a long-lasting battle with alcohol addiction that affected his private life and music career with the band. Metallica depicted this struggle and Hetfield’s rehab days and the effects of these issues on the band in one of their songs.

Which Metallica Song Is About James Hetfield’s Alcohol Problem?

On April 23, 2001, Metallica began recording their eighth studio album ‘St. Anger.’ However, they postponed the recordings after James Hetfield entered rehabilitation for alcoholism and other addictions. Therefore, their work on the album didn’t resume until May 2002, which is a time that can be seen in the 2004’s documentary ‘Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster.’

After finally being released on June 5, 2003, ‘St. Anger’ featured a song written about Metallica’s struggles with addictions, particularly James Hetfield’s alcoholism which caused him to spend several months in rehab. The song ‘Frantic’ is the opening track and the second single from Metallica’s successful record.

In the ‘Frantic’ music video, their audience sees a man crashing his delivery pickup truck and then looking back on his past life during which he is constantly having affairs, drinking, and smoking. At the end of the video, the man sees he is still alive after the car crash and laughs. However, another car crashes into the side of the truck, and he possibly gets killed.

James Hetfield got over his alcohol addiction at the time of the release. Unfortunately, he fell into alcoholism again and entered rehab in 2019. While the music video became an ironic foretelling of what is to come for Hetfield, it also had mistaken with its ending since Papa Het managed to complete his second rehab with a clean page for his future.

You can listen to Metallica’s ‘Frantic’ below.