#887 - James Hetfield

James Hetfield (0:00)

I guess I never, I don't know much about moose.

Joe Rogan (0:03)

They're awesome.

So fucking big, such a giant animal. Two, one, live, boom, live with James Hetfield. How are you, sir?

James Hetfield (0:10)

Doing awesome.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

Any friend of Jim Brewer's is a friend of mine.

James Hetfield (0:13)

Awesome to hear.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

So you're in.

Hey man, I listened to your new shit in the gym today, and you know what's amazing about it? You guys still fucking rock hard. You know, you haven't, I love Aerosmith. I was a huge Aerosmith fan when I was a kid, but somewhere along the line, they became a ballad band. Somewhere along the line, they started doing movies for music, or music for movies that appeal to like adolescent, teenage girls, you know? Like something happened.

James Hetfield (0:41)

Yeah, I got you.

No, and then other people start writing your songs. That's, I think, the ultimate kind of, not giving up, but you've lost your way.

Joe Rogan (0:55)

Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about, like, there's a transition that very successful people make, and either they make it or they don't. And the transition is to go from being hungry and filled with all this angst to being like stupid, wealthy and famous, but still keeping your art relevant.

Like, how do you do that?

James Hetfield (1:17)

We're super competitive people. We're really perfectionists, and we hate to let each other down.

There's always a better riff coming. There's always a better album. Maybe there's the never satisfied part to us that will keep us going till we die. There's always the ultimate lyric that's gonna connect to everyone in the world or something. There is always a better something that we haven't got yet.

Joe Rogan (1:45)

So it's that mindset. Is that, I guess, in the beginning, you just want to do it, right? You want to be a successful band. You want to make it. You're young. You're filled with angst.

But your music has the same sort of intensity to it. Like today in the gym, I got in there, I hadn't listened to your new album at all. I fucking cranked it up to nine and I just said, let's go, and I turned it on. Right from the jump, I was like, woo! Like there's something about a good fucking hard rock album that just gets you pumped up.

And you guys 100% A plus succeeded with this one.

James Hetfield (2:19)

Awesome to hear. Well, that's why we do it too.

We write music, we record music that we want to hear because we're not hearing it out there sometimes. So, and that's how it's been since day one. And, you know, as you were pretty honest in our music too. So I love the fact that from album one to here, we're doing it our way and we're writing songs for ourselves. And that there's an honesty that has to be in it. Or people can see, people can see that shit.

Joe Rogan (2:52)

If you're not honest.

James Hetfield (2:53)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:55)

They're like little animals. They smell it, right? Don't they?

James Hetfield (2:58)

And they smell.

Joe Rogan (2:59)

Yeah, they smell, they smell it, the whole deal. Yeah, it's just, it's refreshing to see like a band that's been at it for a long time, that's super successful, that still goes after it.

James Hetfield (3:10)

Yeah, the thing that bugs me a lot is when people say, you know, okay, now that you're sober, or now that you're matured, now all this, and you've worked out all your demons and things like that, that your music's gonna be all soft and flowery. And I tell ya, if I could exercise all those demons, I would have, but it just, it's something you embrace, it's a part of me, and I get to celebrate it in my music. I get to communicate it, I get to use it as a therapy to help my own insanity, and other people do too. So when you get those like-minded people together in a place and play live, music does something to people.

Like you in the gym, I get to watch people at our shows transform from, God, I just took my tie off, or I still have my friggin briefcase, you know, like handcuffed to me. I want out of this, and I get to let loose, and I get to see these people transform and watch music do stuff to them.

Joe Rogan (4:21)

Yeah, transform is the right word, right? Because it does, it's almost like music, I think there's an element to music that doesn't get discussed, that it does have some sort of an effect on the body.