James Hetfield: personal life and musical career

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

James Hetfield is a real legendary musician, vocalist-frontman, rhythm guitarist of the US metal band Metallica. His songs are listened to all over the globe, and concerts, wherever they are held, gather a huge number of fans. Fans love his outstanding strong vocals, as well as his frequent interaction with the audience during performances. He also has an unusual three-finger picking style and original performance of solo guitar parts in individual songs of the group. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 87th on their famous list of the greatest guitarists of all time.

Childhood and youth

James Hetfield was born in Downey, a small town in southeast Los Angeles County, California. There he spent his childhood and youth, which were far from carefree. The reason for this was the departure of Virgil Hatfield's father from the family when the future musician was at the age of thirteen. After that, their small family was constantly plagued by problems.

James hardly sawmother Cynthia, who, being an opera singer, devoted a lot of time to rehearsals and frequent performances. However, there was not enough money, and the family quite often had to change housing. In the end, disappointed in life, Cynthia fell into religion and introduced her son to it, who often accompanied her to church. The new belief denied any medical intervention, and when the musician's mother was diagnosed with cancer, she refused treatment. As a result, at the age of sixteen, James Hetfield was left without a mother, and this could not but affect the future work of the musician.

The beginning of creative activity

Even at the age of nine, James showed his love for music and began to learn to play the piano, and after some time he decided to master the drum kit, which played his older brother. But very soon the guitar became his favorite musical instrument. James Hetfield, as a teenager, formed Obsession, a short-lived semi-amateur band, with Ron McGoney and Dev Mars. After the demise of the group, James decided to go to school and studied at Brea Olinda High School for several years.

During his studies, he met new musicians and decided to continue his musical experiments, as a result of which the Phantom Lord band appeared in Downey, which, like the first, could not boast of a long life.

However, James did not despair and, with the former musicians from two bands, he assembled a third one called Leather Charm, whichexisted for several years. Over the years, the musician has made a lot of new friends, and also gained experience performing on stage. At this stage, James considered that he had achieved everything in music, but his creative career was only at the very beginning.

Founding of Metallica and further musical career

In early 1981, the guitarist of the then-defunct Leather Charm introduced James to a very talented drummer, Lars Ulrich. Together they decided to found a new band and advertised for the recruitment of musicians in The Recycler magazine. Lars borrowed the band's name from Ron Quitana when he asked for help choosing the right one for his new magazine. Ron McGoney, a member of Hatfield's previous band, became the bass player for the newly formed band, but the guitarist's position was often vacant until Panic's Dave Mustaine was recruited in 1982. James Hetfield and Lars were so impressed with Dave's performance that they immediately invited him to become a permanent member. In May of the same year, the group performed on stage for the first time - at the school of Lars Ulrich.

The following year, Metallica, thanks to a series of lucrative deals, released their first and immediately hugely popular Kill 'em All record. The group's songs immediately appeared in all charts in the country, and after a while, James gained popularity among the most famous musicians in the United States. The release of subsequent albums only strengthened the love for the group.among fans around the world, Metallica has become a cult band. The band's performances were attended by tens of thousands of spectators, and their albums and collections were bought up by millions. In the 1990s, the band began to play shows in other countries, gathering stadiums in Australia, North America and Europe.

In 1998, Metallica released the Garage Inc. compilation, which included covers of songs by bands that had an impact on the band's work. The cover featured Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Cliff Burton and James Hetfield. A photo of the band members dressed as car repairmen complemented the stylistic image of the album.

At the beginning of the 21st century, interest in the group gradually began to fade, which began to give concerts less often and release new albums. In the period from 1997 to the present day, the band has released only two studio albums, the last one to date is Death Magnetic.

Private life

James loves to spend his private time hunting, snowboarding or water skiing, working in the garage or attending the games of his favorite Oakland Raiders. He also has a lot of rare guitars from Gibson, Fender and Ken in his collection, but most of them are from ESP. James Hetfield has been married to Francesca Tomasi since 1997 and the couple has three children, Kylie, Castor and Marcella.