James Hetfield, the lead singer of Metallica, recently spoke in an interview about his personal journey and his battle with mental health. In a recent conversation with Steffan Chirazi, James opened up about his experiences during the pandemic and how it allowed him to take a step back and focus on his own well-being.
During the interview, Papa Het spoke about how therapy and rehabilitation helped him get through his struggles with mental health. He also revealed that he does not journal every day, but uses doodling and writing to express himself. James emphasized that taking the time to focus on himself was the key to his recovery and growth, and encouraged others to do the same.
He said:
“The feelings of 2020, early spring of 2020… for me, there was a rebirth again, realizing my life was needing some help. Going away to rehab, putting the halt on some band stuff again out of personal health, mental health reasons, you know? That takes priority, even though I just want to keep running and let the band just keep going and run away from problems. I needed to deal with stuff. A lot of rawness at that point. It’s really difficult when there’s so much stuff going on around you in the rest of your life to take time for yourself, to get yourself at least to a point where you feel like you’re functioning. And for me, it hasn’t been easy at times to just shut out the rest of the world.”
Metallica singer continued:
“And then, obviously, when the pandemic happened, it was – and I want to word this right because it was horrible, absolutely horrible for many people – in a strange way, it was kind of a silver lining for me. I was able to put the brakes on life and really take some time to embrace my needs at that time. So yeah, not discounting all of the terrible things that were happening at that point. It was just a timely thing that happened, and I can see the [positivity] in it for myself.”
Don’t forget that Metallica’s upcoming album, ’72 Seasons,’ is set to be released on April 14 via Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman with James and drummer Lars Ulrich, the album is a collection of 12 new tracks that run over 77 minutes.
As a fan of Metallica, it is exciting to see the band releasing a new album, ’72 Seasons,’ despite James Hetfield’s personal struggles with rehab and mental health. While we will have to wait until the album’s release to fully experience its musical offerings, I am already looking forward to writing a review of ’72 Seasons’ and sharing my thoughts with readers. Stay tuned for my in-depth analysis of the album once it is released.
