JAMES HETFIELD: ‘There’s Certainly No Way METALLICA Would Be Around If There Was No MOTÖRHEAD’

On October 31, Gary Moore of the 95.5 KLOS radio station conducted an interview with METALLICA frontman James Hetfield. You can now listen to the chat using the widget below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On METALLICA‘s upcoming tour in support of the “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” album:

James: “The ‘WorldWired’ tour is happening now, and we’re booking out the next couple of years and where we’re gonna go and how we’re gonna get there and what it’s gonna look like. So we’re pretty excited about that. We’re still trying to figure out what makes most sense for us, how can we get the best out of our time, playing the best places with the time that we do have and wanna put into this on the road. It’s changed a little bit for us. You know, you’re getting older and you wanna still do what you’re doing, and it takes a little more time to do it. So we’re not out there killing ourselves on a three-year, five-shows-a-week tour. So we’re working this out how it needs to be now, I guess, age appropriately [laughs], so my body can survive it.”

On bands that have yet to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame:

James: “There are so many great bands that haven’t been acknowledged with that, and if they do or don’t, it’s really not up to me. But it is just a nod, it’s a tip of the cap. And what does it really mean to be in there? I don’t know. But to some of these bands, it might mean the world. But, absolutely, and, unfortunately, with the passing of Lemmy, it’s really, really important for me to see MOTÖRHEAD acknowledged in that, ’cause there’s no more rock and roll person on this planet than Lemmy and MOTÖRHEAD.”

On METALLICA‘s MOTÖRHEAD tribute on “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct”:

James: “[It’s] a song called ‘Murder One’, which was the name of [Lemmy‘s] amplifier, his favorite amp on stage. And I loved being murdered every night by that thing, man. He was just such an icon, such an inspiration to us as a band. There’s certainly no way we’d be around if there was no MOTÖRHEAD. And, you know, to see your idol, your immortal one, actually be mortal, it hit us pretty hard. So I felt, lyrically, it makes sense to acknowledge him and how much he’s meant in our lives.”

The long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s “Death Magnetic”, “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” is due out November 18 and consists of two discs, containing a dozen songs and nearly 80 minutes of music.