James Hetfield

From MetallicaWiki

James Hetfield is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and a main songwriter of Metallica. James, together with Lars, are the two co-founders of Metallica.

James was born on August 3, 1963, in Downey, California (a suburb of Los Angeles). James' father Virgil was a truck driver, mother Cynthia was a light opera singer. His parents raised him in Christian Science, which later had a significant impact on his lyric writing.

James is the author of lyrics of all the Metallica songs, with the exception of the 2003 album St. Anger, where lyrics were authored collaboratively by all the members of Metallica. The other notable exception is the otherwise instrumental track "To Live Is To Die", where a short piece of lyrics were written by Cliff Burton.

Personal life

James married his long-time girlfriend Francesca on Monday, August 17, 1997, five days prior to the short, three-shows European festival tour.

James and Francesca have three children - two girls and one boy:

• Cali Tee (born June 13, 1998)
• Castor Virgil (born May 18, 2000)
• Marcella (born January 17, 2002)

In April 2003, when Metallica was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, James thanked Francesca "for saving my life, many times," in his speech.

Injuries

James suffered many injuries during his carrier in Metallica. The most severe one was caused by the infamous pyrotechnics accident during the intro to "Fade To Black" in Montreal, Canada on August 8, 1992. John Marshall helped with rhythm guitar when Metallica resumed touring three weeks later.

James also broke his arm twice while skateboarding - first time in 1986, and again in 1987. John Marshall helped on the 1986 tour, as well.

James injured his back while water-skiing in 2000. As a result, he missed 3 Metallica shows on their Summer Sanitarium 2000 tour. The rest of the band played the shows with the help from the members of other bands touring with Metallica. James performed free make-up shows with the band couple of weeks later (the tickets were saying that James Hetfield would be a special guest of the evening).

In March 2009, Metallica had to cancel the second show in Stockholm due to James' stomach problems, most probably caused by him eating a bad oyster on the previous evening.

External Links

• James Hetfield bio at Metallica.com
• James Hetfield page on Wikipedia
• James Hetfield Signature Series page at The ESP Guitar Company