Metallica XXX Blog

NME writer Dele Fadele delves into his rock’n’roll diary to recall a war story of old. Here he elaborates on his 1987 encounter with “divas” Metallica…

“March 1987: I get to interview Metallica’s James Hetfield backstage in a giant astrodome on the outskirts of Paris. We talk about the hardcore punk/metal crossover of the time and Metallica as posterboys for a new, reformed kind of metal. He’s not having any of it.

“He says, at one point, casually, that he likes pissing in womens’ drinks in nightclubs. I say I’m gonna print his quote verbatim. As if he could care less. His quote is meant to antagonise the NME of the time, which slags off metal bands with impunity, for boorish, sexist behaviour, and uncontrolled excesses, amongst other things.

“James Hetfield is here to defend his way of life – hunting wild animals, eating red meat, an extremist Christian upbringing and background; loud, unreconstructed metal. All of which are anathema to NME. So, we’re thrown into a state of psychological warfare.

“A few hours previously, and I jump at the chance to fly to Paris and interview the band with great gusto. I figure a metal band that’s aware of Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and the general American hardcore scene, will be right up my alley.

“But things go wrong from the moment we arrive at the venue. Metallica leave me stuck in a small room backstage, watching an insect slowly crawl up the wall for four hours.

“The photographer only gets three minutes photo time for what turns out to be a cover-shoot – luckily, she also gets to photograph Metallica live, or there wouldn’t be an image for what turns out to be their first NME cover article.

“Yet, Metallica don’t care. They’d rather it was a magazine like Kerrang!, who have a history, at the time, of supporting metal acts, and damn the consequences, who came to soft-soap ‘em.

“When Lars Ulrich, the drummer, finally arrives in the small room hell I’m stuck in – with me being told, every thirty minutes, that the band will soon be here – he speaks, unprompted and uninterrupted, for 45 minutes.

“I can’t get a word in edgeways, but Lars is a great raconteur, a major quote-machine, so, I just listen. Then it’s off to interview James Hetfield for the showdown reported earlier.

“The gig itself, when it finally happens, and on schedule, too, is great: a bruising blast of ferocious metal. Since Anthrax are the support act (a headliner in their own right), Metallica feel the gnawing need to blow them off the stage.

“Which they almost do. It makes you almost wanna ignore their ridiculous diva-like behaviour offstage, this absolutely devastating gig.

“Almost, but not quite.”