Chords for Metallica's James Hetfield On How It Felt To Invent A Genre Of Music

James Hetfield, _ 14 year old me is freaking out right now.
[Eb] Welcome to the [Db] project.
_ _ _ [Ebm]
Hey, Waleed, how are you?
Hey, just before we get [Db] into this,
before we started, [B] I saw you drinking,
it looked like tea out of the last receptacle
I expected James Hetfield to be drinking from.
Can you show us that?
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ It's coffee.
Yeah, I should be drinking out of an old [Ab] boot, right?
Yes.
That's more my thing.
Yes, or something that you smash
on someone else's head or something, like please. _
_ [G] _ Metallica's [Gb] impact on music is _ undeniable.
This is one of the [A] best songs ever written to me.
I mean, it's a song that never gets old.
And [B] enduring, as proven by the drop
of their 12th studio album, [Ab] 72 Seasons. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] Well, congratulations on this album.
It's your 12th studio album, 72 Seasons.
What's it like releasing an album _ now
compared to when you're starting out? _
Well, it's still like giving birth, you know, to a baby.
You know, it's a _ big, exciting event.
You know, this is what comes from our souls
and this is what we get to create.
So anytime you're creating something
and you're releasing it, [Em] the excitement is always still there
and, you know, we're doing our best at this age still.
[E] Do you get nervous about people's reactions?
I mean, like this is Metallica.
Surely you could release, I don't know,
an album of you sneezing or something
and it would be enormous.
_ [D] Oh, you heard that one?
[E] We did a fart one.
Fart Christmas album.
No, you know, we care.
We care a lot, you know, about what we put out
and I don't know, we want to put out
what we feel [Gb] is our [E] best.
They set that bar high from the beginning,
along [Gb] with Anthrax, [E] Megadeth and Slayer.
Metallica are credited as the original big [Bb] four of thrash.
[E] It's pretty epic when you think about it.
What's it like being [Db] credited with [E] inventing a genre? _ _ _
I'd love to take credit for it,
but it was just how it worked out.
We were playing music that we wanted to hear.
As simple as that.
People don't understand how important things are
in the moment when you're doing them until later on,
which is great, because if we thought it was that important,
we would have screwed it up probably.
_ Yeah, you just gotta let it flow, yeah.
Right.
People say a lot that rock is dead
and I can kind of see that argument,
but metal [F] definitely [E] isn't.
Why?
What do you think's special about metal?
Gosh, it's [G] a misfit music.
It's an underground feeling [F] still.
[Cm] It's like a rebel music.
It's a thing you need to fight for.
Every [Em] decade, rock is dead.
[D] That is fuel for [Em] a hard rock band, absolutely.
There's a lovely [Gm] moment recently
where [Em] Elton John surprised you
_ by saying [G] that Nothing Else Matters
is one of the best songs that's ever been [B] written.
[Em] What did that mean, that sort of stamp of approval?
_ Well, _ Elton John, _ he's _ _ [D] _ _
[G] _ _ quite [Em] an entity.
He's quite a [D] musical [G] force
and [Em] he's written some amazing melodies,
[Bm] some classic [G]
songs that live in my heart.
And for [B] him to say [Em] that Nothing Else Matters
is one of the best songs written, _ _
_ _ _ _ it brought me to tears, really.
[G] For him to say something like [C] that,
it [E] _ nourished my soul right then and [D] there.
Also, one of the few Metallica [Em] songs
where you get to play a solo.
[E]
I mean, was [D] that really the secret?
Should [C] that have happened a lot [G] more?
Should you have elbowed Kirk and said,
[B] hey, mate, you're [Em] getting in the way here.
You're getting in the way here.
[C] Yeah, well, [A] then he'll ask to sing.
[D] So then there might be a whole nother [G] issue.
[A] But I'm not [D] great at doing solos.
I'm really good at melody.
All [B] of the harmony stuff that's on the album,
that is my _ [E] writing and playing.
Kirk is _ fantastic at ripping.
His nickname's The Ripper, so he can do that.
I can't.
Kirk's a bit of a show-off, though, isn't he?
[N] No, you know what?
He's pretty grounded.
He's a pretty regular guy, but he likes his [B] fashion.
You know, _ there's sparkly things showing up more and more,
like bedazzling. _ _
Your vans are [G] bedazzled, you know?
I [B] don't think I expected ever to hear the word [Bm] bedazzled
in a conversation about Metallica.
[A] That's quite something. _ _
[G] _ I think you might be the only band
who have played on every continent.
You did this [D] in a calendar year.
I mean, talk me [G] through the Antarctica gig.
How did [F] your fingers work? _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ Not any [G] better than they usually work, really.
_ _ It was a fantastic [Em] experience.
All that started with [Ab] my son being obsessed
with the Guinness Book [C] of World Records, you know?
Looking through [G] there and I'm thinking,
[Ab] how do I get in there to impress my son, [N] you know?
And it was fantastic. _
Brought my kids.
They definitely got As in science when they got home.
[Em] _ _ Bringing rocks [G] to their science teacher, [D] you know?
[B] It was a [Am] joy for everyone involved.
[G] That is the best show-and-tell session ever.
[Em] _ _ Yeah, yeah.
Brought this rock from Antarctica.
Yeah, here's some penguin [D] bones, you know?
_ _ [B] I love [G] that you went for penguin [E] bones.
That's like the most metal thing you could have gone for
in the context [Abm] of Antarctica.
Absolutely.
We saw them, they were scattered all over the place
that the seals love to grab them and just shake them
and they tear their skin off.
That sounds like a Metallica film [D] clip of the future, that.
I'll tell you that.
That [E] should have been the cover
of whatever we put out next, yeah.
Can you indulge me with one thing?
Because I'm here, I'm interviewing James Hetfield,
and one of my favorite things that you ever do
in all your songs is when you go, yeah!
[C] _ _ [Eb] _ _
[E] And I just think it's so, no one else can yeah like you.
Would you [G] give me one?
Okay.
[B] _
Yeah!
Oh [Em] yeah!
_ That's because _ _ [Gb] I ran out of words, all right?
But it needs a little something.
I don't know.
It's just a percussive growl.
It's great.
I don't know where it comes from.
I don't know how you summon it,
but it really works everywhere, even Antarctica.
_ _ _ _ [B] Congratulations on the album.
I have no doubt there'll be many more
and maybe we'll get a [Bm] chance to speak again
[Em] on those occasions, but thanks so much for speaking to us.
[E] _ _
_ _ _ _ That was so great.
It was so great [C] watching you watch that
because you were [Db] just like watching it
like [Em] with the dreamy eyes.
Oh yeah, yeah.
As soon as I see those guitars come out on theirs.
That's the album.
What a great cover, by the way.
It's a talk studio album.
It's called 72 Seasons.
It's out everywhere now.
[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _