Metallica’s James Hetfield reveals anxiety struggles before 2024 tour: “We’re old, we can’t do this”
Papa Het had nightmares of empty stadiums and malfunctioning gear before returning to the road with Metallica last month
Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield has explained the anxiety he faced before hitting the road with the heavy metal titans last month.
Hetfield, who’s been fronting Metallica across Europe since late May, opened up on a new episode of official podcast The Metallica Report, where he expressed self-doubt due to his age and revealed he suffered from nightmares before starting the tour.
“I start to doubt myself,” Hetfield confessed (as transcribed by Metal Injection), “[thinking,] ‘We’re old, we can’t do this’ – all that bullshit everyone tells themselves before they go into something they care about.”
Moving onto his nightmares, Hetfield continued: “So, having the nightmares about how I’m the only one who cares about what we’re doing here: ‘Where is everybody?’
“I show up at the gig, everyone’s goofing off, or there’s 200 people backstage and thinking, ‘Where’s my stuff? Where’s the setlist? What songs are we doing?’
“And then, typical things like the guitar neck is made of rubber, and there are only two strings on it. And, ‘Where’s my roadie?’, and the guitar cord won’t let me get to the microphone. Silly stuff like that.
“That has to happen, and I don’t freak out over it. All you do is you practice, and then you build that comes back pretty quickly.”
Hetfield finished by discussing how he manages his anxieties: “It’s part of the cycle; it just is.
“You have anxiety build up, and don’t let it get the best of ya because you have that balance of anxiety and faith. And as soon as you get up there, it’s all gonna be good.”
Metallica started their current tour in Munich, Germany, on May 24, where they overcame rainstorms and a video tower being struck by lightning to put on their show.
The band will next perform at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland, on June 7 and 9.
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