James Hetfield Interview 1984 - Pre-Ride the Lightning Metallica Holland 

It was pretty much that way until 1988,I don't know how that happened,he even looked different suddenly. The James from 1986 seems like a different person from the one in 1988 and 89. Voice and appearance,its like he got more muscular,his hair darkened,grew a beard and his voice dropped

He said "You know" 46 times.

james is awesome. still said "you know" a lot back then lol

"Kill Em All was a bit too polished"... ? That's one of the most raw sounding thrash metal records ever made

Love the guys reaction: "Its gonna be faster than motorbreath" "oh good god!"

awesome, sold 65,000. thats pretty good for an independant... now its millions and millions and millions, so awesome to see

James sounds like one of the Brady Bunch here. Such a contrast to his sinister vocal style even at this point

February 11, 1984.

The interview took place at the Aardschokdag Festival on 02-11-1984. It was the sixth date of seven shows w/Venom for the Seven Dates of Hell tour. James talks about going to Belgium tomorrow, which was a show that took place at Poperinge, Belgium at the Maecke Blyde on 02-12-1984.

James was fucking awesome in this period:D

jame says kill em all was a bit polished ! awesome haha

hmm, i've always thought that RTL was tighter than Kill 'em all. However, you are correct, the production on KEA WAS very dry.

"6 weeks...a really long time" LMAO.....

lol you know xD james is so awesome

He also lowered his guitar about a foot.. Lol

2:05 : Loud &sweat and just f#cking ....gøøh! 34 years ago. 34!!! and still just f#cking... Awsome.

Oh, man! It was about one year ago! :D I remember writing this message. Time passed quickly! It's, like, Lars Ulrich who always says "focking' fock, fock!"

Y'know he still says You'Know to this day :)

@pasqualet21 Metallica recorded Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets at the Sweet Sound Studios in Denmark with Flemming Rasmussen... ANY Metallica fan will know this man...

Just to let everyone know, this interview was done on 02-11-1984 either before or after Metallica played Aardschokdag Festival at Zwolle. James mentions after they play tomorrow night in Belgium, which they did on 02-12 in Poperinge, during the Seven Dates of Hell tour with Venom.

@pasqualet21 it's on the back notes of Ride the lightning and Master of puppets "Recorded in Sweet Silence Studios"

@jessnacious It's a very young James.

HackSlashKill This was a much different time, waaayyyy before the internet.

@Godshand2 that he would man, its just crazy to know that everyone was a snot nosed kid at one point of their life

james' voice sounds different because this tape is from 84'. if you listen to audio from 1986 it's higher and faster because the tape is "stretched"

......yes James..........we know!

Yeah, must be like 20 years old. Very cool....

@risethelightning He would say: Great prediction! Thanks!

You can see how shy and reserved James was back then. Nice guy but not the most comfortable in conversation.

He still does! loll

JAMES! It took 6 weeks to record kill em all..thats quite a long time. Well what about death magnetic?

@Lenzo001 Spot on, man. I was about to write this, too.

can someone upload this with subtitles? i dont speak english and its a bit hard to understand :$

@jessnacious That's James.

@spike007980 Not to get into major debate here but I've seen interviews that it was James, Lars and Kirks decision to continue playing because it was the only way they could deal with it, and alcohol. The only escape from the pain was drinking and playing shows.

Lol James Always Said, U know :P I love it xd

@risethelightning hahah ph yeah. Me too.

You Know

@krollaostmedburger yeah i know he still does that today lol

@risethelightning even though 65 000 was really good back then

Metallica gave up on the world after they were forced to finish the master of puppets tour, they had no time or even an idea to give their sorrow to cliff's death. It was just a few weeks, forced to audition a new bassist and everything. Can you blame them not giving a shit anymore? No.

...you know? I guess you don't....you know?

that is what happens when you grow up dude

@paralonlom THIS.

James sounds like he's about 16 or 17!

@ThazuaBlackarrow well may they did it because they wanted to try and do something different and new.. is that a bad thing?

Whats up with ''you know'' all the time

James sounds like Lars :D except James doesn't have the accent and doesn't go umm a lot but he says "you know" a lot

@Hudzan dave mustaine made it up admit it!!!

james has it backwards. lightning is more polished and less ballsy then their 1st. but they are both great albums.lightning gets more progressive and eclectic.

@ThazuaBlackarrow they hadnt even peaked at Ride the Lightning so I dunno what ur talkin about

I'm sorry, I respect your oppinion and everything, but I'm a huge metallica fan, they have turned to be my favourite band and even after all the incredible changes they had. Even Black album was a kick ass album, all first 5 were and I don't preffer one over the other, theyre all awesome. Also, Load & Reload are a shame for metallica's natural talent, but I like them too, they have good songs; then, I prefered not to listen much of st.anger; and Death M came to be a really good album all in all.

@ThazuaBlackarrow Don't agree completely. They didn't make the same album over and over, they didn't make greatest hits album and will never do, they didn't sell their CDs for cheap thru Columbia House or other shit, they would sell more albums, if they kept playing stuff close to Justice or Puppets, and in any case, whatever they did, they did it because they wanted to. Nobody understands what Metallica is about better than Hetfield and Ulrich, not any of fans who claim what Metallica must be.

Is that Lars talking there?

@ThazuaBlackarrow And more.... I really like Metallica early stuff, but I will never say a word of what Metallica must be, I don't own them. I am lucky enough to get what they offered, and if other stuff is not good enough to me, so be it, I will never assume that they would have hated themselves for what happened later on. They are very happy individuals, very content with their lives, happy fathers, and still kicking major ass live. Hope u at least see them live, because u sound like u didn't.

@risethelightning lol seriously. It almost sounds like something that you'd hear at the beginning of metallica documentary or something like, start off the documentary or movie tribute to Metallica or whatever, you know. Start it off with that little clip.

sold 65,000 worldwide hahaha, i wonder what he would of said if they told him in 20 years he would have sold more than 100 million

@maddermofo cause it's Lars man, does nobody realize this?

LOL "more musical talent put into it," James was pretty harsh on his previous record

65000 for a bands first record. Not bac

probably drunk...

@ThazuaBlackarrow > I'm sure 80's Metallica would hate 90's-present day Metallica. Do I need to discuss further with you after these words? If you are sure of this ridiculous conclusion, let it be it for you. My head and heart doesn't follow this 100%.

@Hudzan stop copying dave mustaine lol

@ThazuaBlackarrow Try to realize that Metallica know what they are and what they want for the next phase of life, not you. That is the common mistake of haters. You have your own often narrow-minded vision of Metallica, and it is just subjective. It is good that you care, but you should let it go. There are other bands, other albums to enjoy.

@risethelightning probably shit his pants!!! i would but they are big even then they were big everywhere but here before the black album it seemed! thank god i had a great older brother! who loved these guys. metallica till death

almost sounds like lars just a little

also, irony at the very end talking about people recording their shows as bootlegs and hes says... we can't stop them, its fine with me.... Enter Napster

No, RTL really is less polished. KEA's instrumentation is significantly tighter, and the production is very dry. Whereas RTL is looser and has more reverb.

KE? polished? haha. Production musta been bad in those days. plus RTL was MORE polished than KEA Most influential band ever.

I'm pretty sure that's Lars By the way... Metallica best band known to man, and will never change! \m/

lol little euro accent