JAMES HETFIELD ON DEATH, HIS MOTHER AND JOHNNY CASH, 

James Hetfield, co-founder and lead vocalist of Metallica, talks about the influence of working with Rick Rubbin, who reintroduced the music of Jonny Cash into Hetfield.
The Metallica singer had a traumatic childhood. His father, a truck driver, left and his parents divorced. His mother, a strict Christian Scientist, died of cancer when Hetfield was 16, after refusing treatment on religious grounds. Hetfield has acknowledged that the darkness of those days has informed his music and his drinking.