James Hetfield: personal life and musical career

James Hetfield - a real musician, a legend, a frontman, a rhythm guitarist of a metal band from the US Metallica. His songs are heard all over the globe, and concerts, wherever they are conducted, gather a huge number of fans. Fans love his outstanding strong vocals, as well as frequent communication with the public during performances. He also has an unusual three-fingered manner of holding the mediator and the original performance of solo guitar parts in individual songs of the group. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 87th in his famous list of the most outstanding guitarists in history.

Childhood and youth

James Hetfield was born in Downey, a small town in the southeast of Los Angeles County, California. There he spent his childhood and youthful years, which were far from carefree. The reason for this was the departure of Father Virgil Hatfield from the family, when the future musician was at the age of thirteen. After that, their small family was constantly harassed by problems.

James almost never saw his mother Cynthia, who, as an opera singer, spent a lot of time rehearsing and performing frequently. However, there was not enough money, and the family often had to change housing. In the end, disappointed in life, Cynthia hit a religion and attached her son, who often accompanied her to the church. The new belief denied any medical intervention, and when the mother of the musician discovered cancer, she refused treatment. Consequently, at the age of sixteen, James Hetfield was left without a mother, and this could not but affect the future creativity of the musician.

The beginning of creative activity

At the age of nine, James showed his love for music and began to learn to play the piano, and after some time he decided to master the drum set on which his older brother played. But very soon his guitar became the favorite musical instrument. James Hetfield, as a teenager, together with Ron McGuny and DeMars Mars collected Obsession - a semi-amateur musical group that lasted only a short time. After the termination of activity of collective of James has decided to go to study and some years was engaged in the higher school Brea Olinda.

During his studies, he acquired new musicians and decided to continue musical experiments, which resulted in the appearance in Downey of the group Phantom Lord, which, like the first, could not boast of a long life.

However, James did not despair, and with the former musicians from the two collectives he gathered a third called Leather Charm, which existed for several years. Over the years, the musician has made a lot of new friends, and also gained experience of performing on stage. At this stage, James felt that he had achieved everything in music, but his creative career was only at the very beginning.

The founding of the Metallica band and the further musical career

In early 1981, the guitarist of the almost ceased existence at the time, Leather Charm introduced James to the very talented drummer Lars Ulrich. Together they decided to set up a new band and announced the recruitment of musicians in The Recycler magazine. The name of the band Lars borrowed from Ron Quitana, when he asked to help choose the right one for his new magazine. The bass player of the newly formed band was musician from the previous group of Hatfield Ron McGuny, but the guitarist's seat often remained vacant until in 1982 they invited the member of the Panic band Dave Mustaine. James Hetfield and Lars were so impressed with Dave's game that they immediately suggested that he become a permanent member. In May of the same year, the band first performed on stage - at the school of Lars Ulrich.

The following year, thanks to the conclusion of a number of profitable contracts, Metallica released its first and immediately received a huge hit Kill 'em All. The songs of the band immediately appeared in all the hit parades of the country, and after a while James gained popularity among the most famous musicians of the USA. The release of subsequent albums only strengthened the love of the group among fans around the world, Metallica became a cult band. Tens of thousands of spectators attended the performances, and their albums and collections were bought up by millions. In the 90s the band began to give concerts in other countries, collecting stadiums in Australia, North America and Europe.

In 1998, Metallica released a compilation of Garage Inc., which included covers for the songs of bands that had an impact on the work of the band. On the cover were Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Cliff Burton and James Hetfield. The photos of the band's participants in the costumes of auto repair workers complemented the stylistic image of the album.

At the beginning of the 21st century, interest in the band began to fade away, which began to give less concerts and release new albums. Between 1997 and today the band released only two studio albums, the last one to date is Death Magnetic.

Personal life

James likes to spend his private time on the hunt, snowboarding or water skiing, working in the garage or visiting the games of his favorite Oakland Raiders. Also in his collection are a lot of rare guitars from Gibson, Fender and Ken, but the most from ESP. James Hetfield since 1997 is married to Francesco Tomasi, the couple have three children - Kylie, Castor and Marcella.

The musician has successfully passed the course of treatment for alcoholism and now leads an active lifestyle.