Jimmy Kimmel’s Interview with Metallica

Our next guests are one of the biggest and best selling bands of all time, they have been together for almost 40 years and today they released this remastered deluxe box set of Metallica The Black Album and Metallica's Blacklist. Welcome, Kirk Hammet, Robert Trujillo, James Hedfield. and lars ulrich metal I like the mutual appreciation for the bands that you guys make, we left the house this is it, we're going back to what lasted two years this week is like the first time you guys have been together in a long time, james This is the first time we've been working outside of Norcal San Francisco, where we're from, I got you, you have zoom meetings, it's like that, yeah, it was mandatory, I told those guys, hey, we're sorry. disconnected, depressed and lonely and I want to zoom with you so we did a weekly zoom where we just check in every day.

Did you ever imagine, like 30 years ago, that there would be zoom? I mean, no, we didn't even know that. but I remember when zoom was a TV show, that's right, kids zoom zoom zoom zoom right exactly you know, I can't believe it because I have to say that my daughter, my oldest daughter, was born right when your album came out and she just turned 30 and here you are and you guys are still going and people still love this album so much and I know you've answered a lot of questions about it, but I have a few that I want to ask you and first of all ask who started calling it. the black album because it's not actually the title of the album, no, it's just called Metallica.

Our whole approach after the previous Justice Fall album was to simplify, shorten the songs and remove as much imagery and all the potential nonsense because you had lightning and like a hammer, yeah, let's call the album Metallica and then someone in the press or one of the fans called it, started calling the black album, the black album and then when Jay-Z came out with his, the black album, were you guys? Like hey, that's our thing, well, yeah, yeah, sure, but no more black, I mean, you know, someone did it before us, right?, uh, yeah, uh, lumbar puncture, yeah, sure, Yes, it's all their fault, yes, they have a lot. you did the documentary with those guys and uh, yeah, that was cool, yeah, that's cool, you know, I have to say it's funny because when you guys I just remember when you guys first came out and I thought these guys are really scary and Then when I meet you guys, these are really nice guys, they seem like smart guys and you're right when you talk about the imagery and this kind of stuff that has become part of metal and part of rock music, this is like something cartoonish. . silly when you think about it, yeah, absolutely like you know when we were making some of the first albums, all the uh, I guess all the idols or people that we were modeling ourselves after, you know, the ronnie james deal where it was like unicorns and rainbows and dragons, you know, medieval dragon fights and a lot of dragons, you know we didn't, I didn't grow up around dragons, so I didn't really, no, oh no, we had cats, they could be, they're probably scarier than dragons. really so um I was listening to you on howard stern uh the day before yesterday and you guys were talking about uh or maybe yesterday you were actually talking to miley cyrus and john came in and you guys on miley and elton and chad from red hot chili peppers collaborated to do a cover of nothing else and yo-yo ma too, which is bananas, I know, I mean, it's a group of people that you never expected to do anything together let alone cover a Metallica song and I was thinking about what he used to do.

I work at K Rock here in Los Angeles, a radio station and I remember when we started playing your music, how angry a lot of the listeners were, they said you can't play Metallica, this is an alternative radio station and I feel like that has happened. maybe, if it hadn't disappeared completely, it dwindled to the point where people were like, who cares? It would have been over, yeah, maybe you know Antalica and probably Madonna, I think she would have been fine, but uh oh, a swan song, it's very interesting, there are a lot of boundaries that have been broken down, yeah, yeah, I want say, it's just that you already know.

Back then things were very segregated in music and if you were in this particular lane, no one else you knew would want to know and especially in the hard rock world there was an undercurrent of conservative views and if you deviated from that, you were just You're a sellout and even the way they had to dress and it's funny. I went to visit them in the dressing room before the show and I walked in wearing a pink t-shirt and I didn't even notice. until I left as if they were all dressed in black. I'm like, oh my god, I feel like the Easter bunny or something.

What an idiot. Where is the chocolate? You have this blacklist. Who did you invite? I don't know if you invited or I don't know exactly how this happened, but usually on a tribute album, one artist chooses one of your songs and covers the song and another artist covers another one that you have, I think there are like 15 versions of nothing. other issues, at least there are, I mean, there are so many, but you just decided what, let everyone who did it do it, I mean, we encouraged all the artists that we knew had been influenced or affected in some way by Metallica.

Along the way, would you like to cover one of these songs? There were a lot more yes responses than we expected, so we thought the smart thing to do was let them choose their own song instead of not telling Miley. Cyrus, what song to choose, you're not going to tell me, you know Weezer or any of these amazing artists, so choose your own. Bridgers did an amazing version that I reviewed and listened to all of them and it's very interesting I think. That's the hallmark of you guys writing great songs because they can span so many movies and really work in all different genres.

Neptune made a version that sounds great. I mean, there really is a lot of amazing country out there. music, I mean hip-hop, it's just amazing, you know, you bring up a good point,

jimmy

, you know everyone chooses Sandman or nothing else matters, there were definitely some people who got, you know, a little out of the ordinary . and I went for some of the stuff, but I think it's really cool that you can listen to like 12 different versions of nothing else matters, and they're all really different, so maybe it highlighted how they digested it and how they listen to it. the song as its own artist in its own genre yesterday on howard elton john said it's one of the best songs ever written and to listen to someone like that, I imagine he'd say who wrote some of the best songs ever written, I'd say that has I was sitting next to James and I know what role Elton is playing in his musical education and I could feel the shiver that went through him and the hairs standing up on his arm when Elton said that.

It was a yes, it was beautiful and you know, for someone who has brought so much joy to my life, candle in the wind, I mean, goodbye, there are some good songs that it has and Elton is not only one of the great performers and writers of all times, but He also loves music. I think he is known for loving music, perhaps more than any other musician. These stories of him hanging out at Tower Records on Tuesdays getting these things are very generous. I imagine he delighted in this. You have all the LPs. I've seen all of that this time, by the way, well I don't know, let me take you on a little tour of it, Lars, if my sock is in there, I wish it was inside out, yeah, I think there's only one. they spread out some of your underwear um I smell it these are old magazines um uh inserts we have a tour book of 19 Hair 1992. we have all the cds uh uh we have a complete book and this one I think I don't know, this to me is like the more personal element.

You have the original handwriting that James wrote here and your penmanship is excellent, by the way, and I love you right in these yellows. pads like a district attorney or something and there are drawings, the first thing that comes to mind is the district attorney, yeah, yeah, they're suing us, I know they're suing us, you know? And the most impressive thing to me is that you've got doodles everywhere and uh there are no penises at all you haven't drawn any now it's very mature bread included you can make your own you uh are still the only band that has played on every continent in the world. world good question, so yeah, at least until 1516, when we ended up on five or six continents and someone said Antarctica was okay, let's figure out how we do that and we ended up doing a promotion with a Latin American company that brought 300 Metallica fans to Antarctica and we played at an air base there and uh, we all set up a tent, all the fans there had it was like a silent disco style, so there was no amplification, the only thing you could hear was the drums and James's voice and then 300 crazy Latin American fans with headphones on and then all the penguins running outside are trying not to tear down any more glaciers, well tonight you guys are going to travel in convoy to Griffith Park, the observatory here in Los Angeles and there are a lot of animals there, There are no penguins, but actually I think they have some penguins, but there are monkeys and coyotes, so be careful when you are there, yeah, and what song are they playing tonight?

I think let's go. I'm going to make a place where I can rule, okay, figure it out on the right, this is the Metallica box. We'll all be right back with Metallica music. Thanks for watching. Remember that every time you click the subscribe button, one of your enemies is destroyed.