James Hetfield: I Wasn’t 100% Into Metallica’s Load and Reload Era

By Scott Munro

November 27, 2017

Metallica vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield has admitted that he wasn’t “100%” into the band’s Load and Reload era in the mid-90s.

He reports that the material was the vision of drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist Kirk Hammett and he went along with them because being willing to compromise is part of being in a band.

And reflecting on the records, which were released in 1996 and 1997 respectively, Hetfield says that although they “didn’t pan out as good as I was hoping” he has no regrets.

When asked if he thought compromises have to made from time to time to be accepted by the mainstream, Hetfield tells Clash magazine: “It is interesting, because we have created our own mainstream, is what I believe.

“We’ve been extremely honest with ourselves, including the compromising part. There always has to be some kind of compromise – especially when you’ve got four guys in a band. You’ve got two guys that are really driving the thing – Lars and myself – and when we don’t agree, there has to be a compromise.

“But, as far as doing something that doesn’t feel right, I’m sure there’s been a few times that it’s happened. The Load and Reload era, for me, was one of those. The way that was looking, I wasn’t 100% on with it, but I would say that that was a compromise.

“I said, ‘I’m going with Lars’ and Kirk’s vision on this. You guys are extremely passionate about this, so I’ll jump on board, because if the four of us are into it, it’s going to be better.’ So I did my best with it, and it didn’t pan out as good as I was hoping, but, again, there’s no regrets, because at the time it felt like the right thing to do.”