By nishtha toshniwal | February 26, 2014 0 Comments

Net Worth: $175 Million

Career/Profession: Guitarist, Songwriter

James Hetfield is an extolled American singer, songwriter and esteemed guitarist as well. He is the co-founder, lyricist and lead vocalist for the popular metal band called Metallica. He is good at rhythm playing but also used to play guitar in studios as well as in live shows. He founded Metallica band along with drummer Lars Ulrich. He is passionate about skateboarding, snowboarding, jet-skiing and various other adventure sports. He is a part of the National Rifle Association too.

His Childhood:

James was born on August 3, 1963 in California. He was the son of Christian Scientists where his father was a truck driver and mother was an opera singer. He completed his schooling from Downey High School and graduation from Orange Country’s Brea Olinda High School in 1981.

Hetfield in his early age got the feel of music. He took piano lessons at the age of nine. At the age of fourteen he started playing guitar with Robert Okner. He was the part of any bands like Leather Charm, Obsession etc. The song he used to sing in his whole career always tries to demonstrate or convey some message like ‘God That Failed’ was dedicated to his mother who died due to cancer when he was 16 years old.

Metallica Effect:

Metallica, a heavy metal band was founded by Hetfield and Lars Ulrich in 1981. It initially included several eminent faces such as David Mustaine, Ron McGovney, John Roads. Till mid 1990’s Hetfield recorded so many rhythms and harmonic tracks. In this band, he frequently used to play guitar and gave so many hits. This includes ‘Nothing Else Matters’, ‘My Friend of Misery’, ‘To Live is to Die’ and the list goes on. He generally preferred to write guitar harmonies, vocal melodies for the band along with Lars Ulrich. Metallica gained everlasting fame after the release of its own album named ‘Metallica’. It has added various stars to its fame with the release of ‘Sad but True’ and ‘The Unforgiven’. It topped the billboard charts for nearly nine weeks. Metallica captured a total of nine Grammy awards with few studio albums and some plays under the reign of Hetfield. The journey of the band was not so easy. It faced many difficulties in its coordination when both of them Hetfield and Ulrich were in front. They released a short documentary movie ‘Some Kind of Monsters’ which demonstrate the relationship among the band members and establishment of the band.

Hetfield’s Efforts:

After the Metallica could make up for the death of Cliff Burton, Hetfield along with Ulrich decided to take their band to the heights and didn’t want rebellious image of band to popularize more. ‘And Justice for all’, their fourth hit album was released together with the music video ‘one’ which became regular music over MTV in a small time. They both want to take Metallica a one step near to success. They hired pop rock star Bob Rock to work on their new project ‘The Black Album’ in 1991. This album shaped a new image of Metallica and fixed a rock status for it.

Difficulties within the band:

For more campaigning and promotion Metallica group used to be on tour several times and this time they went with Guns N’ Roses in 1992. But this time it was unfortunate that walked with the band in Montreal. A large flame exploded over the stage and the sound of Hetfield’s guitar disappeared. Hetfield got severe injuries and advised to take some rest.

Guest Appearance in various shows:

Hetfield also played some guest appearances on the Friend’s album. He was appreciated for some parts of it. He played guitar in the album ‘Antipop’ on ‘Electic Electric’. He gave his voice to the ‘Twist of Can’ and ‘possession’ in the album Danzig. He also made an appearance with his band members in the Discovery TV show ‘Time Warp’ and also on ‘The Mook the chef the wife and her Homer’. He was also invited for studio album ‘Systematic Chaos’ by Dream Theatre. His incredible and unbeatable skills as a lead vocalist listed him on the Billboard chart and ranked him 24^th by the ‘Hit Parader’ magazine.

Greatly Influenced:

James was always influenced by music. He was very much inspired by his brother who taught him lessons of guitar and drums. As a teenager, he was the member of Obsession and Leather Charm bands. And as he grew up, he became a substantial part of ‘Aerosmith’. In addition to this, ‘Deep Purple’ and ‘Led Zeppelin’ left a deep influence on his mind. This influence made him immobile and he remained the part of Metallica for the whole season in spite of the fact that various band members left the group in the middle when the group’s success graph faced a decreasing slope.

Performance Degraded:

Metallica’s eighth album was flopped, but later his next release ‘Death Magnetic’ put the band to more fame and made it more popular. This album enriched the fate of the band members and helped them to achieve the success and took them to the position where they needed to be. Again their new release in 2011 i.e. Lulu got flopped and got more criticism than any other album.