When Metallica had to resort to ‘theft’ to survive: ‘We had nothing’ – Al Día

James Hetfield recalls Metallica’s time in Denmark recording Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets.“Remembering that he and his comrades had to”steal a lot“In order to survive at that time.

Although both albums would ultimately go down as two of the greatest hits in history, Metallica wasn’t in a comfortable position when they recorded them, as Hetfield now tells Metallica Report (via The ultimate guitar). During the continuation bill’Kill them allIn Copenhagen with the product Fleming RasmussenSan Francisco residents had to do whatever they could to survive.

This, of course, ultimately made Hetfield feel like he was “More at homeWhen he visits Denmark in Ulrich.

“The first days were difficult because we had no idea about the business. Lars was like trying“James remembers,” he said.

Describing the days he and his bandmates spent at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Hetfield continued: “We were in the attic, sleeping on the floor, stealing food from other gangs passing by, stealing bikes to get around, and stealing empty beer bottles to exchange for more beer. We had to steal a lot“.

“We didn’t have anything, we didn’t have anything. So it wasn’t theft, we were borrowing it forever [risas]“.

Hidden treasures

Naturally, living in a recording studio had its advantages, especially because of the large amount of material he stored there: “Lars and I slept in the tape storage room upstairs. sweet silence And when I looked at it I was like, ‘The Ritchie Blackmore stuff and all the different kinds of bands that were out there doing stuff.’

But this experience made Metallica grow as artists: “When they heard what we had done, they were amazed and so proud. I had never heard that kind of power through the studio speakers.”

Of course, for “Master of Puppets,” the band had made a huge leap in quality, as Rasmussen admitted at the time: “They’ve matured a lot and their circumstances have improved – this time they have hotel rooms, instead of sleeping in a friend’s apartment – but they’re still nice. Every day they would have dinner with my wife and me at our house before we started filming at 7pm, and they were always fun to have around.”