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This page has an archived list of Metallica quotes. If you an interesting quote that we dont have, email it to me
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James
In reference to NEM
"It's scary to look out and see couples hugging during that
song. Oh fuck, I thought this was a Metallica show.
"Less jaws drop now, but I still see some and
I like that."
"Some guy was bowing to me at the Marguee the
other night, seriously! And I was shouting at him, 'Stop it - let
me buy you a beer.'"
"It's all fun and games 'till someone loses an
eye, then it's just fun you can't see"
"There's a lot of people there just because 'Ooh
play Enter Sandman.' So we play it first to get the fucking thing
out of the way. So they have to sit through the rest of the shit!
They gotta hear the old shit. You gotta use it against 'em y'know?"
(courtesy SykoChik82@aol.com)
3 reasons why James said that his Black Sabbath record
was important:
"First it scared the shit out of me. Second, it crushed the
fuck out of all the peace'n'love'n everything's groovy bullshit
that was still hanging around in the early seventies. And third,
my friends' moms wouldn't let them own it!" (courtesy SykoChik82@aol.com)
"I'd like to have a beer-holder on my guitar
like they have on boats." (courtesy SykoChik82@aol.com)
"I remember back when I stood in line for 3 hours
waiting for autographs, and when the star just hopped into his limo,
and took off, I'd think 'You dick, I hate you.' I'd go home, rip
down all his posters..." (courtesy SykoChik82@aol.com)
"I remember this guy (Cliff) lit my couch on
fire a couple of times" (courtesy steinberg@v-wave.com)
"Knowing Cliff's attitude, he'd kick our butt's
if we quit."
"People probably thought 'Oh, they're not going
to do the heavy lyrics now because of what happened.' Man, those
lyrics mean a lot more to me now."
"Authority pisses me off. I think everyone should
be able to drink and get loud whenever they want." '90
"I'd rather regret doing something than not doing
something."
"You've gotta keep fit to play that hard every
night. Better order five more beers." '88
"The first time I played sober was because I
just forgot to drink. 'Damn' I thought...'I'm playing better.' "
"I love my job, play softball and have a great
life. Things are a hell of a lot better now than when I was 21."
"People were throwing shoes at us in SF and LA.
I don't know why. It's like 'You guys are great. Here's my shoe.'
People must have been walking around with one shoe."
"We do this basically for ourselves. People appreciate
it, which is cool, but I think they appreciate that we're doing
it for ourselves. We're doing it our way, and how people like it
is not up to us. We like it." '88
"We don't plan concepts. We didn't write RIDE
THE LIGHTNING about death, or MASTER OF PUPPETS about manipulation.
That just happens."
"I sit there and I go 'Oh God, what am I gonna
write?' and all of a sudden, it happens. The first line's down and
all hell flows after that."
"When people start copying your style, you know
that something must be happening."
On AIDS
"This shit (AIDS) scares me. You know, one time and you're
dead! Touring is the dangerous part. A lot of bands are going to
be in trouble the way they carry on. I mean, we've been pretty bad,
but on the last tour, no way! It was kinda, 'Screw that!' Some of
the roadies are pretty sick, as far as wearing rubbers or whatever.
I don't know. I've never done that before...ha ha ha...and that's
only MAYBE safe. It's very unhappening, this whole thing."
"My family went to the LA show. It was kinda
weird. I hadn't seen 'em in quite a while. They liked it. They just
wish I'd call more often."
"I like a women who's got some balls, some strength.
As long as I can beat her at arm wrestling, that's fine."
"You can pick up a very shitty song to cover.
I mean, the Foo Fighters doing 'Baker Street'? I don't get that
at all. It does take me back to high school, I guess, or at least
to a song that I completely fucking hated. So you have to be careful."
"Budgie and Mercyful Fate were also pretty inventive.
Fate would play a great riff and never come back to it, and it would
piss you off."
"There's always a new generation of angry young
men who latch onto Kill 'Em All."
On KEA
"I guess there was some thought put into it; I mean, at least
they rhymed."
"I would spend days just going through Lars'
record collection, taping over my REO Speedwagon cassettes with
bands like Angel Witch and Diamond Head and Motörhead. I was
in heaven at his house."
"When it got to the part where the first Pharaoh's
son is taken and the fog rolls in, Cliff said, "Look...creeping
death." And I was like, "Whoa, dude, write it down! Sheer
poetry!"
"My dad was always one of these 'Cut your hair!'
kind of guys. My mom was more open to things. She painted a lot.
She kinda reminded me of a Berkeley mom. She wasn't alive for any
of my success with Metallica. It really pisses me off. But you know,
I think she knows what's going on still."
On people showing up at his place
"I just walk out with the gun and say 'Hey!'. Oh yeah, I'm
a meanie. I send my dogs after 'em... No, actually, I just tell
'em, 'This is my house and...leave me alone, okay'"
"We can do whatever the fuck we want, really.
We've got carte blanche. I mean, when we did 'Fade to Black', that
was our first ballad and it really blew a few minds out there. People
wrote us off then; 'Fuck them! It's over. It's no longer speed metal.'
Okay, fine. You can feel that way. But fuck you, too."
On Ted Nugent and hunting
"Ted's pretty intense, put it that way. I love hunting; I love
getting away and the quiet part of it all. I think he's a little
opposite of that. Whack 'em and stack 'em, ya know?"
On Marianne Faithful
"You know, she's quite a character, and I love that. She could
sit and tell stories for days. But she's a very, very elegant and
pleasant woman, very 'been there, done that.' You could learn alot
from that."
On married life
"You know, it's not as different as I thought, which is kind
of disappointing. But it's fine. Everyone said, 'Oh, your life is
going to be totally different,' and it's the same. Which is good,
in a way."
"We discovered how much money influences certain things and
discovered how things work in the United States. How things might
seem okay on the outside, but internally, they're corrupt."
"Call it anarchy or whatever you want to--there's
times when you wanna be able to do whatever the fuck you want and,
y'know, life's always short, so why shouldn't you?"
"Regret? That's a screwed up word."
In reference to "So Far, So Good, So What"
"Megadeth's whole album could fit onto one of our sides."
"We just get along hella good."
"We didn't fuckin' set out to make history or
whatever. Fuckin' shit happens."
"Who gives a shit about autographs?"
"I like Danzig from the Misfits. He can sing
real good."
"My older stepbrother, David, was kind of a hippie,
kind of a hairy guy. He went to college and stuff. He played drums
in a band, and I used to go bash on the shit."
"I was in a band called Obsession. And then there
was another band called Leather Charm. Then I met Lars."
"If I'm hung over, I'd rather just stand on the
side and play. We wanted to get a frontman but no one sang good
enough so I just did both."
"Back then (in highschool) you'd look under the
music section of The Recycler for heavy metal, and there's like
two people. The same people every fuckin week into 'sex and Motorhead.'"
"I was pretty quiet as a child. I kind of hung
out with my family and listened to music and shit. I wasn't too
outgoing at all."
"(On first jam with Lars) He had a fucked up,
hella fuckin cheap Gemco kit or whatever. We told him, 'Yeah, we'll
give you a call,' and we never even called him back!"
"In the early days, when we were playing clubs
around LA, people didn't understand what we were about. 'Oh,' they'd
think, 'a God-damned punk band,' and they'd throw chairs at us."
"I remember the first time we ever got an encore.
It was a Monday night at two in the morning at the Troubadour and
there was about ten people there but they were clapping and we came
back for the encore. We were deciding on what song we were going
to play and Lars starts up a different song! He just decided he
wanted to play. And we hadn't practiced that song for like three
months. I had forgot all the lyrics, but I went through the motions.
And after the gig, I just turned right around and punched him out
onstage! "You fucker!" I shouted. Got him in the gut.
And people were going 'huh?'"
In reference to switching from Piano to Guitar
"I wanted to make noise, not study theory" (courtesy of
LowLyric17@aol.com)
In reference to how long it took to make TBA
"We've been in the studio for so long, a war has come and gone,
and we're still stuck in here" (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"When the Black Album got popular, I stopped
listening to it." (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
In reference to TBA
"Economy my ass! That was the most expensive record we've ever
made." (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"There's a fucking recklesness to all the new
stuff which I just love." (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"I'm married to Metallica." (courtesy of
Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"Sometimes we spit towards each other to wake
up. A good loogie can really get someone's attention." (courtesy
of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"We'd record a song that people liked and wanted
to hear on the radio, and the radio wouldn't play it because it
was too long. Or they wanted to edit it, which we wouldn't allow."
(courtesy of Megara999@hotmail.com) '91
"I don't remember doing anything else; I don't
remember not living in the studio. I'm itching for people to hear
this album because I'm sick of hearing it myself." (courtesy
of Megara999@hotmail.com) '91
"Lars was always nervous on stage, so he'd play
faster and faster. Nobody wanted to wimp out and tell him that he
was playing too fast. We just figured, 'Hell, we'll just play faster
too.'" (courtesy of Megara999@hotmail.com) '92
In reference to styles of music
"We do have many styles of music, its called Metallica"
(courtesy of MinusClover84@aol.com)
"We've come here, TO KICK YOUR ASS!!! ...That's
why you're here, right?" (courtesy of jovy_quaso@hotmail.com)
"Metal Up Your Ass!" (courtesy of halfdeadpimp@hotmail.com)
"Definitely, the harp player. We met him at the
first rehearsal, and we knew he was into our music when he rolled
up sleeves and there were a bunch of tattoos. He introduced himself,
'Hi I'm the harpist,' and we were like, 'Get the fuck outta here!
You're one of the stage hands.' " (courtesy of DHSDrama@aol.com)
In reference to Bleeding Me
"It's thick as snot, man. It's full on. It's a great song.
It's got it all." (courtesy of DHSDrama@aol.com) '96
"Well, without getting really political, I think
there have always been people who have been afraid of music and
its potential for, I guess, social breakouts, or whatever you want
to call it. You know, young kids are looking for something to grasp
onto, whatever it may be. When you're that age, there's a lot of
that feeling of needing to belong, whether it's wearing black lipstick
and cutting the ass out of your pants, or whatever -- people are
looking for things to grasp onto. " (courtesy of DHSDrama@aol.com)
'98
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Lars
"To me the most boring thing in the world is safe, mainstream
heavy metal...I'd rather listen to Madonna."
In reference to Jason
"He's a little gullible at times, which makes it kinda fun."
"I have a lot of piercings in my ears and my
left nipple is pierced but not anything below."
"Today we think about him a lot and talk about
him, even joke about him. I often think, now much more than ever,
how much of a character and personality Cliff actually was. He was
just one in five billion people on this earth, and we will never,
ever, even be tempted to come up with anyone like him." (courtesy
SykoChik82@aol.com)
"Metallica is the only band I've ever been in.
I'm not sure that when it ends in five, ten years, I'm going to
put an ad in the paper saying 'Stupid drummer looking for stupid
people to play music with.' Metallica is it and I think when that
ceases, that's it." (courtesy SykoChik82@aol.com)
"We don't sit and write music for the masses.
We suck up a lot of what we see out there and then we write it for
ourselves. Then a lot of people cling onto it." '90
"Being on tour has nothing to do with a regular
existence."
"We're just a continuation of the stuff we've
been doing for years."
"Hell, I don't even know what making it means
to me, and we hopefully have another 10 or 15 years left with bigger
records and better shows."
"We've always known that there's been a need
or a want for a band like us. We've fought back and broken through
all the bullshit of the business, and now it's great to be able
to say 'Fuck off' to the whole business, and 'We did it our way'
and blah blah blah. We've always had our own way of doing things..."
'88
"You can't worry about how people will react
to or interpret what we do. You're bound to be running around in
circles all day."
"He (James) probably drinks beer when he's sleeping."
'89
"It's too easy to say something like 'Yeah, we
don't care if the album doesn't sell one copy or 10,000 or 10 million.'
Anyone who tells you that-deep down, they're not telling the truth.
But at the end of the day, the thing that matters is that you make
a record that's completely yours from beginning to end-with no sacrifices,
no compromises, no corners cut."
"We know certain groups out there figure, 'These
are the current trends-how do we milk the market for the most we
can get at the moment?' I think the music business nowadays is becoming
such a fake thing; there's much more emphasis on business than music."
"Sometimes I'll be walking around in a ponytail
and beard and walk right by someone with a Metallica T-shirt who
doesn't even notice me, which is pretty funny." '90
"We've stuck to our own beliefs, we haven't cheated
anyone, and we've done what we wanted." '89
"We always wanted to be different from the rest
of the music business. It's too classic: You make a record, you
make a video. We were the first to give the finger to the music
industry in America." '88
"Right now we're in a great situation and a lot
of people are opening up to Metallica at a rapid rate. But we can't
sit back and look at it because it starts fucking you up."
"We're no different from them (fans). We see
the world like other people. We don't live in mansions, and we're
not hiding behind fences and making our own pretentious fantasy
world with chicks and mountains of drugs. We live in the real world,
and the real world's an ugly place." '88
"People can interpret the lyrics any way they
want, and we're always careful to say in interviews that we're not
trying to tell anybody what to think or how to feel about any particular
subject. If there is one thing that we're trying to say, it's 'Be
independent, don't listen to anyone-don't listen to US.'" '88
"We try and come up with alternatives to clichés.
Sex is not boring, but songs about it are." '88
"We've been a victim of rigid categories. A lot
of the time, people approach Metallica with a bit of caution. Once
they see us live or hear our records, they usually come around.
But until then Metallica is one of these bands they hear about and
go 'Hmmm...I dunno.' Our music has to be experienced before people
make up their minds." '89
"A couple of years ago, I think we were concerned
with trying to prove ourselves as musicians. Everyone was doing
these solo trips-drum fills and bass solo runs and guitar things-which
were fine for back then. But now it's much more about doing what's
best for the song and for the group instead of everyone trying to
steal the spotlight..." '89
"I hope that Metallica will be remembered or
looked upon as a band that cut through all the political and business
bullshit. So then people will realize that it's possible to control
yourself and gain a certain level of popularity without having to
cater to anyone else's ideas or thoughts other than your own. If
that's all that Metallica will ever stand for, then that's news
enough." '89
"To go from one extreme to the other, with no
boundaries. That's the best. That's what Metallica is all about."
"I think Japan's the most fun place to tour but
only for a while, then it gets very claustrophobic. All the shows
are at about 6:00 pm...we're offstage by 8:15 p.m., which is before
we even go out in the States."
"We're very lucky that we have our own plane,
which makes things a lot easier. I'm sure people understand we're
not too comfortable in a bus after the accident."
In reference to Metallica's plane
"It's nothing fancy. It's your basic nine-seat turbo prop,
no jacuzzi in it or anything."
"We usually end up doing two hours and 10 minutes
when we feel up to it and the vibe is good. But in some cities unions
are really strict and it costs you extra."
On the Free Philly Concert
"It's (like) saying all ex-football players are potential wife
killers. It's these stereotypes that you get stuck with."
"To this day, my dad...has still got longer hair
than I do. He's got a longer beard than the guys in ZZ Top. He looks
like Rasputin."
On Jason leading the effort to turn Lars' garage into
rehersal space
"I came down to help out every day when I woke up, about 2
p.m.. James would come over and do whatever he could with his arm
being broken, and Kirk was out doing his toy shopping!"
On AJFA
"How can I put it? If you've got a piece of meat, a steak or
whatever, you remove the fat and the bits of meat you don't want,
and what remains is a high quality steak. We did the same with the
songs. The result was nine songs which in comparison to the old
material are more compact, thought out, and mature."
On the May 23, 24th, 1988 gigs at the Troubadour
"It was fun! The place was about the size of my fuckin' bathroom.
We once opened for Ratt there!"
"I think it's pretty easy to see that we're not
buisnessmen disguised as musicians who put on wigs and pretend the
music we're playing is so great. Then when the shows over, you're
somebody else. That's not us."
"Everything we've done has always been on our
own terms - I know, you read these magazines and every band says,
'We never compromise,' but in our case, it's true."
On Marianne Faithful
"It is the most seasoned voice I've ever heard. It has so many
emotions, and they're all there; dramatic, sad, beautiful, sincere.
That voice has lived - you can hear that."
"We formed this band when we were 18-19, we couldn't
play...we were just like 'Let's get together and play some cover
songs, drink some vodka'...A year and a half later we were touring
the world, releasing records!"
"What's this all about? It's about music, it's
not about anything else, it's not about having the coolest cover,
or the coolest title, or about anything. It's just about music..."
"If you sit there and know that rule #1 is just
that everything you do is honest and is just a natural and instinctual
extension of yourself, then there you go."
"The whole way that me and James write songs
together...that was very much shaped when Cliff was in the band,
and was very much shaped around Cliff's musical input. The way he
really taught us about harmonies and melodies and all that kind
of stuff...his vibe is always with us, and he was certainly a big
part of the whole way that we got our chops together in the early
days, about our attitudes and our musical vibe and our everything."
"What's the message in Metallica? There is no
message, but if there was a message, it really should be look within
yourself, don't listen to me, don't listen to James, don't listen
to anybody, look within yourself for the answers."
"Isn't that the whole integrity of this fuckin'
band to do different shit? We've always tried to avoid following
what everyone else is doing. It's a challenge to come up with things
that are original. It's not easy, but that's part of the fun."
"We always miss Cliff, but he is kind of on the
record (...And Justice For All.) The song "To Live Is To Die"
is really based on a number of riffs that Cliff wrote a couple of
years ago. It's kind of cool to have something written by Cliff
on the new album."
"I know Cliff, more than anyone else in the band,
would have been the first guy to give us a kick in the ass, and
wouldn't want us to sit around. It's what he would have wanted us
to do."
"If it feels good, do it."
"Metallica likes to live on the edge, but you
can only push it so far."
"All through the '50's my dad had a jazz club
in Denmark, and he had a band together, a fun thing like Metallica.
He used to play all the time and then play tennis for real income."
"Being on tour is like living in a bubble, but
we're people who like to care about what goes on around us."
"In 1973 I got dragged along to see Deep Purple.
That was the turning point. I didn't know what was going on, but
I saw Ritchie Blackmore throwing his guitar around and doing all
these silly poses, and I was pretty impressed."
"We don't work by a clock, but I think it's safe
to say 1990 will be a very low profile year for Metallica. The 'One'
video proved to us that things we thought of as evil aren't as evil
as we thought--as long as we do it our way."
"So much of a Metallica gig is being there and
feeling the kick drum in your stomach. We want to make sure that
can be transferred to a TV screen."
"You meet people in other bands who have a floating
attitude and just cruise along all the time in whatever direction
they're steered. That's fine for some people, but I think we're
more aware of what's going on."
"I mean, who gives a shit if you're the 'in'
thing. It's just satisfying to feel that we're reaching out and
more and more people are opening up to us."
In reference to the AJFA tour
"We've been on the road for ten months, since Monster of Rock
started, and will be out at least another seven months. But I'm
not burning out."
"They closed most of them (hot tubs with Geisha
girls) due to the spread of AIDS. It doesn't go on anymore."
"There's always the odd letter or comment like,
'If you don't play ten Metal Militia's on every album then it's
not Metallica and it's not good.'" (courtesy of LowLyric17@aol.com)
In reference to Harvester of Sorrow
"Lyrically, this song is about someone who leads a very normal
9-5 type life, has a wife and three kids, and all of a sudden, one
day, he just snaps and starts killing the people around him."
(courtesy of LowLyric17@aol.com)
"I'd like to thank all the radio stations and
MTV without whom...all this was possible anyway!" (courtesy
of LowLyric17@aol.com)
In reference to playing the Grammies for the first
time
"I think a lot of people probably thought there'd be satanic
cross-burning and ritual sacrafice!" (courtesy of LowLyric17@aol.com)
In reference to Kirk
"I remember the first time I heard Kirk. He had a feel that
very few young players have-very rooted in European metal."
(courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"Human nature is strange." (courtesy of
Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"We were writing Master of Puppets and driving
around in his green Volkswagen to photo sessions. Cliff would just
pound this Misfits stuff, drum on the dashboard, and make everybody
fucking nuts. And Cliff wasn't the best driver to begin with."
(courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"Things are so deep and people are always trying
to read shit into things that real simple. Some people try and tell
you what the songs are about and it bores me to death." (courtesy
of Megara999@hotmail.com) '96
"Doing things the way you see it, going by your
own heart and soul, that is pure artistic integrity. Whatever the
hair is six or sixty inches long, the eyes have make-up or not,
the riffs are in 'E' or 'F' sharp, the amps are Marshall or not,
all those things don't matter if you are doing it for the right
reason, which to me means doing it for yourself!!" (courtesy
of Megara999@hotmail.com) '96
"The day Metallica's over, i'm not going to put
an ad looking for another band. I'll put my drumsticks on the shelf
and there's 14 other things I wanna try. Metallica's the only band
I've ever been and it's the only I ever wanna be in." (courtesy
of Megara999@hotmail.com)
"Sex isn't boring, but the song about sex is"
(courtesy of saintktulu13@hotmal.com)
In reference to Kirk
"Look! A guitarist who can only play guitar!" (courtesy
of MinusClover84@aol.com) '91
In reference to Jason's Departure
"i remember when me and james came off stage after the vh1
performance. we had a moment together just me and him. we looked
at each other and locked eyes and acknowleged that that was probably
the last time we would ever play with jason " (courtesy of
MinusClover84@aol.com)
In reference to Jason's Departure
"i remember when me and james came off stage after the vh1
performance. we had a moment together just me and him. we looked
at each other and locked eyes and acknowleged that that was probably
the last time we would ever play with jason " (courtesy of
MinusClover84@aol.com)
"I do also see things about the Internet being
something that people I think taking for granted, that they're becoming
so comfortable with it that the feel they have a right to any piece
of information that comes to them through the Internet. The Internet
is changing our perception about a lot of things, it's changing
our perception about almost everthing around them in society. "
(courtesy of DHSDrama@aol.com)
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Kirk
"A women should be able to make her own decisions whether or
not she should have a baby. She should have control over her body,
not the fucking government, congressman, or whatever."
"I have a little table with a reading light,
and those guys have it quite cozy too, I'm not to the point where
I take newspapers down there yet, but I have seen certain band members
reading scuba magazines while other guys solo."
"We used to sleep four to a room. I had to share
a bed with Lars, he used to take all the blankets. I would never
sleep with Cliff, because he had really pointy elbows. Really bony.
Actually no one snores much. We drool a lot."
"Sold out?! Sure we sold out, last tour we sold
out almost everywhere we played" (courtesy Steinberg@v-wave.com)
"Both ears, lip, belly button, and nose twice.
I'm working my way south."
"The worst thing that can be said about me has
already been said; that I'm a total shit crap guitar player. And
you know what? On certain nights I have to agree! Hey, we're only
human!" (courtesy SykoChik82@aol.com)
"If we had hung it up, Cliff would've been so
pissed off."
"In Denmark while recording Master Of Puppets,
we hung out a lot. We'd go out and play poker for 8 hours straight
after being up for 24 hours. We'd find a seafood restaurant that
was open, eat raw oysters and drink beer, scream at the natives
while we were drunk....that's some of my best memories of him."
"There was this incident when we were in New
York and a friend of mine sent me a whole case full of liquor. So
we celebrated its arrival and were there drinking it until four
in the morning, then went to visit Jason...He sleeps with earplugs
on and didn't hear us knocking, so what we did was call the doorman
and said, 'Hey man, our friend's in there choking on his puke! We
have to get in there!'....We kicked the door in...turned the bed
over on Jason, sprayed shaving cream everywhere, threw his money
all over and took his blaster...He didn't say anything. It was really
funny."
"We like to have a drink or five." '89
"It's so strange and completely needless that
so many people become caught up with the whole idea of selling image
rather than accepting people for who and what they really are."
'89
"I would have never imagined that we'd be as
popular as we are right now."
"We're on commercial flights and sometimes the
stewardess will call you by your first name. It kind of throws you
a bit." '89
"I hate being treated like some kind of icon,
that's totally uncomfortable for me. I simply want to be thought
of as a musician." '89
"We're doing this for ourselves. If we write
an album, it would be something we'd be satisfied with. We don't
come up with something for the kids to like and put our demands
on the back burner because our last album was so good we have to
make a carbon copy of it. That was the furthest thing from our minds."
'89
"There are actually quite a few bands not necessarily
in our genre, that reflect what's going on nowadays. Public Enemy,
N.W.A.-two rap bands I can think of that are the best examples-their
lyrics are so heavy! Bands like them or us are simply a reflection
of the times, a statement on our world. It's an ugly place and the
sad thing is that the world doesn't seem to get any better as the
years go by." '89
"My guitars are my umbilical cord. They're directly
wired to my head."
"One thing that constantly pisses me off is what's
happening with the environment nowadays. I'm an environmentalist,
though I think I probably create more than my share of noise pollution
every time we play." '89
"I have a new house I haven't seen yet, a new
car I haven't seen yet, I miss eating food that my wife has cooked
for me...It would be nice to wake up in my own bed, see my cat-y'know,
just hang out. It's funny, I find myself constantly daydreaming
of staying in the same place." '89
"Such a huge void was created after Cliff died
- a really big hole that only he could fill."
Talking about Cliff
"I remember him really loving the way Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd
played guitar. He'd always ask me to show him Skynyrd licks, and
then he'd end up saying, 'Man that's tricky, that's really tricky.'"
"It was really unusual because I was standing
there and I'm always polite about it - 'Hi Dave, how ya doin'?'
And he goes 'Hey, how ya doin'?' And basically he just came up to
me and apologized for all the bad-mouthing that he did to me and
the band. I was really surprised. I think that was a result of him
cleaning up and actually being able to think with a clear head...
I thought it was very decent of him."
On picking Bob Rock for TBA
"We liked the sound of his name."
"There's a lot of nonmusical things that demand
our attention right now, like family being the number one thing,
having a life outside the band, you know? Having enough private
time that isn't consumed by the band - that's what I'm talking about."
On the fans who don't like Met's current direction
"Maybe they're just not very evolved musically. Maybe they're
just not musically mature in the way they hear things."
"It happened on every album. It comes to the
point where he just like, screams at me, and it's halfway through
what we're doing. He's venting, but he's also right, too. But he
brings out the best in me. If anything he is the music director
of Metallica. The music dictator."
"I don't listen to critics. I read reviews (and)
take it all with a grain of salt, take the good with the bad. It
really doesn't phase me, because they can't change what I really
feel about the music."
"I'm death obsessed. You know, I have death all
over my house. I have a stuffed two headed sheep!"
On Blues Musicians
"B.B King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy - these are guys who did
it when there wasn't even much of a living they could make out of
it. I have a tremendous respect for them sticking in there and hanging
onto it, and it finally paying off in their later years, thank God."
On Dyers Eve
"I forgot how to play it. We never play it live. Certain members
of the band are very adamant about not playing it. I think it's
a physical thing. There's some awful fast strums in that song."
"One of these days I'm gonna put out an experimental
album that's gonna be so fucked up it will probably sell 10 copies,
but I am gonna put it out."
"A lot of people get pissy about people like
Kenny Wayne Shepherd, or Jonny Lang, and say, 'How can they know
the blues? They're too young.' Well let me tell you something, man:
They're tapping into emotions that everyone's born with. And the
blues is all about those emotions."
"I will go on the record to say I will do anything
for a good riff. I'll listen to the most retarted music in the world,
if it will inspire me to write a good riff."
"Whichever way you go, someone is going to tell
you you're wrong. My point is that you should just go with your
heart and just play what you want to play and not listen to what's
fashionable or what's trendy at the moment."
"We're the underdogs. We haven't had a Top 10
hit, and we look like a bunch of bums out there. Amidst all this
glam and this huge production, we're going to stick out. But that's
what we're here for--and that's what put us here in the first place."
~ 1988
"I'm very fortunate to be doing the thing I do
best, which is play guitar. There aren't many other things I could
do."
In reference to Cliff
"To this day, I think about him every day." '88
"I had seen Cliff in this band called Easy Street
when I was like 16 years old at a club called International Cafe
in San Francisco...It always stuck out in my mind. This guy with
wild, wild red hair flying all over the place and a Rickenbacker
and a real distinct bass style and I thought to myself, 'This guy
is fucking wild!'"
"I realized I was part of the band when we started
cutting tracks for the album."
"We're not afraid to take chances."
"I was born in San Francisco, at St. Lukes Hospital,
at three o'clock in the morning. My mom had green bedsheets."
"The audiences have been tremendous, phenomenal.
I have nothing to complain about."
"As a kid I was introverted. I read a lot. I
had a fascination with comic books, monster magazines, and monster
movies, which carries on through now. I'm still heavily into monster
movies and monster toys."
"My brother got me into music. He started playing
guitar around 1968. He was a hippie. He exposed me to the Haight-Ashbury
scene, so I was exposed to Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Santana right
when that stuff was release, '67, '68, '69."
"On Monsters Of Rock we had nothing to do, so
we went to a lot of nightclubs."
"I've always listened to music. It was always
there in my household, and I've always been into it. I never actually
got into it, because it was there since I can remember."
"I'm particularly fond of 'One'."
"Tom Hunting, the drummer, and I started Exodus
in 1981. That was my first band. We played a lot of clubs, and we
did one demo tape, which is pretty collectible on the underground
circuit. We actually played with Metallica when Dave Mustaine was
in the band."
"We (Spastic Children) do it just to be really
shitty on stage, we're really awful because we're all on an instrument
we don't usually play. We play stuff like 'Pus Is Great' and 'I
Like Farts.' Metallica fans expect us to play Metallica songs, but
we never do. The last time we played, we came out in our underwear.
We were going to play naked but the club owner threatened to call
the police."
"My affiliation with Metallica began the time
Exodus played with Metallica. I talked to Lars and James briefly,
in passing. They were planning to go to New York to jook up with
Johnny Z and do their first album. They had been having problems
with Dave, and they were looking for someone who was more a melodic,
controlled player. Our soundman played them some tapes of Exodus
live, and they liked what they heard. They gave me call in April
1983 and asked me if I wanted to join Metallica. I thought it was
an April Fools' joke, but I said 'sure' anyway."
"Getting back on the road is a very healthy thing
for us 'cause we had so much time off--we were getting a bit edgy.
The domestication was showing."
"This is the greatest part of it--getting up
on stage and playing. This is what it's all about."
"I've been adding more and more guitars to my
arsenal. I'm travelling with 11. I told my tech I'm gonna get some
more, so he wants me to send some home."
"Not bad for a snotty little thrash band from
San Francisco, huh?" (courtesy of LowLyric17@aol.com)
"You can only be what the public thinks you are
for so long before it becomes boring." (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"I'm not into that whole Satanic thing. It's
something to fall back on if you don't have much imagination."
(courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"When we were making our last record, nobody
even knew who the fuck Kurt Cobain was!" 1996 (courtesy of
Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"If people think we've lost our minds, I think
we're doing the right thing." (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"Cliff had a way of commandeering the tape player
in any vehicle." (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
"See, you're born punk. When you get your first
haircut, then you're alternative. Then you let it grow long, then
you're metal." (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
In reference to Jimi Hendrix
He invented the Church of Tone. He had monster tone, monster technique,
monster songs. And soul to spare.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason
"We're the token metal act on these award shows."
"James may get angry with Lars with the time
he takes on the drums, but if you looked him in the eye and asked
him who his best friend is, he'd say Lars."
"I'm still a big Metallica fan. I've gotta say
that Metallica are the hardest working, most dedicated and determined
band around. As an outsider I thought so, and now I'm an insider,
I think the same thing." (courtesy SykoChik82@aol.com)
"Cliff had some very loyal fans, including me."
(courtesy steinberg@v-wave.com)
"We do whatever we want, more than we could before,
and we get away with it. It's really cool."
"We don't have to do any shit we don't want to.
If it doesn't come out good, forget it. It has to be unique, something
that really represents us."
"It's getting more comfortable for me to offer
up ideas to Metallica. James Hetfield especially is really a genius
when it comes to writing. It really amazes me sometimes. He can
come up with the heaviest, chunking riffs, and then turn around
and do something so pretty it makes you tingle. These guys are all
the upper sect of classy musicians." '88
"It was tough to get used to playing two hours.
At Monsters we only did an hour. When you do two hours you can't
be slamming the whole time. You've got to pace yourself so you can't
be strong the whole time."
"I eat two hours before we go on and practice
for a half hour. I've been walking out in the crowds. I put on my
incognito disguise and check out the scene. It's cool to do that,
soak up the vibe of the kids. A few recognized me, so I gave 'em
passes."
"Metallica is going to be one of the bands you
look back on in the year 2008, that people will still listen to
the way I still listen to Zeppelin and Sabbath albums."
"I ended up gettin' a little Gibson amp and a
bass, because of Gene Simmons of Kiss. Myself and three other kids
would pretend to be Kiss--I liked Gene the best."
"He was a great and very special talent...Cliff's
solos were absolutely brilliant."
In reference to Cliff
"There was a huge shadow there. I'd always looked up to him
so much."
"It's cool, having the control, the last word.
It's very comfortable. We've always watched ourselves as far as
keeping in shape. We base our whole day around the shows 'cause
we want it to be as good as possible."
"As far as players, what I really like is Geezer
Butler, Chris Squire, Lemmy, and Geddy Lee."
"Kiss is the reason that I ever got a bass in
the beginning. I wanted a bass because I liked Gene Simmons. So
I had my dad buy me one for my fourteenth birthday."
"'Blackened' is probably my favorite song on
Master. I just like the grooves. It's got a good feel. 'Orion' and
'For Whom The Bell Tolls' are my favorite old songs."
"I was a farm boy. My father and I raised Arabian
stallions on our farm. I rode all the time, and I did the circuit
horse shows, all that sort of crap."
"I listen to weird stuff that no one else likes.
Old Motown or Elvis or Temptations. Louis Armstrong, Tom Waits.
I still listen to a lot of heavy stuff. Violence and Sacred Reich.
Black Sabbath and Zeppelin are still the best. We play them in the
dressing room. Blue Oyster Cult. We listen to Red Hot Chilis too."
"Filling Cliff's shoes really had me worried.
Then I realized I had to live with it. I just have to crush everyone
and do my own thing."
"One thing that we want to do that's fairly close
in range is play the Soviet Union."
"Metallica presented me with a gold album for
Master Of Puppets. I didn't expect one. That's when it really hit
me that I was part of Metallica."
"To this day, there's not a half hour that goes
by that I don't just go, 'OK, I'm gonna wake up, and this is all
gonna be a dream.' But ten years have passed, and I still haven't
woken up." 1996 (courtesy of Unforgvn7@aol.com)
In reference to Accusations of selling out
"Yes, we do sell out, every single time, everywhere we play."
(courtesy of jovy_quaso@hotmail.com)
/p>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cliff
"Bach is God."
"We do what we wanna do, if they consider that
selling out then WHATEVER" (courtesy Reaper9666@aol.com)
"We're not trying to be something fancy, it's
just us doing what we do and trying to keep it that way" (courtesy
Reaper9666@aol.com)
"To live is to die"
"We're getting a good draw, it's a fucking hell
of a lot of fun. It is painful at first, our necks and lower backs
really hurt. But asprin is a great drug."
"Control your life through insanity."
"When a man lies he murders some part of the
world. These are the pale deaths by which men miscall their lives.
All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom
of salvation take me home." (courtesy of deecoven7@aol.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other
"The only way this band will ever make it on
MTV is on our news show." - MTV executive in the past
"I could just see them go, 'oh my God! Look at
that guy!' The thing that struck them most was that while you see
lead guitar-playing, here you had a guy playing lead bass! They
though that was great." - Metallica drum tech, Marrs, on the
first time James and Lars saw Cliff play
"...we came up here and played with Cliff, who
just blew the doors off anyone we've ever played with. He's the
new Steve Harris of metal." -Mustaine on Cliff
"I occasionally run into bad influences, like
Lars Ulrich from Metallica." - Steven Tyler
"The true story about Dave Mustaine will never
be told, because there's something of a pact between Dave, Metallica,
and myself." - Johnny Z (courtesy of LowLyric17@aol.com)
"Beneath the noise they were actually quite good"
- Gem Howard (courtesy of LowLyric17@aol.com)
"The captain called us into his office and apologized.
He said that in America we'd probably have been treated even worse.
Cliff told him that in America the police don't stop you for having
long hair and that most US cops can tell the difference between
a cold pill and a Quaalude, and that they spend their time tracking
down real lawbreakers like jaywalkers." - Scott Ian, on he
and Cliff being arrested as suspected drug kingpins in London. (courtesy
of LowLyric17@aol.com)
"At the end of the party, Cliff, James, Kirk,
Charlie [Benante], Frankie [Bello], and I made a pact that we would
come out together onstage at the approaching Aardshock Festival
and do some songs in our underwear. Well, we never got to that Aardshock
show..." - Scott Ian, on the September 21, 1986 Hammersmith
Odeon show. (courtesy of LowLyric17@aol.com)
"Metallica, a critic noted, is the only heavy
metal band that adults could listen to without feeling their IQ
diminishing." - Richard Harrington, Washington Post Staff Writer
(courtesy of Zangfam@aol.com)
"Metallica too, they had the credibility without
any airplay. I was never a big Metallica fan. I didn't buy all the
albums, but after I did and listened to 'em I like the old stuff.
I'm not trying to disrespect them because I must say that the band
treated us the best on their tour. Every tour we went on we got
treated like shit, but those guys treated us like royalty."
- John Davis, on wanting to be like... (courtesy of KtuluCJ77@aol.com)
In reference to -Rich "Banger" Birch
"Bang The Head That Doesn't Bang!!" (courtesy of erinb_100@hotmail.com)
"Die for Megadeth, get seriously injured for
Metallica!" - Dave Mustaine" (courtesy of DHSDrama@aol.com)
"I am here to say that I don't condone people
coming up to me and saying something negative about my former band
mates either. Sure there was a time when both camps were in a cold
war, but those 'times' have been over for a long time. And even
though the tension is still slight, I wish only the best for Metallica.
" (courtesy of DHSDrama@aol.com) '01
In reference to Dave Mustaine:
"I think that James and I are very much the same man. I think
that we grabbed an angel, split him in half, and both of us are
possessing that power. " (courtesy of DHSDrama@aol.com) '83
"I was convinced that I should be in the band
and went to rehearsal. I was tuning up when all the other guys in
the band went into another room. They weren't talking to me, so
I went in and said, 'What the fuck? Am I in the band or not?' and
they said, 'You've got the gig.' I couldn't believe how easy it
had been and suggested that we get some beer to celebrate. - Dave
Mustaine" (courtesy of DHSDrama@aol.com)
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