“I struggled hard to get what I thought was what I needed” – James Hetfield speaks about Metallica’s foundation

This Sunday, November 30, “CBS Sunday Morning” will carry a special segment about Metallica‘s All Within My Hands Foundation, as blabbermouth.net reports. On Sunday at 9 a.m., “CBS News Sunday Morning” will air on the CBS television network and be streamed on Paramount+. Over forty years into METALLICA’s history, James Hetfield was asked how he enjoys the band’s live performances.

It’s so easy. It is so easy. Just looking into one set of eyes — that’s all it takes for me. I will hook up with one person’s eyes and I’ll just see them change. I’ll see the passion in them, and I’m full — my heart fills right up and I’m ready to just keep going, kicking ass. I am so blessed, I have the best seat in the house. I got the best job in the world, if you even wanna call it a job. I found my passion early on in life; I’m super grateful for that. I had parents that were supportive around that. And I struggled. I struggled hard to get what I thought was what I needed, which was be in a band and make music. Struggle is part of it, and with this foundation [All Within My Hands], hopefully we’re a little bit of a helping hand getting from that, ‘I can’t get out of this struggle.

I just can’t,’ to the, ‘I can, but I gotta work hard and I’m gonna be able to get what I want.’ So, yeah, I have the best job in the world. I get to see three generations of people hugging each other. Oh, God, the last thing I would’ve wanted to do is go to a gig with my dad, or my grandpa even. But I see that happening out there. And little kids down in the front, old people down the front, people in wheelchairs down the front — a mixed match of backgrounds and stories of people. We gather a lot of misfits around this planet, and we make a family out of it. And we create some energy that helps us get through life.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich made reference to All Within My Hands’ emphasis on “giving back” via skilled trades education and community assistance.

It goes back to the basics, which is giving, giving back, sharing. We come out of not just a community, but come out of community itself. And in community, whatever words — whether you call it a collective or a community or a gang or like-minded folks, or whatever it is — we’ve always thrived in the plural. And we always use the word ‘we’, ‘we’, ‘we’, ‘we’, ‘we’, ‘we’, all of us together. And so in that is us, the fans, the like-minded.

“I know this may sound slightly corny, but I feel that one of the purposes of what we do is to try to break down that barrier of sense of separation between the group and the fans, the band and the fans, the artists and the people who appreciate what the artist is doing, to try to sort of do away with — you could almost call it in a concert setting, a physical barricade that’s there, and try to sort of bring that sense of we’re all in this together.

I think instinctively you just wanna help. I mean, we all depend on each other. If you really wanna break it down, then you go, humans are herd animals and really thrive — you know, the flock does better when everybody’s doing well.

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