Metallica’s James Hetfield Gets Candid About His Own Personal Growth as Band Screens New Documentary

In the new documentary Metallica Saved My Life, which premiered at New York City’s Tribeca Festival this week, fans from all over the world tell poignant stories about how the legendary heavy metal band’s music impacted them, especially through times of personal challenge and struggle. Those feelings are also relatable to Metallica, including singer and guitarist James Hetfield, who previously spoke about his insecurity and stint in rehab in 2019. 

“When I get up on stage, I feel so much more comfortable up there than I do in regular life a lot of the times,” Hetfield told The New Yorker writer Amanda Petrusich during a post-screening Q&A with the other members of Metallica — drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo — on Wednesday evening, June 11, at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

“I feel like I’m so easily able to be me with these fans,” Hetfield, 61, continued, “and the more I’m me, the more they like it. It’s just so opposite of how I was brought up. Being yourself wasn’t always welcomed for some reason. But speaking my truth up there and other people understanding that truth, the four of us have gone through so much together, and we care about this a lot because a lot is still happening for us even into our fourth decade as a band. It’s gotten better every decade.”

He also acknowledged that his recovery changed the way he thought about making music. “I’ve learned so much about myself and other people,” he said, “on how to live life better and to not take things completely seriously and to be on stage and be yourself. We get to do that. I got the best job in the world. The end.”

Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, Metallica Saved My Life examines the decades-long relationship between the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group and their devoted global fanbase from America to Japan to Botswana. The film explores how Metallica’s music forged a sense of community, shaped people’s identities and bonds, and — as the title suggests – saved lives. 

“It’s been brewing for a few years,” Ulrich, 61, tells PEOPLE at the film premiere. “There’s such an incredible diversity among the fans and so many different stories and so many different worlds that they all come from and that they all inhabit. We thought to share that diversity would be a lot of fun, and to celebrate the fans and to scream from the rooftops about who they are and kind of turn the spotlight a little bit away from us and onto them because they’re Metallica as much as we are.”

“For me, I’m touched by a lot of almost everything in there,” Trujillo, 60, says about the stories told in the movie. “There are some highlight moments in there that are more on the international level and how we’re touching people in areas of the world that you can’t imagine. Again, the fans mean as much to us as the music, as everything we do. We’re interconnected and that goes to certain parts of the world and it’s a very powerful thing to have in our lives actually.”

Like Metallica Saved My Life, the post-screening Q&A also delved into the personal in addition to the music, such as how much the fans have meant to the members of Metallica and the importance of staying grounded after coming out of touring,

“I like to put myself in situations and around people where it’s like an instant equalization and it just knocks me off the pedestal that I might’ve been on for the last three or four weeks,” Hammett, 62, said during the talk. “That’s usually putting a surfboard in the water, going down the beach, surfing, getting beat up by the ocean. [It] instantly just puts me down to earth and just brings me back down to instantly feeling that I’m just like everyone else.”

After 44 years, Metallica is still busy performing live on stage as their M72 tour recently extended to dates in Europe next year. As told in the new movie, being a Metallica fan who goes to their shows is akin to being part of a family. Hetfield said he enjoys seeing the eyes of the audience while on stage.

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“We got older and so did our fans and our fans started having kids,” he said. “We see three generations at a show. When you’re as fortunate as we are to have been going for decades, you’re going to see a huge plethora of different fans. It wasn’t on purpose. The one thing that is purposeful is [that] we want to be as intimate as possible when we’re on stage with the crowd. That’s what has always been number one with every show we do.”