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.

Hetfield still uses the same cassette he was given in the early nineties to this day before any live performance or any recording Metallica does. Hetfield has also broken his arm a number of times while skateboarding which prevented him from playing guitar on stage and subsequently caused Hetfield's management company Q Prime to add a clause in Hetfield's contract forbidding him to ride a skateboard while Metallica was touring.

Hetfield co-founded Metallica in October 1981 after answering a classified advertisement by drummer Lars Ulrich in the Los Angeles newspaper The Recycler searching for band members. James Alan Hetfield (born August 3 1963) is the rhythm guitarist co-founder main songwriter and lead vocalist for the American heavy metal band Metallica.