James Hetfield Recalls Questionable Methods Metallica Used To Survive

As globally huge as they are now, it’s kind of hard to imagine Metallica as starving artists. But in the band’s early days, that’s exactly what they were. Frontman James Hetfield talked about the band’s challenging circumstances in the mid-80s on the latest episode of The Metallica Report podcast .

The band recorded two albums, “Ride The Lightning” and “Master Of Puppets,” at Sweet Silence Studios in Denmark.

“We were up in the attic, sleeping on the floor and stealing food from other bands that were coming through there, stealing bikes just to get around, stealing empty beer bottles to go turn them in for more beer,” Hetfield recalled. “There was a lot of thieving.”

Hetfield continued: “We didn’t have anything, we didn’t have sh*t. So it wasn’t thieving, we were just borrowing it forever. Because of all those adventures in the early days, I feel a lot more at home in Denmark now. The early days were tough because, as far as us and the business side, we had no clue. Lars was kind of taking a shot at it.”

The band even slept in storage space at the studio, and Lars and James came across some legendary recordings. “Lars and I slept in the tape storage upstairs of Sweet Silence and looking through it was like ‘Whoa, Richie Blackmore’s stuff,’ and all kinds of different bands that have gone through there doing stuff.”