RollingStone.com recently caught up with METALLICA frontman James Hetfield to discuss the band's forthcoming album. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Q: When you guys are about to get back in action, is there a certain anticipation, or just business as usual?

Hetfield: "We have a tendency to rehearse way too much. So we’ll book two weeks of rehearsal and probably rehearse about five days and then fuck around the last week, and say 'We’re good.' And then we’ll end up playing some of the new songs because we’re all hepped up on them right now. Most of that goes away. We have some of the nightmares that maybe other musicians have: the nightmare of I can’t find the dressing room, the guys are playing a song I’ve never heard in my life, my guitar cord’s not long enough and I can’t make it up to the microphone, the guitar neck is made of rubber — your normal dreams. But after we rehearse the dreams go away, and I feel a little more confident."

Q: What was the idea behind making this album?

Hetfield: "The direction is embracing our past in the now. We know what we know. It’s hard to erase that. But to strip it down again, and get back to why we’re doing this? Why did we write songs that way? The template was Master of Puppets and the strength of that record. How can we do that now?"

Go to this location for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Metallica performed at the Hullabaloo benefit concert for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles yesterday (Wednesday, May 14). The band's setlist was as follows:

'Creeping Death', 'Fuel', 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)', '...And Justice For All', 'Sad But True', 'Disposable Heroes', 'One', 'Master Of Puppets', 'Battery'. Encore #1: 'Last Caress', 'No Remorse', 'Enter Sandman'. Encore #2: 'Fight Fire With Fire' (with RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS' Flea), 'Seek and Destroy'.