Metallica frontman James Hetfield recently spoke with Mick Wall for TeamRock, looking back on his school days, retraceing the band's tentative steps and explaining "why his anger is an energy." An excerpt is available below.

Mick: When Cliff Burton came into the band he was obviously a very big influence, not just musically, but as a human being…

James: “Absolutely correct. Besides introducing us to more music theory, he was the most schooled of any of us, he had gone to junior college to learn some things about music, and taught us quite a few things. When Lars and I had seen him play with (Cliff’s previous band) Trauma, our jaws fell onto the floor, and we said, ‘We’ve got to get this guy.’ He and I aligned a lot closer as friends, as far as our activities, music styles that we liked, bands that we liked, politically, views on the world, we were pretty parallel on that wavelength. But, yeah, he had such a character to himself, and it was a very strong personality, he did creep into all of us eventually. And he’s missed greatly by this guy sitting here now.”

Mick: What would Cliff have made of some of the directions the band went in the 1990s? Beginning with The Black Album in 1991 up to the time of St Anger in 2003?

James: “Well, I certainly would have thought there would have been some resistance, for sure. I think The Black Album was a great album and I appreciate the fact that we did have the balls to do that and have (producer) Bob Rock to work with us. It had to be, it really did. You know, when I go back and I listen to (previous album) …And Justice For All, it couldn’t have stayed on that path. We needed to bring in another set of trusted ears. (But) I think Cliff would have probably interjected some different stuff, getting his bass heard and some more musically challenging things, probably. I would certainly think that the Load and Re-Load (era), I would have had an ally that was very against it all – the reinvention or the U2 version of Metallica.”

Mick: When you say 'an ally', you mean that you personally were not comfortable with that mid-90s period of the band's story?

James: “No, no, not at all. There’s some great, great songs on there but my opinion is that all of the imagery and stuff like that was not necessary. And the amount of songs that were written was… it diluted the potency of the poison of Metallica. And I think Cliff would have agreed with that.”

Go to this location for the complete in-depth interview.

Rolling Stone Australia has published a list dubbed 11 Things We Learned Hanging With Metallica, stemming from a recent interview feature on the band that yielded more material than what could be published. Following is an excerpt from the rundown.

Rob Trujillo Is Lars Ulrich's Karaoke Buddy

"We all have our relationships with each other in certain ways," said Trujillo of his friendship with the rest of the band. "I'm this neutral body who can go out and have drinks with Lars sometimes, like he called me the other night, on Saturday, it was two in the morning and said, 'Karaoke?' I said, 'Karaoke? It's two in the morning! (Laughs) Next time karaoke me at 10 o'clock at night!' But that's how we roll. And then I can go for a great surf session in South Africa with Kirk or in Costa Rica and we could just have this great day together where we're surfing and having dinner with our surfer friends. And then with James we go to concerts together when we're back home. We had dinner last night, just us, after the gig. So our relationships with each other vary, but they're special and they're unique."

James Hetfield Likes Watching You Watch Him

At the Webster Hall show on September 27th, something dawned on the frontman: "I realised that people like watching us, but I like watching them. There's so many weirdos out there, it is awesome. Everyone enjoys the show a different way, has a blast, the way they take in music, the way they celebrate it, the way it makes them move or do whatever they need to do. It's great."

Metallica Is Lars Ulrich's Man Cave

"Metallica is an awesome place to disappear into," said the drummer at one point. "A lot of people [say], 'Oh, it must be so much work to go on the road and it must be so much work...' Fine, these two or three promo days in New York are a little 'woah', but going on tour with Metallica for two weeks, playing a few rock shows and having nice dinners and meeting fans and feeling all that love, that's not fucking work, that's rejuvenation. Metallica's almost an escape for me. The real work stuff is the stuff at home. Put me on the Soundwave tour for two weeks in Australia and we're sitting in Sydney for three days and going to the beach and hanging out in Brisbane, two days off in Perth, cool! Glass of wine and go and fucking play a rock show. Where do I sign up for that shit? My analogy is that it's like the man cave now. It's not so much work, trust me! That's an insult to people who really work for a living."

Go to this location for the complete list.

Metallica performed at Parque Bicentenario in Quito, Ecuador on October 29th. Official MetOnTour video of "Harvester Of Sorrow" can be viewed below.

The setlist on the night was as follows:

"Creeping Death"
"For Whom The Bell Tolls"
"King Nothing"
"Harvester Of Sorrow"
"Wherever I May Roam"
"Moth Into Flame"
"The Memory Remains"
"The Four Horsemen"
"Sad But True"
"One"
"Master Of Puppets"
"Battery"
"Fade To Black"
"Seek And Destroy"

Encore:
"Hardwired"
"Whiskey In The Jar"
"Nothing Else Matters"
"Enter Sandman"