Metallica April 19
been a regeneration of metal in general, as more young people have started listening to bands like us, Black Sabbath and even AC/DC. They get into it and then realise that we are all still alive, still rocking and that they can come to our gigs. It makes us relevant. Do you think there’s a future for metal in the Middle East? Yeah, I think so. That’s one of the reasons why we are coming back. It’s the simple process of supply and demand. If there is enough love and demand for Metallica then we will keep coming back – and we are getting a lot of love from the Middle East. What do you guys do when you’re not rocking? We’re all pretty different. Kirk and I love to get our surf on. We love going to new places, finding where the local waves are and go and surf them. Lars loves to do a bit of scuba diving, while James is a bit more cultured; he prefers to take in the city a bit more and get a feel of the surroundings and the vibe of places like South Africa or Japan. You know that Abu Dhabi has a wave pool, right? [Laughs] Yeah, I saw that on the Internet the other week and thought, ‘Whoa, where is that? Abu Dhabi? We’ve got to get
With over 100 million records sold, 14 Grammys and nearly 2,000 gigs played the world over, Metallica have reigned as the undisputed kings of metal for the past three decades. As the Californian rock legends return to the UAE this month, bassist Rob Trujillo tells Matt Priest that they have no plans to relinquish their throne Metallica have been going for more than 30 years. Where does the motivation come from? As clichéd as it sounds, it’s the music – or maybe just music in general. When we’re back home and we strap on the guitars it just works. At the moment we’re in the middle of writing a new album and, if anything, the problem is that we write too many rifts. That proves that there is a lot of music still in us. What brings you back to the UAE so soon? We rarely do a full tour schedule 36_What’s On_04.2013
anymore – instead we prefer to do shorter tours in places like Australia, South Africa, South America etc. It becomes a lot of fun and it helps keep things fresh for us, both in terms of allowing us to write new
material and making sure that we don’t get burned out touring. Last time we were in Abu Dhabi we went dune bashing and had a crazy fun time. That’s where we are at right now – we want to play live and have fun.
The ups and down of Metallica 1981
1983
Guitarist James Hetfield answers a classified ad placed by drummer Lars Ulrich and the band is formed The band releases their debut album, Kill ’Em All
What stood out from the last Abu Dhabi gig? We noticed last time that there were loads of younger fans in the audience, which is great because despite being around for 30 years, a new audience is starting to discover the music and buying it. I think there has
over there and try it out!’ When you’re surfing, do you get any weird looks from people? Actually, people get really excited, which helps because that means we can get first pick on the waves [laughs]. Surfing can be an aggressive and territorial sport so it’s great that the local surfers are normally nice to us and let us catch waves that we normally wouldn’t get to catch. It seems that as long as we’re still Metallica, we’ll continue to get the good waves. How’s the new album coming along? Well, we can’t really say much because it’s still being written, but we’ve been listening to our last album, Death Magnetic, a lot which is inspiring the arrangements we are currently writing. There is a certain quality to that album that we are really proud of and we want to maintain a certain standard. Is the new album going to sound like Death Magnetic? Probably not, but there will still be those signature Metallica grooves and thrash elements. Do you guys still give Lars abuse about the whole Napster thing? You know what, everybody gives everybody s**t in the band. There is a lot of joking around and positive energy – and that plays an important part with us still being together. You have to find ways to have fun and to stay mentally healthy. It’s important to balance everything, the
1986
1991
1992
2000
2004
Bassist Cliff Burton is killed in a tour bus accident
Metallica releases their selftitled fifth album. It would go on to sell over 22 million copies
An onstage pyrotechnics accident in Montreal leaves frontman James Hetfield with serious burns
The band take free music download website Napster to court
Documentary Some Kind Of Monster is released, depicting the band’s personal struggles
2008
Return to form with comeback album Death Magnetic
“that’s where we are right now – we want to play live and continue to have fun” writing, the touring and the messing around – it keeps you going and it keeps things positive. If you were ever to sit in on a rehearsal you’d be amazed by how much fun we have. Like what? James does this really funny thing, where no matter where he is, if he reads something that reads a certain way he takes out a Sharpie [marker pen] and rewords it. He comes out with some really funny stuff. So the secret to your longevity is adapting? Yeah it is. We’ve had to change our lifestyles to adapt to getting
older. We still want to have the energy to perform as we did, cause the last thing we’re going to give you is a half-assed Metallica show – that’s just not going to happen. The other day I was surfing in Australia with around 30 local guys and there was one guy who was around 60. I looked at him and thought that’s kind of cool that this old guy is surfing. But then I realised that I was the second oldest guy out there! There I was, nearly 50 years old, surfing with these kids, playing at these rock shows. I have a lot to be thankful for. Life is pretty good. Du Arena, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, 7pm, Dhs295. Tel: 800 35274. Taxi: Yas Marina. thinkflash.ae
2010
2011
2012
The band passes the 100 million album sales worldwide barrier
Metallica celebrate their 30th anniversary with a series of concerts in San Francisco including a who’s who of rock music
The band forms their own label, Blackened Recordings, acquiring all the rights to their music
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