Metallica Interview Playboy (Ft. James Hetfield, Jason Newsted, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich & Metallica)
PLAYBOY: You spent much of last year fighting Napster. Now it's gone into business with BMG and is changing from a free service to a pay service. Is the threat over? Or will a similar site pop up?
ULRICH: There are all sorts of mini-Napsters out there. But Napster is successful because it's Computer 101—with some of the other companies, the software becomes really complicated. And they're not going to get out of the gate in the same way Napster did. Now everybody has their guard up. With every new technology some 19-year-old kid can come up with, somebody five minutes behind him can come up with a way of blocking it. It's never going to go away. But I think it can get to a point where it becomes sort of a nuisance, comparable to, say, bootlegging and piracy.
PLAYBOY: What did you accomplish by going after Napster?
ULRICH: What we've accomplished most is to bring an awareness to the American public. It turned into the first big issue of the 21st century. People seemed to be more passionate about it than the presidential thing. Obviously, this has been the fucking wake-up call of the millennium to everybody who has anything to do with intellectual property. There's this whole circle of older ladies who create sewing patterns. All of a sudden, these sewing patterns are being stolen and traded on the Internet. And these little old ladies aren't getting their royalties.
PLAYBOY: So now Metallica is allied with a bunch of old ladies.
ULRICH: [Rolls his eyes] There's your sound bite.
PLAYBOY: Some of your fans took Napster's side, instead of Metallica's.
HETFIELD: [Grins] Because they're lazy bastards and they want everything for free. I think Napster won the press war. It hurt the fans' perception of us—they see Metallica as some big bad guys who wanted to take their free stuff away. I like playing music because it's a good living and I get satisfaction from it. But I can't feed my family with satisfaction.
PLAYBOY: So Napster damaged Metallica?
HETFIELD: I don't want it to read "Napster has damaged Metallica." It's pretty difficult to hurt us. They did damage to how Metallica fans perceive us.
ULRICH: I don't agree. We've taken hits from day one: between haircuts and using Motley Crue-Bon Jovi producer Bob Rock, to headlining Lollapalooza to writing ballads to making records with a symphony orchestra. That's part of being an instigator and a forerunner.
PLAYBOY: Aside from his natural garrulousness, why did Lars become the band's spokesman against Napster?
HETFIELD: My wife and I were giving birth to a second child [son Castor, born May 2000]. And family is number one. So Lars had to run with the torch, and there were a few bad moves. You know, Lars can get really mouthy and be a snotty-nosed kid at times. I cringed at certain interviews: "Oh dude, don't say that."
ULRICH: I said some things that were borderline silly. When Limp Bizkit embraced Napster and took $2 million to play this "free tour"—it is possible to play free shows without taking sponsorship money, because we do that—I said it was total bullshit. I know a lot of people hate Fred Durst, but I think he's really fucking talented. Me and Fred kissed and made up. When I open my mouth, most of the time something somewhat eloquent comes out, and once in a while I talk a bunch of fucking bullshit. I'm aware of that.
PLAYBOY: What sort of things did the fans say to your face?
HETFIELD: Some fans said, "Leave Napster alone, dude"—if they were suicidal [laughs]. But that was after "Metallica rocks, dude." So you would turn your "thanks" into a "fuck you." I've gotten into plenty of arguments with fans who just wanted to "discuss" it. This poor girl in Atlanta, I made her cry. She felt money was evil. Why don't you go live in Canada or some socialist country?
ULRICH: If you'd stop being a Metallica fan because I won't give you my music for free, then fuck you. I don't want you to be a Metallica fan.
HAMMETT: I'm still shocked at the reaction people have. I thought it was so obvious: People are taking our music when they're not supposed to, and we want to stop them. Computers make it seem like you're not stealing, because all you're doing is pressing a button. The bottom line is, stealing is not right.
PLAYBOY: You guys pissed off a lot of people. On the Metallica Usenet group, there's an ongoing thread called "Kirk and Lars are gay."
HAMMETT: That just shows a total lack of creative juices. That's like calling someone "fatso."
ULRICH: There are all sorts of mini-Napsters out there. But Napster is successful because it's Computer 101—with some of the other companies, the software becomes really complicated. And they're not going to get out of the gate in the same way Napster did. Now everybody has their guard up. With every new technology some 19-year-old kid can come up with, somebody five minutes behind him can come up with a way of blocking it. It's never going to go away. But I think it can get to a point where it becomes sort of a nuisance, comparable to, say, bootlegging and piracy.
PLAYBOY: What did you accomplish by going after Napster?
ULRICH: What we've accomplished most is to bring an awareness to the American public. It turned into the first big issue of the 21st century. People seemed to be more passionate about it than the presidential thing. Obviously, this has been the fucking wake-up call of the millennium to everybody who has anything to do with intellectual property. There's this whole circle of older ladies who create sewing patterns. All of a sudden, these sewing patterns are being stolen and traded on the Internet. And these little old ladies aren't getting their royalties.
PLAYBOY: So now Metallica is allied with a bunch of old ladies.
ULRICH: [Rolls his eyes] There's your sound bite.
PLAYBOY: Some of your fans took Napster's side, instead of Metallica's.
HETFIELD: [Grins] Because they're lazy bastards and they want everything for free. I think Napster won the press war. It hurt the fans' perception of us—they see Metallica as some big bad guys who wanted to take their free stuff away. I like playing music because it's a good living and I get satisfaction from it. But I can't feed my family with satisfaction.
PLAYBOY: So Napster damaged Metallica?
HETFIELD: I don't want it to read "Napster has damaged Metallica." It's pretty difficult to hurt us. They did damage to how Metallica fans perceive us.
ULRICH: I don't agree. We've taken hits from day one: between haircuts and using Motley Crue-Bon Jovi producer Bob Rock, to headlining Lollapalooza to writing ballads to making records with a symphony orchestra. That's part of being an instigator and a forerunner.
PLAYBOY: Aside from his natural garrulousness, why did Lars become the band's spokesman against Napster?
HETFIELD: My wife and I were giving birth to a second child [son Castor, born May 2000]. And family is number one. So Lars had to run with the torch, and there were a few bad moves. You know, Lars can get really mouthy and be a snotty-nosed kid at times. I cringed at certain interviews: "Oh dude, don't say that."
ULRICH: I said some things that were borderline silly. When Limp Bizkit embraced Napster and took $2 million to play this "free tour"—it is possible to play free shows without taking sponsorship money, because we do that—I said it was total bullshit. I know a lot of people hate Fred Durst, but I think he's really fucking talented. Me and Fred kissed and made up. When I open my mouth, most of the time something somewhat eloquent comes out, and once in a while I talk a bunch of fucking bullshit. I'm aware of that.
PLAYBOY: What sort of things did the fans say to your face?
HETFIELD: Some fans said, "Leave Napster alone, dude"—if they were suicidal [laughs]. But that was after "Metallica rocks, dude." So you would turn your "thanks" into a "fuck you." I've gotten into plenty of arguments with fans who just wanted to "discuss" it. This poor girl in Atlanta, I made her cry. She felt money was evil. Why don't you go live in Canada or some socialist country?
ULRICH: If you'd stop being a Metallica fan because I won't give you my music for free, then fuck you. I don't want you to be a Metallica fan.
HAMMETT: I'm still shocked at the reaction people have. I thought it was so obvious: People are taking our music when they're not supposed to, and we want to stop them. Computers make it seem like you're not stealing, because all you're doing is pressing a button. The bottom line is, stealing is not right.
PLAYBOY: You guys pissed off a lot of people. On the Metallica Usenet group, there's an ongoing thread called "Kirk and Lars are gay."
HAMMETT: That just shows a total lack of creative juices. That's like calling someone "fatso."
Comments (0)
The minimum comment length is 50 characters.
Information
Users of Guests are not allowed to comment this publication.
There are no comments yet. You can be the first!