James Alan Hetfield (born 3 August 1963, Downey, California) is the main songwriter, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the American thrash/heavy metal band Metallica.


EARLY LIFE

Hetfield was born on August 3, 1963, in Downey, Los Angeles County, California. His family were of German descent. The father, Virgil Hetfield (a truck driver) and mother, Cynthia (a light opera singer) were devout and strict adherents to Christian Science, and accordingly, much of his young life revolved around religion. In accordance with their beliefs, Hetfield's parents strongly disapproved of medicine or any medical help and remained vigilant in their faith even as his mother began to die of cancer. Her death and his subsequently turbulent relationship with religion are both recurring subjects that have been the focal point of some of Metallica's lyrics (the songs "Mama Said", "Dyers Eve" and "The God That Failed," are about Hetfield's mother and father, and "Until It Sleeps" is about cancer, from which both of his parents died).

Hetfield was nine years old when he took his first piano lessons, before taking on his brother David's drums and finally picking up a guitar at the age of fourteen. His main influence was Aerosmith, and he has said that they were the reason why he wanted to play guitar. Other bands such as Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy also had a major influence on him. Hetfield formed his first band, Obsession, in his early teens. Composed of the Veloz brothers on bass and drums, Jim Arnold on guitar, and Hetfield providing lead vocals, the band spent plenty of time in the Veloz brothers' garage jamming, with Ron McGovney and Dave Marrs acting as roadies. Marrs and McGovney subsequently joined the band itself when the Veloz brothers quit.

After moving to Brea, California due to the death of his mother, James attended Brea Olinda High School and met up with drummer Jim Mulligan. The two jammed at lunch time, scaring fellow guitarists with their loud and heavy sounds, before another student named Hugh Tanner was seen carrying around part of a flying V guitar at school. Hetfield's next band Phantom Lord was born with Tanner on guitar, Mulligan on drums, and Hetfield singing while also playing guitar. The group went through a few bass players until graduation, when Hetfield moved back to Downey.

Once back in Downey, Hetfield moved into a house owned by McGovney's parents that was slated for demolition due to an expressway expansion. Hetfield talked McGovney into taking up bass, Phantom Lord disbanded, and then the third band under Hetfield's leadership, Leather Charm, was born. Hetfield no longer played guitar and McGovney played bass guitar, while Tanner and Mulligan retained their former Phantom Lord positions. Leather Charm was largely a hard rock combo, playing a few originals and in addition to covers, such as Iron Maiden's "Remember Tomorrow". The band performed at a few parties and recorded a demo, but then began to fall apart.

Tanner left the band, to be replaced by Troy James. Then Mulligan left for a more progressive, Rush-like band. Without a drummer, the rest of the band decided to call it quits. Although it was Mulligan's departure that led to Hetfield searching for a new drummer, it was Hugh Tanner who introduced him to Lars Ulrich, which led to the creation of Metallica.


METALLICA

In the early days, Hetfield did not have an interest in being a lead vocalist, and Metallica experimented with a few different vocal/guitar configurations. Some of the options considered included adding another guitar player, having then-lead guitar player Dave Mustaine play the sole guitar, as well as asking John Bush from Armored Saint (who later joined Anthrax) to sing for the band.

From 1981 to 1983, Mustaine's famous rock and roll lifestyle sparked heated altercations between the two. Mustaine also once poured beer into Ron McGovney's bass, very nearly causing serious damage. Eventually, Hetfield and Ulrich ejected Mustaine due to his alcoholic tendencies, and recruited lead guitarist Kirk Hammett from the band Exodus the same day. Mustaine was sent home on a 4-day bus journey, and went on to form the thrash metal band Megadeth.

Until the mid-1990s, Hetfield recorded all rhythm tracks, most harmony tracks, and the occasional solo ("The House Jack Built", "Nothing Else Matters" and duel solos with Kirk Hammett in "Master of Puppets", "Orion", "To Live Is to Die", "One" and "Harvester of Sorrow"), as well as writing the lyrics, vocal melodies, and co-arranging the songs with Ulrich. Hetfield has been involved in many accidents onstage, the most well-known being an incident with pyrotechnics while on the GN'R-Metallica Stadium Tour in 1992. He suffered severe second and third degree burns to his left arm during the opening of "Fade to Black" and was unable to play guitar for four weeks (former Metallica roadie and Metal Church guitarist John Marshall filled in while Hetfield continued to sing). He has tattooed his left arm with a picture of flames encasing four cards, - 1, 9, 6 and 3 - representing the year of his birth. He also broke his arm several times while skateboarding too fast down hills, which prevented him from playing guitar onstage.

During the recording of the St. Anger album, Hetfield went into rehab for alcoholism and other obsessive-compulsive behaviours arising from his depression. Alcohol had long been a problem for Hetfield; the band's alcoholic antics earned them the nickname "Alcoholica" by the music press. Just before this, Metallica's bassist Jason Newsted announced he was exiting the band, after Hetfield forbade him to work on any side projects. Hetfield rejoined the band after two months in rehab and seven months with his family. He then continued with the album. He is now sober and clean and is determined to remain so. The movie Some Kind of Monster documents the making of the St. Anger album and shows the various conflicts and issues the band is faced with including alcoholism and family commitments, and the future of the band.


PERSONAL LIFE

When he is not writing, singing or playing, Hetfield enjoys a variety of outdoor activities including skateboarding, snowboarding, water and jet-skiing, sketching, working in his garage customizing cars and motorbikes, watching his favorite football team the Oakland Raiders, fencing sabre and going to hot-rod shows. He also collects vintage guitars--particularly those from 1963--and enjoys working on classic automobiles. Among his favorites are a '55 Chevy Bel Air, which he helped restore, and "The Beast", an all-terrain four wheel drive Blazer. Aside from these pursuits, Hetfield says he is often happiest spending time with his wife Francesca and three children: Cali, Castor, and Marcella while residing in Novato, California. He put his 1967 Chevrolet Camaro up for sale on eBay, with the proceeds going to a Music for Schools program. The car was used in the video for "I Disappear" and was given to him as a gift upon the video's completion. Years later, James donated the car to the Rock & Roll hall of fame.

Hetfield married his wife Francesca in 1997. Presently they have 3 children. During an interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Hetfield stated that his wife helped him mature and learn to deal with his anger issues more constructively, explaining that after they met, his destructive tendencies embarrassed both of them. He resides in Belvedere, Ca.


GUITARS

Hetfield has been a major endorser of ESP guitars since the 1980's, and is best known for playing custom-made Explorer-style guitars with an EMG 81/EMG 60 set for pickups. His popularization of the models was considered by some to be a catalyst in Gibson's decision to sue ESP over loss of profits (Gibson originated the model in the late 1950s and has allowed other companies to build replicas). Hetfield's main guitar from the early days was a white Flying V, used almost exclusively until about 1984 when he discovered that the explorer models were a far better fit. The most common explorers were the white Gibson "More Beer!" explorer, and the white ESP explorer known as "EET FUK", featuring middle finger inlays, and now resides in the rock and roll hall of fame.

During the mid-1990s, James Hetfield also used his two signature ESP Flying V models, one with red flames and one with green flames. He also asked a friend to fix black and silver diamond-plate metal onto the surface of some of his ESP Explorer guitars

James ESP Signature Custom Guitars include:

JH-1 (Red Hot Flame Flying V) 200 Made
JH-2 (Black Diamond Plate Explorer) 200 Made
JH-3 (Black ESP Eclipse with Pinstripe design) 100 Made
Grynch (Baritone Viper with Green Hotrod flames) 260+ Made
Truckster (ESP Eclipse Layer Painted Black/White/Red/Grey and sanded to display wear)
Recently Hetfield has become a frequent user of a Gibson Les Paul Custom, particularly the 1973 model.
James Hetfield is a true-blue guitar tinkerer, whose experiments, placements of stickers and modifications have resulted in the production of signature models by ESP guitars. He bought a black ESP ltd Viper baritone 300, installed an EMG Afterburner booster circuit, and asked a friend of his to paint green flames on it. This resulted in the limited edition "The Grynch" model guitar. He splashed some Killrust grey paint on an ESP Eclipse model guitar, installed EMG 81 & 60 pickups, moved the toggle switch to a lower position- which resulted in the signature model ESP "Truckster" guitar.

He also uses two custom-made Explorer model guitars, built by bass luthier Ken Lawrence. Occasionally, James will use Kirk's electric guitars in the studio, in particular his Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters, as well as his Tom Anderson Pro Am (which was used for the clean guitar intro of "Enter Sandman").


AMPLIFIERS

Hetfield used a ProCo Rat distortion pedal in combination with a modified Marshall 1959 SLP amplifier and Marshall 1960B 4x12 speaker cabinet (with Celestion Vintage 30s speakers), for the 1983 album Kill 'Em All. The amplifier was stolen in Boston, Massachusetts in early 1984, which partially influenced him to write the song "Fade to Black".

For Ride the Lightning in 1984, Hetfield used an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9 overdrive pedal in combination with a Marshall JMP2203 amplifier, and Marshall 1960B speaker cabinets. He equalized the tone so it would have as minimal midrange frequencies as possible.

By 1985, Hetfield had grown tired of the thin artificial sound of distortion pedals, as well as the typical use of the Marshall guitar amplifier. For the recording of 1986's Master of Puppets, he and Kirk Hammett bought a Mesa/Boogie MarkIIC+ amplifier, and slaved its preamp into his Marshall amplifier, resulting in a more natural-sounding strong powerful distortion tone. He further enhanced his rhythm guitar tone with B&B/Aphex Parametric Equalizers, mixing desk equalization, and triple-tracking of every rhythm part with slightly alternating guitar settings. This complex process resulted in an aggressive, strong, rich, and sustaining thrash guitar tone with reduced midrange frequencies but sharp treble frequencies and thick low frequencies.

Hetfield used a very similar process and equipment in 1988 for the recording of ...And Justice for All. He increased the tone by using Mesa/Boogie Studio and Quad preamps into Mesa/Boogie Strategy 400 poweramps while recording dual-layered tracks. In the process, he had dialed in so much low end into his tone, as well as lower midrange frequencies, that he partially masked the sound of Jason Newsted's bass tracks.

By 1990, along with the assistance of Bob Rock, Hetfield perfected the scooped-midrange studio tone that he had been seeking since 1983. He discovered that utilizing the midrange frequencies straight from a modified Marshall amplifier, layered over guitar tracks of his trusty Mesa/Boogie MarkIIC+ as well as the Mesa/Boogie MarkIV, plus an ADA MP-1 preamp and a Mesa/Boogie Strategy 400 poweramp, he would get a much thicker and richer tone. He enhanced the frequencies by enclosing his four Marshall 1960B speaker cabinets with foam walls and U-Haul blankets, and carefully phase-canceled particular frequencies with eight closely-positioned microphones and two ambient condenser microphones.

The majority of his clean tones come from a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus Guitar Amplifier.

In 1995, Hetfield had altered his tone by introducing lower-midrange frequencies, via the Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier amplifier. He began to use the Mesa/Boogie TriAxis preamplifer and Mesa/Boogie Strategy 400 poweramp, as he would continue to use live and in the studio to the current day. He also played around with Marshall amplifiers and the "hi-fi sounding" Wizard Modern Classic amplifier. He used this setup for recording the 1996 album Load, the 1997 album ReLoad, and the 1998 cover-songs album Garage Inc.. Garage Inc. in particular is rather prominent in the use of the Wizard amp.

For the recording of 2003's St. Anger, Hetfield had altered his tone again. He used his "live rack" equipment which consists of Mesa/Boogie TriAxis preamps and Mesa/Boogie Strategy 400 poweramps, but also used Marshall amplifiers, the Wizard vintage/modern, and the Diezel VH4. The St. Anger: Rehearsals DVD which accompanies the St. Anger album, as well as Metallica's covers of The Ramones songs "Commando", "53rd & 3rd", "Cretin Hop", and "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World", and Metallica's performance at the induction of the band Black Sabbath into the Hall of Fame, are good examples of the Diezel VH4 tone.

Hetfield is currently trialling the Krank Krankenstein and Revolution 1 amplifiers, along with his current rig of the Diezel VH4, Mesa/Boogie TriAxis preamp and Mesa/Boogie Strategy 400 poweramp, and Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier. He has also been seen using the Mesa/Boogie MarkIV amplifier in the studio.


SPEAKER CABINETS

Mesa Boogie 4x12" Speaker Cabinet & Marshall 4x12" Speaker cabinets


ACCESSORIES

Dunlop Custom Nylon Pick or dunlop tortex picks
Ernie Ball "Power Slinky" strings (extra heavy)



Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hetfield