JASON NEWSTED On Rock-Band Therapy: Certain People Are Not Made To Be Opened Up And Exposed

June 20, 2004

The June 20 edition of The New York Times Magazine contains a long and revealing article about the making of METALLICA's $4.3-million documentary "Some Kind of Monster" that features brand-new interviews with many of the parties involved in the making of the film, including the bandmembers themselves, the filmmakers and the group's now-former therapist. Several interview quotes from the article follow:

Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted on the fact that he considers the idea of rock-band therapy to be a little ridiculous:

"Something that's really important to note — and this isn't pointed at anyone — is something I knew long before I met James Hetfield or anyone else. Certain people are made to be opened up and exposed. Certain people are not. I'll leave it at that."

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett on the fact that and the band's massive success — and the means through which they achieved it — meant they never had to mature intellectually past the age of 19:

''I think most people in rock bands have arrested development. Society doesn't demand people in rock bands do certain things. You're able to start drinking whenever you want, and you can play shows drunk, and you can get offstage and continue to be drunk, and people love it. They toast their glasses to an artist who's drunk and breaking things and screaming and wrestling in the middle of a restaurant. Things like that happened to us, and people cheered."

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich on a scene in the film — footage described by James Hetfield as "downright embarrassing" — of Lars sipping Champagne and selling his collection of modern artwork at a Christie's auction for $13.4 million:

"Art is my passion. It just so happens that art operates in those kind of high financial neighborhoods. If people find that distasteful or obnoxious, I can't control that. If you're going to paint a portrait of the people in METALLICA, that has to play a role, because that is who I am. And if people want to focus on the financial elements of art instead of the creative elements of art, I can't control that either."

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