METALLICA Frontman Says He Is 'A Reborn Straight-Edge'

The latest issue of So What!, the official METALLICA fan club magazine, features a brand new interview with the band's frontman, James Hetfield, in which he discusses his tattoos. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

So What!: (Caught by a tattoo)… that's a new one, right? Sorry-

Hetfield: Straight edge? Yeah.

So What!: You're not getting away with the last comment, incidentally. We'll have to go back to that. But anyways, the straight-edge X.

Hetfield: Right. Well, straight edge, this was certainly a design of my own. You know, the old straight-edge tattoo, it's just like a big X on your hand. No drinking, and I don't drink. It's like when you go into the clubs, they put and X on your hand…

So What!: Right. It's because you haven't shown your ID.

Hetfield: And I don't need drink or drugs. That's straight-edge life. Obviously I'm not straight edge — a true, hardcore straight-edge has never had any of it in her or her whole life. But I'm a reborn straight-edge.

So What!: I always associated MINOR THREAT and Ian MacKaye and those guys with straight-edge punk. That's what they were all about.

Hetfield: Absolutely. There's some hardcore people that are straight edge from birth. So this was my take on the straight-edge X, you know? Straight razors. A straight edge is what that was all about.

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