James Alan Hetfield

                                                                  James was born in USA in 1963. He have one brother and one sister.

In the early days, James wasn't confident with playing both guitar and vox. They tried out several varieties of guitar roles. Some of them was having another guitar player, or even having then lead guitar player Dave Mustaine on the sole guitar.

James was born in 1963, and his family was some kinda Christian's, so James' childhood was "extreme" in that way, and he don't wish anyone to go through what he did. This is the object of the text in the socalled "tortured soul lyrics". Musically he began in the age of 9 when he was taught playing the piano. After that he started banging on his brother David's drums in the garage.

He wanted to be a rock star when he started in his first band, Obsession. The band was consisting the Veloz brothers on bass and drums and  Jim Arnold on guitar. Some friends of the members of the group, Ron McGovney and Dave Marrs had the job to be their "roadies". This job were sitting on a chair and control the light effects on a mixing table. After Obsession broke up, James, Ron and Marrs continued jamming together.

James started another band after that. It was called Phantom lord.

After James moved to La Brea, he attended Brea Olinda High School and met up with drummer Jim Mulligan. They spoke with a guitarist in the lunch brake, but he was scared away when he heard their heavy sounds! They then discovered Hugh Tanner carrying around a part of a flying V guitar on the school. Then Phantom Lord was born.

They played for a couple of yrs until graduation, when James moved back to Downey. Then there were no more Phantom Lord... They were now Leather Charm.

Leather Charm played some originals, but most covers, like Quiet Riot's "Slick Black Cadillac" and Iron Maiden's "Remember Tomorrow". The group then started to fall apart, and after a while there were no Leather Charm. It was Leather Charm's break up that led James to Lars Ulrich....

James and Lars have allways been the main songwriters in Metallica.

To be continued....

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