Metallica's James Hetfield Has Written "Tons Of Material" In Quarantine

It's been a couple of months now since Lars Ulrich confirmed that Metallica were working on new music in lockdown, and it sounds as though frontman James Hetfield has had a particularly fruitful quarantine, revealing that he has written "tons of material".

Speaking to SiriusXM (via Blabbermouth), Papa Het explained how the band are "road dogs" – and so when they're not touring and playing music live, the next best thing to do is write new material.

"…The obvious thing is, 'Well, we're not on the road. Start writing,'" he says. "So, [I've written] tons of material. And I'm sure there's lots of musicians out there that are just, like, 'Okay, what can I do? I'm gonna write and just get into that,' which I love doing."

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The frontman continues of how else he's been spending his time lately: "I'd say the other huge thing that's come out of this is getting to stay home in my hometown here [in Colorado], so [I've been] building community with friends, doing outdoor stuff. We're pretty fortunate here up in the mountains that COVID hasn't really locked us down as much as some other places. And I feel for the people that live in the big cities. But out here, you can still get out, bike ride, raft, fishing, shooting, hunting – whatever it is.

"I've got lots of friends here that I couldn't have before, so [I've been] hosting barbecues and having people over and building a community with friends that I wasn't really able to do before. ’Cause, 'Oh, I can't do that, ’cause we've gotta go next week. We've gotta rehearse. We've gotta do that.' So, [I've] actually [been] taking time to build true friendships. Not that I don't have them, but locally, it's been a huge thing for me. And getting in the garage. I love getting in the garage and just tinkering, doing some more welding. I welded a couple of things for the All Within My Hands Foundation… I've made some bird feeders. I'm right now staring out the window at about 50 different birds that come up here and eat. That's kind of my new TV right here. So, just enjoying nature a lot more and enjoying my life the way it is now."

Metallica’s S&M2 is out now – order CD, vinyl and limited edition deluxe boxsets here.

Read this: Album review: Metallica – S&M2