Being the "Quiet Kid" Is a Curse… Until You Learn This | James Hetfield

I was pretty much afraid of everything. Afraid of the world, afraid of speaking, you know, really, really shy kid.

So yeah, we went to a place that no one spoke English, or people were telling us, you know, I learned English from your lyrics. Like, oh shit, man.

Hello, Believe Nation! My name is Evan Carmichael. My one word is believe, and I believe that entrepreneurs will solve all of the world's major problems. So to help you on your journey today, we're going to learn from the co-founder and main songwriter for Metallica, James Hetfield, and my take on his top 10 rules rules for success. Rule number 10 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. And as always, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it in the comments below. Put quotes around it so other people can be inspired. You might win a prize as well. And also, when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick for yourself as well. Enjoy!

¡Hola! I was pretty much afraid of everything. Afraid of the world, afraid of speaking, you know, really, really shy kid. Music was a way to speak. As simple as that. I could either just journal, write poetry, write just whatever was in my head, and sit down, drum a few chords, and put that together, and that's me. That's me telling the world about me when I can't do it on my own. So music was the voice I didn't have.

I wanted to talk to you about, like, there's a transition that very successful people make, and either they make it or they don't, and the transition is to go from being hungry and filled with all this angst to being like, stupid wealthy and famous, but still keeping your art relevant. Like, how do you do that?

We're super competitive people. We're really perfectionists and we hate to let each other down. There is a— there's always a better riff coming. There's always a better album. Maybe there's the never satisfied part to us that will keep us going till we die. You know, there's always the ultimate lyric that's going to connect to everyone in the world or something. There is always a better something that we haven't got yet.

How do you stay grounded? How do you do it?

Well, I've got a— I got a wife that kicks my ass, first of all. Kids that tell it like it is, you know. That to me is love right there, when your kids, you know, Dad, you're being a jerk, you know. I love that. That's what helps me a lot. Family certainly does that. I think the guys in the band too. We all keep each other in check. Like, you know, dude, is that limo a little too long? Come on. I mean, you know, just goofy things like that. We try and keep each other real. So I think not surrounding ourselves with yes-men too, which can really just totally distort your reality.

Most things in life that are worthwhile, you got to work at. You got to work at.

You get out what you put in.

As simple as that. That's a kind of a universal law. So yeah, it's not pick up the guitar and go, haha, which I've done, you know, in front of the mirror lots, you know, hey, I'm really good. And you got to have that attitude too, but it does take work. It does take, uh, you know, some dedication, you know. But if you love doing it, it's not as hard as it could be if you're, you know, you're doing something that's not— you're not as interested in.

How many people have a dream when they're kids of being a rock star? How many people get to be in Metallica?

It's crazy, dude.

I wake up every day and think I'm friggin' blessed. I mean, this is unbelievable. What— if I complain once today, punch me in the face, you know? This is stupid, you know?

Exactly.

This is stupid that I would complain about something. But I tell you, it is hard at times being on the road doing stuff, and when you don't want to do stuff, you do it. But then you find something, you find someone, you find a thing thing, and it's usually someone in the crowd that's just, you know, I see myself right there. It's like, I'm that kid right there at the Motorhead concert looking up at Lemmy going, this is fucking awesome. And so I just suck that energy and go, all right, this is, this is all I need. This is all I need right now.

What do you most credit with the success, the ongoing, the continued success of Metallica? If there's one thing that is really the core of that.

Honesty, for sure. Honesty. Whether it's in some kind of monster movie or the music or a live show, being honest. At the show last night, the one intro ends, intro to one, I go out and I start playing Fade to Black. It's like, what the hell? And me realizing and getting that wave of shame, Oh my God, you're an idiot. And they're like, all right, just laugh at it 'cause it's kind of funny. And what else are you gonna do, you know? And then start this one song and then later talk about it. So being honest about it is so freeing. Being honest with each other, with ourselves, you know. We're 53, what's it look like? What are we gonna do? How long can we tour, you know? What's gonna, you know, how can we stay healthy and happy, you know? So being honest with each other.

I think being on stage is a different hat. It's a different mindset. It's a different space. It's, to me, time stops. There's no pain. There's, it's like, you know, when people, artists talk about being in the zone, that is the zone. I can get in that zone Even here, just sitting playing and forget you guys are here. It somehow the world goes away, whether that's good or bad. It's difficult to come out of sometimes.

But, you know, that's the curse of it.

But the blessing is there is that focus and there is that sense of purpose, sense of being, sense of communication, sense of creation. There's this like, that's a reason. That's a reason I'm here. There's times when I haven't played for a couple weeks and my wife will say, "God, you're grumpy. Go play guitar." It's like, "Oh yeah." And I'll go and I'll play and then, "Oh, I feel better now." It's just what it is. It's a part of me. It's like I gotta have it, you know?

It's my coffee in the morning too.

And it's my chill in the evening.

Do you still get nervous before you play a show?

I'm nervous right now.

Yes.

I'm, you know, my theory is if you're not nervous, then something's wrong, 'cause there's some intense stuff about to happen. And yeah, there's a little, there's always the jitters before you go out. And we have our little huddle and kind of calm each other down and, you know, say, hey, whatever happens is supposed to happen. So, you know, We try not to take ourselves too seriously, but yeah, we're nervous because it's a big deal and it's, you know, it's important. Every little thing that we've done in our careers, anything that's maybe gotten our way or showed up on our pathway, we thought, wow, this is great, this is the coolest, we've made it, you know, we're on tour, we have a bus, or we have a record, or we're on someone else's big tour. There's been so many great little successes along the whole way. And I'd say after 36 years, still loving and caring for what we do and seeing the great results from it, it's a— it's a more than any dream that we could have dreamt that's come true for us. We played in front of half a million people and half a million people. Yeah. And where was that? This was in Russia. This was a an airfield.

Oh my God.

So we've done that.

What the fuck was that like?

It was a sea of Russian people. I mean, that's what it was.

That's insane.

This was in 1991. '91 when the curtain came down and all of that. And Time Warner had a— they wanted to basically get their foot in the door. And so they created a free concert. It was AC/DC, us, Pantera, and I think maybe a local band or some other bands. I'm sorry if I can't remember, but they flew us in there. We landed in this airfield. Oh, Mötley Crüe was on it. Landed in this airfield, and as far as the eye could see, it was a free concert, and it was just people. And we get on stage and do what we do. But there were— it was military, you know, military in the front.

Jesus Christ, look at that photo. Holy shit. Holy shit. Jamie, go full screen with that. Just go with that one. What in the fuck? Oh my God. That's insane.

Is that it?

Is that the one?

That might be something else, but it looks a little newer, but it says here it was from '91 Moscow.

So, wow. Yeah, pretty remarkable. And there were— dude, imagine the sea of people like that. And see, there's a helicopter, helicopter flying over people. Oh my God, what if that thing goes down, man? Oh, they could be chopping up all kinds of photos.

Look at that, go right up there, that one on stage facing those people. Oh my God, that is insane.

And that helicopter would come down close and they were yelling at people like, stop! You know, people were moshing or going crazy. They didn't know what that was.

Oh, they're like, oh out. They thought it was like a fight.

They're freaking communist country, man. And they're like, wait a minute, people are getting out of order. This is chaos.

They didn't have the internet then either.

No way. They didn't know what to expect of that. So there are people throwing, you know, hitting people from the helicopter. And down in the front there, there were guys in uniforms, you know, it was, you know, police, military, same thing, you know. So they're standing there in their uniforms and after like 3 or 4 songs, they're like, Fuck this. And they took off their stuff and they're out there headbanging and having a good time. So we saw the transformation of, you know, a closed-down society to freedom right before us, individually in people. It was awesome.

Wow.

Yeah.

What does it feel like to stand in front of 500,000 people? What is the sound like? What is the sound of their roars like?

Pretty massive. Obviously, you know, I lost count at, I don't know, 300-something thousand. But I tell you, and they don't speak your language. That's just such a— that's the power of music, man. That's a language in its own. It connects people. It is so cool. So yeah, we went to a place that no one spoke English or people were telling us 'You know, I learned English from your lyrics.' Like, oh shit, man. I failed English, just so you know. I didn't do so well in school, but—

Wow.

It's pretty bizarre.

Yeah.

That's intense.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Fade2Games asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, check out the link in the description and you can go and cast your vote. I'd also love to know which clip resonated the most with you. What lesson are you gonna take from this video and immediately apply to your life or to your business somehow? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm really curious to find out what you have to say. I also wanna give a quick shout out to the Lonely Bookineer. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and posting posting the review on your YouTube channel. I really, really appreciate the support, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed my book.

In this video, I'll be talking about the book Your One Word by Evan Carmichael.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love.

I'll see you soon. Me and a buddy growing up in school, John Zander was his name, we would try and top each other, you know, every day. Like, hey, look what I learned. And then, oh, well, look what I got.

And they're like, oh damn.

And I'd go back and learn something else. And then he'd go, ah. So the great, you know, high school competition, you know, got us to another level, which was great. And then at some point it was like, wow, you know, the guys I'm playing with, I need to play with better players. And I was writing, I wanted to, I wrote some songs, they didn't like them. They just wanted to play covers. And then I kind of decided, well, I got to start playing with other people.

So right then I kind of knew that I was on a quest.

I wanted to get better. And some friends didn't understand that. They just, you know, why don't you, you know, just hang out with us? And I was on a quest to go, go places. I think it was my Sophomore year, I went back to high school the summertime to gear up, start playing football again. And I had long hair at that point, and the coach said, you have to get a haircut. And I said, yeah, but Eddie Van Halen's got long hair and Michael Shanker's got long hair. I want to play football and have long hair.

You can't do it.

So right then, it was one of those forks in the road that was pretty pivotal in my life that I had no clue about. And I kind of just said, well, you know, screw this. Do I want to be second strings, you know, playing football, or do I want to be up on stage, you know, with a mission, you know, speaking through music? I didn't know it at the time, but it was pretty much the right choice.