METALLICA Frontman Talks To ROCK 105.3 Backstage At California's 'Big Four' Festival (Video)

April 26, 2011

San Diego, California rock station Rock 105.3 conducted an interview with METALLICA frontman James Hetfield backstage at this past Saturday's (April 23) "Big Four" concert at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California. You can now watch the chat below.

The all-day festival featured the so-called "Big Four" bands of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, SLAYER, ANTHRAX and MEGADETH — sharing the stage in the U.S. for the first time ever, drawing an estimated 50,000 people.

METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo told Palm Springs, California radio station KCLB-FM on Saturday that the band will work with producer Rick Rubin again on the follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic" album, Rubin's first collaboration with the group. Trujillo explained, "Yeah. I love working with Rick. Rick, to me, he's sort of a Zen guru spirit that METALLICA needs right now . . . The first album with Rick was also the first album for me, so in a lot of ways, you're kind of testing the water. Now that we're comfortable with Rick and his incredible engineer, Greg Fidelman . . . it's a great team. And it's only gonna better; I really believe that."

METALLICA decided to work with Rubin on "Death Magnetic" after making five albums over 15 years with producer Bob Rock. Drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio at the time why the band switched to the Grammy-winning Rubin. "Rick, you know, between the [RED HOT] CHILI PEPPERS and AUDIOSLAVE and SYSTEM [OF A DOWN] and SLIPKNOT and what else, I mean, it's sort of like, okay, I mean, he's the obvious guy. He comes up with some great ideas and has a whole different way of looking at METALLICA than Bob, which is not anything about Bob obviously, but it comes from a very different place and it's really revitalized some different things in us."

Meanwhile, Trujillo also said on Saturday that METALLICA is "really excited to write some new music. There's no shortage of riffage in METALLICA world right now . . . I know that we've got another couple (of records) in us. And I think there's a demand." The band has hinted at going into the studio next month, although it is not clear whether they will actually be starting work on a new album.

METALLICA will bring the "Big Four" tour to Europe in July, and is also confirmed to perform on July 16 at the 44th edition of Festival d'été de Québec in Canada.

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