James Hetfield on Overcoming Mental Health Struggles

Metallica frontman James Hetfield recently discussed his struggles with mental health in a recent interview with Steffan Chirazi.  James spoke candidly about his time spent in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic and how it served to improve his mental health.

The Metallica vocalist discussed his experiences with mental illness and how treatment and rehabilitation benefited him. Seeking accountability, he began to take control of his life.

“The feelings of 2020, early spring of 2020… for me, there was a rebirth again, realizing my life was needing some help. Going away to rehab, putting the halt on some band stuff again out of personal health, mental health reasons, you know? That takes priority, even though I just want to keep running and let the band just keep going and run away from problems. I needed to deal with stuff. A lot of rawness at that point. It’s really difficult when there’s so much stuff going on around you in the rest of your life to take time for yourself, to get yourself at least to a point where you feel like you’re functioning. And for me, it hasn’t been easy at times to just shut out the rest of the world.”

Despite the chaos the pandemic brought to everyone, the singer reflected a lot within himself and urged others to take time for introspection, which he said had been essential in his own progress and rehabilitation.

“And then, obviously, when the pandemic happened, it was – and I want to word this right because it was horrible, absolutely horrible for many people – in a strange way, it was kind of a silver lining for me. I was able to put the brakes on life and really take some time to embrace my needs at that time. So yeah, not discounting all of the terrible things that were happening at that point. It was just a timely thing that happened, and I can see the [positivity] in it for myself.”