James Hetfield hasn't done many interviews for Metallica's new 72 Seasons album, and he doesn't really need to; he says a lot in this hour-and-12-minute sit down with the band's So What! fanzine that you can watch below. And true to form of being increasingly candid as he's got older (and wiser), he comes clean about the creative approach in the band that's in sharp contrast to the one recently portrayed by former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted during his tenure.
"We opened up," Hetfield reveals. "I was much more ready to open my heart to everyone in the band: lyrically, emotionally, and creatively. I was really an advocate, going out of my way to say, 'Send in your riffs. We need stuff, c’mon,' you know?" It's a far cry from the Hetfield/Ulrich dynamic of Metallica's past songwriting and demo creation Newsted recently reflected on the Let There Be Talk podcast.
