James Hetfield says Metallica is made up of “average” musicians

nme.com:

Metallica are “average” musicians.In a new interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine, the Metallica vocalist said “I know individually, we’re all really average players.”He went on to claim that something special happens when the four of them team up though. “When you put us together, something happens,” he explained. “Something really happens.”Last December, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said he wasn’t “qualified” to play with Rush at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert.At the first show – which took place at Wembley Stadium on Saturday September 3, paying tribute to the late Foo Fighters drummer – Ulrich joined AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and the Foos’ surviving members to perform a pair of the former band’s hits: ‘Back In Black’ and ‘Let There Be Rock’.

Then, in LA, he joined Sebastian Bach, Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler and the Foos to perform ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Supernaut’.“I mean, I love Rush,” said Ulrich. “But if they had said, ‘Come up and play ‘2112’ with Alex [Lifeson] and Geddy [Lee], I’d go, ‘I think there’s somebody more qualified to do that than me.’”“Straying outside of the Metallica world is not the most comfortable thing,” he continued. “I think a big part of why we just love staying inside the Metallica universe is because there’s that safety in numbers, and we just support each other and have that thing.”Elsewhere in the interview with Cigar Aficionado, Hetfield said: “Early shows were really difficult— I was so shy.

I didn’t want to talk. I’d have the other guys in the band introduce the songs. [Now] I feel so comfortable up there, it’s so weird.

Sitting down one-on-one with someone is a lot more anxiety ridden than standing up in front of 10,000 people, 20,000 people.”“As we get older, we would love to continue.