Metallica were the tough guy's tough guys. They were angry. They played the most aggressive music around. They drank stupid amounts of booze. And they sure as hell didn't talk about their feelings.

But then bassist Jason Newsted walked in 2001 and the devastated band started wondering what went wrong. In came a man named Phil Towle, ostensibly to help the group make it through the rough time that followed Newsted's departure. What happened, though, was once the bandmembers started talking, they realized they hadn't done that — talked — in their 20-year history. During this process, frontman James Hetfield decided he needed to go to rehab, and Metallica nearly broke up.

There to document all the drama were filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. The result is Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett, bassist Robert Trujillo as well as Berlinger and Sinofsky sat down with MTV News' John Norris to discuss the film and all the pain and joy that came along with it.


John Norris: At least initially, you seemed to be the member of the band most resistant to the idea of Phil Towle coming on board, as well as to a film crew capturing it all. Would you say that's true, and did your feelings about therapy and the film crew change as time went on?

James Hetfield: There is truth to that. I had been in therapy before that, so when management called up and said, "Hey, we've got some guy that can maybe diffuse the Jason bomb, let's deal with it," I was very open to it. I was open to dealing with Jason, though, not dealing with me.

Norris: Would you say that it was the experience of therapy and the work with Phil that more than anything prompted you to take all that time off and go to rehab?

Hetfield: Phil came in, he was an angel, I totally believe that. He showed up in our lives at the right time. And he started cracking us, and once the crack started, you could not stop it. And it became more individual. And it went back a week, it went back a year, it went back to childhood. And I knew there were demons, there were things I had to get out and get rid of.

Norris: When you were off dealing with everything you had to deal with, were you giving any thought to the future of the band and whether or not you would return to it?

Hetfield: When I left I had no idea what was gonna happen. I certainly thought, "Oh, I'll be back, there's no reason to not come back." In rehab, I learned that I had to completely unplug from my musical family and just strip down to my soul and rebuild. It was somewhat of a personal, selfish process; I couldn't worry about what other people were thinking at that point. And I had to get healthy for me to come back into those other places. I had to communicate with me, because I hadn't done that in years. Being in this band, we learned to shut up and not communicate. That's how we survived. We weren't gonna be a Guns N' Roses. They let everything out and let everybody know. So we were going to just shut up. And we had to stop shutting up.

Norris: And when you came back, you had definite boundaries that you set for the amount of time and energy you were going to give to the band. Have you continued to set boundaries and does the band accept that?

Hetfield: "Freedom through structure" is what I've learned. And I never thought it was possible. My personality needs that. I need structure even though I hate it. Because I felt manipulated. I felt at the mercy of others ... what if we have an idea at 3 a.m.? Well, then we have an idea at 3 a.m. You don't have to be in the studio to capture it. There was more than just the band in my life, and I had priorities.

It was tough coming back in the band. This is a career that has the potential to kill me. How do I survive in this? Can I survive in this? So I had to start with baby steps. Let's get together for a few hours, you need to learn the new me. I'm a different puzzle piece, I don't fit the way I used to fit. And it took that assertiveness to really get all of my life together. I totally understand Lars' point of view of "Hey, this is rock and roll. No boundaries. Let's go crazy." But that's how I got in trouble in my life.

Norris: Has sobriety been difficult to maintain? These guys are still drinking around you, right?

Hetfield: Yeah. There are times when I can deal with it just fine. And other times where it's like, "Man, I can't be here right now." And that's OK, I'll go somewhere else. I don't want to limit other people.

Norris: How do you respond to those people who may say, "Therapy and rehab? This is not Metallica. What happened to these guys? They've gone soft on us."

Hetfield: You know what? This is us. We are Metallica, and we have to let things happen the way they happen. We don't alter our course for other people.

Norris: You say at one point in the movie that you had to come back to the band prepared to walk away from it.

Hetfield: I think it's one of those things where you have to know that you can leave to really understand why you're there. You have to leave home to see home. When I left I had to learn that if Metallica is not for me anymore, I won't die. That would not be pleasant, maybe; it would be difficult without my brothers. But I think they all dealt with it in their own way as well. I think it made us stronger.

Norris: Do you think even someone who isn't a fan of the band can enjoy this movie?

Hetfield: Whoever embraces it, let them embrace it. It's about relationships, not just about the band. And it busts the myth of the perfect rock idol. Because there's no such thing.