Popular Metal Musician Admits To Lifelong Impediment

Story by Casey Welsch 

| Published Sep 30, 2008

Many musicians harbor deep-seeded, dark and vile secrets.

Secrets like drug addiction, homosexuality, financial turmoil and enjoying the music of Britney Spears are all topics that many musicians try to keep bottled up.

James Hetfield, the singer and rhythm guitarist for popular thrash metal band Metallica, recently shared with the public one of his deepest, darkest secrets.

His entire life, he has been hiding a serious speech impediment.

“Ever since I was a young boy, after I got mauled by that rabid dog, something’s been wrong with my spee-cha!” Hetfield said. “I can’t utter a single phrase without ending it with a shouted tag on the en-da!”

Hetfield admitted to this vocal handicap at the press conference for the release of Metallica’s new album, “Death Magnetic.”

“I felt that it was time that I quit trying to cover up the problem with my voi-sah!” Hetfield said. “We had just made a fresh, new album, signed on a new bassist and gotten through a new tou-rah! I just figured that now might be a good time for me to start over anoo-wah!”

Although this shocking revelation is news to the public, the other members of Metallica have always known about Hetfield’s handicap.

“It was pretty damn obvious from the very get go,” said Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. “Back before we were a band, when James and Kirk were just hanging out with me to mooch off my record collection, James would always go, ‘Lars, I really dig this new Diamond Head recor-dah!’ I didn’t think much of it at the time, but as Metallica grew, it posed a bit of a challenge.”

According to Ulrich, Metallica was originally just going to be called Metallic, but because of Hetfield’s speech impediment, at the band’s first show, he shouted, “Good evening everyone, we are Metalli-cah!” And the name stuck.

“It started there and he just kept saying it,” Ulrich said. “So we just had to go with it. Once we realized that every single line of all our songs also ended with one of his little shouts, we had no choice but to build our sound around it.”

Hetfield realizes how his handicap has influenced the history of Metallica.

“I don’t really know what to think about i-tah!” Hetfield said. “I know that we would be a completely different band if I could just sing normally, but I guess that my retardation is part of what makes us u-sah!”

Hetfield also said that metal wasn’t his preferred genre of music when he was growing up, but the aggressiveness of his impediment forced him away from the music he adored.

“I always wanted to be a soul singe-rah!” Hetfield said. “But because of the growl that this retardation puts in my voice, I couldn’t croon like Ray or James or Curti-sah!”

Upon this realization, Hetfield thought he would never be a singer, so he picked up guitar.

“I thought to myself, ‘who would want to listen to a band with me as a singe-rah!?’” Hetfield said.

“But low and behold, it turned out that there were millions of people out there who could put up with my retardation and embrace our musi-cah!”

It is entirely possible that without Hetfield’s vocal retardation, Metallica would never have formed.

There are surgeries available that could fix his voice, but he doesn’t think that would be entirely wise.

“I don’t know what I’d do if I had something done or if I woke up one day and all of a sudden I couldn’t sing anymore,” Hetfield said. “That would be awefu-lah!”