More than two decades have passed since James Hetfield-led Metallica released 2003 album “St. Anger.” It has been noted that it has continued to divide their fanbase. Some fans continue to argue that the record is best left forgotten, others admit that the controversial effort started to grow on them over time and, with some better production and editing skills, it could be a modern classic.
James Hetfield trolls the fans
In a live clip from earlier this year that recently surfaced on YouTube, frontman James Hetfield playfully tested the audience in that regard, asking them:
“Question for you. You can honestly answer it to the best of your knowledge. ‘St. Anger?'”
To which he was showered with loud boos from the crowd. In another video, James concluded a song off the album live, saying:
“That’s from your favorite album, ‘St. Anger.'”
After spotting a negative reaction from the audience, Hetfield added with good humor:
“Aw, come on, it’s growing on you now. Just give it a little more time, buddy — you’ll get it! Alright…eight more songs from ‘St. Anger’.”
Robert Trujillo recalls how he nearly blew his chance with Ozzy Osbourne
Long before Robert Trujillo was in Metallica or in Ozzy Osbourne’s band, he was opening for Ozzy with his funk-metal side project Infectious Grooves.
Opening for Ozzy was a huge opportunity for the band, but Trujillo told Revolver that, in his excitement, he nearly blew it on the first night.
“We had a beer and we’re like creeping around backstage as Ozzy’s playing,” he said. “And it’s dark — and I tripped over a pile of cables. I basically fell [into the] connectors for the monitors, the power lines and everything — and I knocked out the power to the monitor system! It was like slow motion: I see myself falling … and I’m knocking out like three of the input jacks, and all of the sudden the power’s out onstage.”
One of Ozzy’s crew saw what happened and leaped into action to reconnect the wires before it could ruin the show. Trujillo was sure he was busted and that was the end of Infectious Grooves’ tour:
“I was like, ‘Oh, man, we’re going home,” he recalled. “I went into the catering and I was trying to just play it off. …And Ozzy’s tour manager came behind me and he was really nice about it, luckily. He put his arm around me and said, ‘Robert, did you knock out the power to the monitor rig?’ And then I said, ‘Yes.’
“And he goes, ‘OK, don’t do that again, please.’ I go, ‘Are we going home?’ And he goes, ‘No, just don’t do that again. … You’re lucky. Ozzy thinks that there was a power outage in Austin.’ …It was a cursed first gig. Welcome to the world of Ozzy Osbourne.”
