Metallica’s James Hetfield Calls Guitar Hero a “Gateway Drug”: Inside the Band’s New Game
A week before James Hetfield and Co. are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the metal icons’ Guitar Hero: Metallica videogame hits stores, on March 29. The new addition to the GH franchise boasts 28 controller-shredding songs taken from Metallica’s voluminous catalog as well as band-approved acts including Motorhead, Slayer and Mastodon (check out our sneak preview here!). Rolling Stone sat down with frontman James Hetfield at SXSW a few hours before Metallica’s epic “surprise” show to find out how he likes his pixellated persona, whether he thinks Death Magnetic sounds better on videogame or record and if he believes encouraging kids to pick up plastic instruments is hurting their chances of learning real ones.
Which member of Metallica is the best at playing Guitar Hero?
Oh, I don’t know. I think we’re all equally bad.
As a guitarist, how are you at using the guitar controller?
The initial thought was, “This is gonna be so easy.” And then I picked it up and tried doing it. And it was like [makes plunking sound]. “Are you kidding me? You guys suck! You’re supposed to follow me!”
