Hetfield highlights his best of 2015

James Hetfield has published a handwritten list of his favourite things that happened to him in 2015.

The Metallica frontman cites staying alive, watching his children grow up, having fans join him onstage at numerous concerts and shooting a sniper out a moving helicopter among his best memories of the year.

His favourite music moments included Baroness’s upcoming album Purple, getting his “best” guitar sound yet, Pepper Keenan’s return to Corrosion of Conformity, meeting Robert Plant – and Justin Bieber being photographed wearing a Metallica T-shirt.

The pop star faced backlash on social media from metal fans after appearing on the Ellen Show wearing the top last month, as well as posting a photo of himself wearing it on Instagram in June.

But Metallica said in a 2013 interview with Q Magazine that they were fans of the singer.

Hetfield said: “Are we Beliebers? Yes.”

Drummer Lars Ulrich added: “Is it possible to have respect for him without being a Belieber? I think the kid’s really talented and obviously to go through what he’s going through at that early age must be a mindfuck. So the fact that he still goes out there and does it, I admire that and I think he’s super talented, so I guess I am kind of a Belieber.”

Hetfield confirmed in October that the band were back in the studio recording their 10th album – their first effort since 2008’s Death Magnetic.

They’ll release the book Metallica: Back To The Front in 2016, celebrating the 30th anniversary of third album Master of Puppets.

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Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.