James Hetfield of Metallica on Straight Edge

I got a message from my cousin Bob today telling me about the new issue of So What, which is Metallica's fan club magazine. Bob told me that there was a piece in the mag with James Hetfield talking about his tattoos. What surprised the hell out of both of us was that James recently got himself a straight edge tattoo… yeah, you read the right, a straight edge tattoo. Here's a couple interesting excerpts from the interview. Thanks to Bob for scanning and sending this over to me. -Tim DCXX

SO WHAT: (Caught by a tattoo)… that's a new one, right? Sorry-

James: Straight edge? Yeah.

SO WHAT: You're not getting away with the last comment, incidentally. We'll have to go back to that. But anyways, the straight edge X.

James: Right. Well, straight edge, this was certainly a design of my own. You know, the old straight edge tattoo, it's just like a big X on your hand. No drinking, and I don't drink. It's like when you go into the clubs, they put and X on your hand…



SO WHAT: Right. It's because you haven't shown your ID.

James: And I don't need drink or drugs. That's straight edge life. Obviously I'm not straight edge - a true, hardcore straight edge has never had any of it in her or her whole life. But I'm a reborn straight edge.

SO WHAT: I always associated Minor Threat and Ian MacKaye and those guys with straight edge punk. That's what they were all about.

James: Absolutely. There's some hardcore people that are straight edge from birth. So this was my take on the straight edge X, you know? Straight razors. A straight edge, is what that was all about.