Lars Ulrich explained to Revolver magazine that Metallica is far more in tune to their emotions today that when they started — and make a concerted effort to stay emotionally in touch with one another. Ulrich revealed, "Hugging your fellow bandmates is definitely something that we do enjoy along the way. And being open about our love for each other and our appreciation for each other and how grateful we are that 40-plus-years later we can still stumble along and make it happen."
He touched upon the band's May 12th, 2022 concert in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in which an emotional James Hetfield told the crowd he was dealing with a major bout of panic and insecurity before the show and explained how his bandmates helped him work through it.
Ulrich shed light on the situation, recalling, "James was quite open about it earlier in the day. We try to check in with each other as much as we can on a daily basis. We try to be open and transparent with each other. That’s in contrast to 30-something years ago when you were not allowed to have feelings because you were just a 20-year-old metal robot. . . But now, being comfortable with who we are in the aging process and all that stuff, you kind of go, 'Haha, wasn’t that really funny in that song when you f***ed that up?' Now, we laugh and joke about it. We celebrate the human qualities in that, and the fact that we are people going up there every night just trying to do our best."
James Hetfield told us a while back that connecting with others was always a challenge for him: ["Connecting with people has never been easy for me. I think the more that people know about me and my struggles, the easier it will be to connect with people. I've put myself out there, and if they choose to stomp on my heart, or to embrace it, that is up to them."] SOUNDCUE (:20 OC: . . . up to them)
