Last year James Hetfield went to a rehabilitation clinic to fight alcohol addiction and now, months after being discharged, he is in a "very healthy place" and doing well, according to his Metallica Lars Ulrich.
In an interview with So What! (via Loudwire ), the drummer recounted how he found out about James's situation: “[In September 2019], two or three days after [doing] S&M2 , I was told that James had some issues, and that he needed to deal with them, and nobody at that point really knew what that meant. You know, what it would mean for him, what it meant for us, what it meant for our schedule, all that shit.”
Ulrich also mentions that because of the close relationship the band members have, they were concerned about James and his recovery, and said that they look out for each other and fight for each other. “I think we’re better [at handling situations like this] than we were ten years ago; ten years ago we were better at it than ten years before. So it’s all part of the journey forward.”
"I'm here on October 16th, I feel confident and excited about the state of Metallica, and I feel optimistic about what's to come."
It's worth remembering that the band was scheduled to perform in Brazil in December, but due to the pandemic, they may need to postpone the dates, possibly to the second half of 2021.
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