0:00
Take a second and just listen to like how quiet it is.
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0:06
All I hear is All I hear is Thank God for this music called heavy metal.
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The biggest snake pit you've ever created.
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I don't know which microphone I'm supposed to go to.
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Hey, pay attention to this, okay? This is church.
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This is where tens of thousands of people come to worship at the altar of heavy metal and the best ever do it, Metallica.
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When it's empty, this is an alien space.
0:54
When it's full, this is where Metallica belong in Amsterdam, IX stadium, day one, M72 tour.
1:14
So, Zane, did you see our new toy? Oh, it's a new toy.
1:16
Look at it, isn't it pretty? It's a great new toy. new toy. It's awesome. Giant donut. Yeah. Big chocolate donut. Yeah. You know what it is?
1:26
It is it's so clean and so beautiful looking and to see the effort that your crew put into making it feel so compact given the size of it kind of blows me away.
1:37
It's It's almost an illusion. I know how big it is.
1:43
I saw the looks on your faces when you walked in.
1:46
Well, yeah, 14 times around is a quarter mile. One mile. Really? It's a mile? put lots of miles on it.
1:56
No wonder I'm more tired.
1:57
Somebody somebody said the other day that the stages that we played indoors on from '17 to '19 could fit in the snake pit. In the snake pit. Yeah, yeah, it's insane. That's pretty crazy.
2:08
It's It's It is beautiful to look at though like this and um it really drives home the fact that a lot of the power of a Metallica show is concealed and left to you to bring the power.
2:19
So, I think about like what I would normally see at a rock show, the presence of amplifiers, cords, all those things.
2:25
I'm trying to remember when you first removed that as a part of the show.
2:30
Do you remember what tour it was when you started to conceal that?
2:35
Yeah, it's It was the Black Album tour and the snake pit stage.
2:36
That was pretty much our first first venture into going into doing something completely different with the live show. Yeah.
2:46
Cuz we had you know that we had the diamond stage with the snake pit in the middle, but it wasn't in in the middle of the arena.
2:53
It was like 2/3 set back and all the backline was underneath of us. Yeah.
2:59
It's so cool when you see it like this and you realize like just how much flexibility and movement it gives you.
3:06
Normally, you're pretty s- dark, stand still behind it, you know, a drum kit and perhaps it's going to move around in a in a circular motion.
3:13
Everything's moving around you.
3:13
You got four of these things on the stage.
3:15
What was the thinking behind that?
3:19
Well, I mean actually does like Kirk bought up it I mean goes back to the Black Album was the first time where we started kind of with a concept and how can we do it do it differently?
3:29
Um and on that tour there was a drum kit on either side.
3:31
Uh subsequently, I think on the Load tour, uh we had two stages.
3:38
Uh one at either end of the arena with a drum kit on each of them and then I think on uh what St.
3:43
Anger we had a stage that kind of spun around.
3:47
Death Magnetic, something else.
3:49
I mean, we've always loved uh toying with and with the configuration.
3:54
Uh but when we played indoors, uh we've always loved try to be in the in the middle of the arena, but then the opposite of that is when we played festivals or played stadiums or or even smaller places or whatever, we'd be one in.
4:09
So, the whole thing is always about screwing with the configuration and always trying to play in a different setup.
4:14
Um But obviously, we've never done four drum kits and uh we've been here a few days trying to get the practicals of that figured out and uh Jimmy uh my long-suffering tech has put in a hell of a Yeah.
4:28
a hell of a week and he's on the day where he could have been or sitting down in the canal district somewhere or like Figuring out how he can hand in his resignation and preserve the friendship. Right.
4:38
And hire four other guys.
4:38
One per kit or s- good hands. Jimmy, have some help.
4:44
No, I don't want to have some It's too much for me to do by myself. Well, have some help.
4:47
No, I want to do it by myself. It's that whole thing.
4:50
But it's it's something to protect.
4:50
It's you know, this is the crew that's written with you for a long time you know, not enough conversation is is had about the people that ensure that when you go on that stage, you get to do the best you can do without thinking about all that stuff.
5:05
You know, it's unsung hero work.
5:08
It's very much unsung hero work and you know, from the first sketches of an idea of this toy, you know, you know, designing, practicality, sonically, visually, how does it all come together?
5:27
You know, first of all, it is about the songs, portraying the songs the best they can be possible.
5:32
So, PA very important, visuals in a big place like this very important and obviously, our comfort on a stage and the place I think we feel most comfortable is as close as possible to the audience, you know.
5:48
So, this whole idea, you know, uh our road crew, you know, they're they're hanging out in in in the trenches around the outside, you know, it's like where do you put these guys, you know?
5:59
They're right out there with the people, too.
6:02
So, they're probably getting stuff thrown at them or asking questions.
6:06
Well, real hardcore fans will know who they are and grab For sure.
6:11
Giving away their own Yeah, yeah.
6:13
I follow you on Instagram.
6:15
Yeah, whatever it is, but Nice little black market for used sticks going on down in the front row there. Side hustle.
6:23
I need to get a piece of that.
6:26
But the whole idea is to make this feel Yeah. like an arena.
6:28
I still look at this and and think this is not a stadium. It's so crazy. This is not a stadium.
6:35
when I walk into stadiums like this and I see everything set up before people are in it, it it it feels intimate.
6:38
It does feel big when there's people in it.
6:41
And wait till we get to America because the first thing that dawned upon me was that in America where we're playing basically all NFL stadiums, the sides are tighter because an NFL field is narrower than a European football pitch.
6:55
So, in all the American gigs that start in August, the sides are going to be kind of where that orange line is.
7:00
So, there's going to be a deeper sense of intimacy with the audience because it is more like a bowl like where a lot of the European stadiums are more like this. So.
7:09
I'm so happy to be here to see you guys here at the start of this tour.
7:13
This feels like a a leap forward.
7:13
That's what I love about being here.
7:16
Like you're about to embark on another adventure.
7:19
And I think And I think about expectation. I know what we expect.
7:25
The ticket holders, we want the show of our lives.
7:26
We want it to be the best show of the tour every single night, right?
7:29
I wonder how you've kind of been able to manage that through a lifetime of expectation, taking that really seriously every night. We want the same. We want the same. We're fans, too.
7:40
We're the four biggest fans of Metallica in the world sitting right here.
7:45
We want it to be the best for us selfishly, but also for the people who support us and the family as we call them, come here and you know, shake off shake off the COVID or whatever they got you know, going on in their lives to come here.
8:02
You know, as you as you look out here, you see this is designed around the audience.
8:08
To get audience in the middle, on the sides and everywhere.
8:10
They're a huge part of our show.
8:14
Well, we are Metallica and so are you. Exactly. is the line.
8:17
I mean, that's that stakes it right away.
8:18
And they're you know, again, we get to look at them.
8:21
They're they're they're the show for us. They're looking at us.
8:25
You know, we get to watch them do their thing and morph and change and hopefully leave happier than they came in. Definitely.
8:32
So, let's get inside the experience then seeing as how we're pre-experience that moment, the ecstasy of gold.
8:38
You've heard it how many times in your life?
8:40
I almost played it when you walked in here, but I don't want to give you an anxiety attack. It would.
8:45
Actually, it was on TV just a couple weeks ago and I just flipped on the TV just to have some noise in the You're supposed to be like, "Let's go!" Absolutely.
8:55
And we were right in that scene, you know, where two cars running through the graveyard and oh my god, it even just doing that goosebumps, you know? It's connected to us.
9:09
So, uh I can only imagine what the fan feels when they hear that.
9:13
Well, you can hear it cuz we all sing it back to you.
9:16
What You know, it's as our our manager said, it's like a calling. It is.
9:23
You know, when you hear that, It is.
9:25
you know, it's it's revving up the engines, you know. Metallica is imminent. Yeah, you're here. You're in the building. It's happened.
9:32
It's a part of the experience of a fan of knowing we're about to do something here.
9:35
Has that feeling changed for you pre-show when that music plays and you know the show's about to start?
9:41
Is it the same sense of anxiety, excitement?
9:46
Yeah, you know, it's a real mixture of emotions, but it's it's always a huge shot of adrenaline, at least for myself.
9:56
And you know, I do have expectations for myself that I that I I need to fulfill, you know? And so, Yeah.
10:05
for me, just like being in the moment and being totally present and just concentrating on doing the best I can is all I can do, you know?
10:16
And it's all I ever really think about in those few moments when we're just about to walk out.
10:23
It also lets you know that um you need to be there.
10:25
Like if we're in the bathroom or something, you know?
10:26
I remember it's just like, "Oh, damn." Yeah.
10:30
You know, you start running. Where's the guy? It's him? Where's Rob? I know where Rob is. Yeah, he's in the thing.
10:35
He's always in the bathroom.
10:35
Bro, when I say this has been 20 years since we met for the first time, that means it's been 20 years since you joined the band, bro.
10:41
Your era was well and truly established.
10:43
You can't be late for shows now, man.
10:44
You got to got to get a grip.
10:46
But that will always let you know that you need to get moving. Yeah.
10:50
The toilet flushing is part of it.
10:51
Yeah, that's part of it, too.
10:52
I think a lot of it is um it's about leaving something behind, which is the day, the week, the month, whatever you've been carrying around and freeing yourself of that as you walk to the stage.
11:04
And then the other thing is connecting, connecting with people, connecting with the other guys in the band. Yeah.
11:11
At its at its best, when it really works, it's a connection to each other and to the audience, breaking down those security barricades and doing away with those and becoming one.
11:25
And the great thing about having the opportunity to do these type of configurations is that you maximize the potential for that connection because there's literally there's just more areas where more people can connect with band members and vice versa.
11:40
Every show, you strive for the best and you accept that some days are better than others and it doesn't mean that anybody else will ever notice that.
11:49
And if you're playing, you know, night one here and night two here on Saturday, you know, we may have a thing or something with the monitors or somebody has a shittier day that they're it's harder for them to shake off or whatever.
12:03
But 99% of the people that are here will obviously not be able to know the difference between, you know, 110% and 105% or whatever.
12:10
And sometimes you can even sit there and go, "Fuck, man.
12:15
I'm nailing it and I'm in you know, I'm in the most euphoric state possible."
12:19
And then other days, you're kind of at 80 or 90% and you're sitting there and you're going, "Fuck, I wish I was more in it." Or whatever.
12:28
And then you come off stage at that show and people go, "That's the best I've ever seen you play." Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
12:33
So, there was always those kind of contradictions in it.
12:36
That's an important part of the process, I think, of being a musician and allowing the audience to tell you what you did and allowing them to reflect upon you because the internalization of this experience, I think, can be really challenging.
12:48
You know, your job is to project at all times, especially when you're performing and on stage.
12:51
But to your point, if you're not feeling it, you could carry that experience away and it could really hold you down for a long time in a bad way.
12:59
That's when you got to lean into the fans.
13:00
I think about those really amazing moments both on the record and in and in shows that we've never seen I've never seen where the fans have done that for you.
13:07
Do you think thinking about it now that ultimately it was it's been the fans that have gotten you through the thought of the fans have gotten you through some of the toughest times?
13:15
The desire that they connected. Absolutely.
13:18
And us being fans of what we do, too.
13:20
I don't think through COVID, through the deaths, through accidents, through broken bones, there's never been uh a doubt in my mind that we wouldn't continue, you know?
13:32
It might suck right now, but we're going to we're going to push through this in some form or another.
13:38
You're in Napsters, you're all of these things.
13:42
during those really tough personal times for you the first time around 20 years ago when you were really going through that that first wave.
13:46
We spoke about that before, but that that wasn't a moment when you were like, "Is this my life?"
13:54
Well, there was a moment where it definitely had to be taken away to realize how how much I care, how much I care about it and how much we all care about that thing, too.
14:04
And that is that is needed at times. Yeah.
14:06
You know, when you're pampered, when you're everything's fine, you know, uh when when something the rug gets yanked out from under you, gratitude, realizing what you do have and how much you do love it and you're going to miss it. We don't know much else.
14:20
You know, we love what we do and this is what we get to do and be of service to ourselves and the world with it.
14:29
You can hear it on the new album.
14:29
Boy, you can hear it on the new album.
14:33
You know, I saw you go coming out of lifts as I was getting into a lift.
14:35
And I think I I was like, "Oh, you know, I've got 10 seconds with Lars cuz he's he's on the move."
14:39
And I think I think I said something I can't remember. You might remember.
14:42
I said something like, "No one can be mad at this one." No, thank you, Lars. That's funny. I I'm in the last month.
14:55
Uh it's a variation of the question, "Where does that energy come from?" And and you know this.
15:01
I love to try to intellectualize it and try to find the answers.
15:05
Way too close to it still to, you know, need to have more time in the rearview mirror.
15:09
And whether it came out of the darkness and the despair and the uncertainty of COVID, it's all plays a little bit of a part in it.
15:18
Um but uh like we've heard ourselves say over the years, uh as long as the uh you know, the body parts, the the knees, the elbows, the shoulders, the throats, everything, as long as they're capable, we still have that energy and that fire when we're playing together.
15:36
And it's hard to imagine, you know, the sub conversations like, "How do you how do you still find all that energy and and, you know, the that relentlessness when you're successful?"
15:46
And you know, all that horse they throw at you.
15:49
But when the four of us are in a room together and still this time around two or three years ago when the project started, it still feels you take all this away, all all this away with all the four of us are just playing music, that part of it
16:08
has not changed since, you know, 40 years ago when we're just like a great riff, a drum part that fits with it and we're all feeling that the possibility of where that song can take us, that has not changed one iota in 40 years. That is the success. That is the success.
16:26
That is the success people keep dangling in front of you like it's going to distract you, but they're missing the point.
16:30
The point of this the success is a byproduct of that. Right? That's what we buy into.
16:34
That's what we want to hear is the four of you sounding unified and together and dialed in.
16:41
And still chasing the ultimate riff. That will never die.
16:46
And I've never heard before.
16:46
And I'm going to get the I'm going to get the pronunciation wrong.
16:49
it for me add on to what James Sure.
16:49
and still chasing some weird thing, maybe more so now than ever.
16:53
And people kind of roll their eyes when I say this.
16:56
You know, still chasing acceptance or still chasing fitting in or still chasing like, "Hey, we're still hovering on the outside and we're these like misfits and these, you know, disenfranchised musicians that don't really belong in the cool kids club." Yeah.
17:15
And people go, "Oh, you're so successful."
17:16
It's like, "Yeah, but 40 years later, I still feel like I'm on the outside."
17:22
saying you want to stay on the outside or you saying you use that as fuel to try to get on the inside that you're never going to get into, by the way.
17:29
waiting for the invite to the cool guys club.
17:36
Well, that's what it feels like. It's a feeling.
17:38
James, you're awfully quiet in the corner there.
17:40
I don't know if you buy that.
17:42
It's just a feeling, whether it's true or not, you know.
17:44
We chase that, but we don't want to be in it. want to be in it? No. No. We don't.
17:47
No, I think it's that character.
17:49
Did I just tell Metallica to shut the up and still sitting here on this set?
17:52
Did I get away with that? Yeah, you did. We're fine with that.
17:54
As far as I'm concerned, this is the cool guy club for me.
17:58
This is the cool guy club.
18:01
Yeah, but bottom line, I mean, uh we enjoy playing music. We enjoy creativity.
18:08
When we get in a room, like when we're when we're up there in our zone, we're like teenagers again.
18:12
And the things that these guys throw out there, I'm just laughing cuz I'm the new guy, but I'm sitting there laughing. not. No, no, it's hilarious.
18:20
The the energy is beautiful.
18:23
And that's what's special about this is the instruments, you know, Lars gets on the drums, we get on our instruments, and the ideas flow.
18:33
There's no shortage of riffs, baselines, grooves.
18:36
A lot of bands when they've been around as long as Metallica has, they can't come up with riffs.
18:40
They can't, you know, they're just not inspired.
18:43
That doesn't happen here.
18:43
In fact, we've got an abundance.
18:46
I can't tell you how many riffs I had that were were never came to you know, that were never heard.
18:52
Just And that's a good thing.
18:54
It's a great problem to have.
18:56
There's a lot going on here creatively.
18:59
And that's why I still think about the next round.
19:01
And 72 seasons is a badass record. Badass record. Which year 73 seasons?
19:06
Which year 73 seasons, right? 144 seasons.
19:12
You know, 17 miles a night around that You guys are going to be going back to your hotel comparing your steps at the end of the night.
19:18
How many steps did you do tonight?
19:20
You got to pick up the pace.
19:22
There's um can someone please pronounce the the the last song on the record, please? In Amorata. Thank you.
19:25
That That's a riff I've never heard.
19:28
I've I've never heard something that's that brilliantly discordantly heavy, right?
19:35
Like that's one of my favorite riffs you've ever written on your 11th studio album.
19:41
Written on Zoom, by the way. Crazy.
19:44
Lars and I sitting there fiddling around trying to connect over Zoom, right?
19:46
You know, the Pandora's Box was opened at that point. Yeah. We're bored.
19:52
Let's do some stuff and that was one of the riffs that that came out of that session.
19:57
Um How did you feel when you came up with it? I want the feeling. Oh.
20:03
I don't I don't I don't know.
20:03
I don't think about it, man.
20:06
when you heard it, when it came out of you, were you just like like I was thinking, "Wow, that's pretty cool."
20:13
That's pretty Thank you, Tony Iommi or whoever you just I just channeled, you know. Yeah.
20:19
Or Cliff or whoever it is. Thank you.
20:22
Or thank you, guitar, for spitting that one out, you know. It just it just happens.
20:26
I can't explain it and I don't want to know.
20:29
You know, it I'm a a messenger.
20:30
I'm a a vessel for riffs.
20:35
And and Lars has the spectacular ear of what was that, you know.
20:41
I don't know what was that. It was special. It was special.
20:43
I mean, from the first moment it was special. good idea.
20:47
And it it didn't start obviously didn't start off as a as an 11-minute song, but Is that the longest song you've ever made? Yeah.
20:56
And but it it it wanted to keep going and there was a feeling as the ideas continued to show up that it's like the song was calling out for now we got to take these detours and now we got to go here and this bass breakdown Oh, right off. Here it is.
21:22
Oh my god, the first time I heard that, I was like I I want to like break something, but then I also want to like burst into tears.
21:29
It was the weirdest combination of emotion and rage.
21:34
Two strings slide up with that wiggle that Tony Iommi like planted in my head when I was, you know, 16 years old. Just that Yeah.
21:45
You know, "Hey, pay attention to this. Okay?"
21:48
Yeah, but the second half of that riff is where the heartbreak kicks in.
21:52
It's a it's a deep album.
21:55
Like that riff just had a different I hear all the riffs.
21:59
And these guys are are are kind enough to sort of let me cherry-pick the ones that, you know, will turn into songs and and from the first time I heard that, it was just like that that sits somewhere else.
22:12
about the words on this album, you know, I I've always listened to what you've had to say and we all have.
22:15
Millions of us have listened to you get closer and closer and closer and closer to the truth every single album.
22:22
I feel like you went there.
22:25
This on this album, I said this today to a group of people I was talking to who asked me what I thought and I said, "In my life did I ever expect James Hetfield at this point in his life to open up himself to the degree that he has?"
22:35
This is where most people decide, "I've shown you enough.
22:39
My identity is my identity.
22:39
I'm going to go live the rest of my life.
22:42
I'll live with my mistakes.
22:42
Don't ask me any questions. I'm done." You do the opposite.
22:48
I'm a work in progress, buddy. Yeah. Thank you, by the way.
22:50
And life is a work in progress for me and for all of us. We all go through stuff.
22:57
We all uncover things of from our 72 seasons and we're still working through whatever.
23:02
Trauma old, new, big T, little T, whatever it may be.
23:08
There's still stuff and we're all trying to to get better at navigating life and I think the a lot of the lyrics on this record have a little more of an inkling of hope in them sprinkled in there.
23:19
Only in my opinion, James, because you seem to be willing to stare them in the eye. That's the hope I get.
23:29
There's a lot of really heavy reflection on this record, but it's it's you don't feel lost in a way.
23:37
It's the opposite, actually. It's acceptance.
23:39
There's a so much acceptance of where we are in our lives, where I am in my life.
23:46
Um and I can I can fight fight fight fight try and change change change The end of the day, it's a part of me. You embrace it.
23:57
You see how it works in your life, how it doesn't work.
23:59
It's like having a couple people around with you all the time.
24:04
It's like "Hey, I know you. Shut up right now. Okay?"
24:08
You know, "Let this guy talk."
24:10
You know, there's there's an acceptance of the voices in the head, you know, and where do they show up? Why do they show up?
24:17
You know, there's so much to overthink, but just accepting them and letting them have their space and and being, you know, allowing ourselves to be human.
24:25
Allowing ourselves to be human.
24:28
That's a powerful thing, man. That's a deep one.
24:33
Like a lot of times we as people we we find lots of different reasons to dehumanize our experiences because it's really hard to face them.
24:38
Do you think what life would be like if you didn't have that this and this to do it through?
24:47
Because that's that's your superhero power, right?
24:49
You get to charge those observations and those feelings up and you get to go on stage with your boys and just pummel us with them.
24:56
Yeah, life would not be around.
25:02
I would be long gone, I think. Yeah, for sure.
25:05
Thank god for music and thank god for heavy metal.
25:10
And thank god that we you we have we have access to it because, you know, I get these weird thoughts in the shower.
25:18
I was thinking, "What if we're the four of us or a group of people 100 years ago, how would we express ourselves?
25:24
Would we like a group of poets? Group of painters?"
25:28
You get deep in the shower, Kirk. I love this. It's awesome. Keep going. Keep going. I love the music.
25:33
What's Oprah you smoking in there? Just a lot of caffeine. Lots of caffeine.
25:37
Lots of caffeine, yeah, yeah.
25:39
And And you know, it's just like it would have been a completely different existence for us, you know.
25:43
We would probably be making like heavy poetry or something. Heavy painting. I don't know.
25:49
Like heavy paintings, you know. Yeah. But heavy. But heavy. Heavy.
25:51
You know, it would still be heavy.
25:55
So that's my point is thank god for this music called heavy metal Yeah.
26:00
that we all all coexist in and and and live our lives in and and like draw inspiration from, you know, it really encapsulates, at least for me, so much of my inner experience, you know, ever since I was a kid to just this moment, you know.
26:18
It's why I love this music so much. Highly emotional.
26:23
It's so emotional and it it it it reflects the entire human experience.
26:29
Like, you know, innamorata, sadness, heaviness, but you know, there's uplifting parts of that song, too, that that bring you out and there's contemplative parts of that song, too, you know.
26:42
Thank god for heavy metal because there's other types of music where you just it's a straight.
26:45
You can't go those places.
26:48
But the the thing is, right, it's it's so funny to think about music is we did such a good job as an industry of creating linear aisles, genres, experiences and great tribalism is really important.
27:00
We're going to see that tomorrow night.
27:02
Full-on heavy metal tribalism, right?
27:04
Metallica in full effect.
27:06
Well, the song Lux Æterna, that's exactly written about what you feel when you come in to a gig, a festival or wherever you are.
27:16
You're around like-minded people. Yeah.
27:19
You're suffering together.
27:19
You're sharing your misery and your excitement all at the same time.
27:24
So what light comes out of everyone's collected darkness, you know.
27:28
How has the world changed for the better? What's going to happen?
27:31
What is I think about music in such a weird way.
27:33
I used to be one of those people who was so focused on whatever was in front of me and now I think about every single song and the ripple it has, every single show and the ripple it has.
27:40
How many thousands of people going to leave tomorrow night and make a different decision based on the experience they had watching Metallica show that ultimately is going to make the world a better place.
27:48
Well, I believe that the the level of connectivity that occurs at a Metallica show is such a high vibration.
27:59
And I felt it myself when I go to other shows.
28:00
When I leave a show, I you know, and it's it's a great show.
28:02
I am like I am high, you know. I am high.
28:06
And I'm I hope my hope is that when we play, you know, our music brings everyone together. We all connect.
28:14
And you know, at the end of the day, that's what people are looking for is connection.
28:21
And I know that, you know, at some point or another we're going to connect with our audience and we're all going to be like just one big entity and that feeling right there is so special.
28:29
You can't really get that from day-to-day, you know.
28:35
You have to you have to be a part of something big, but it's worth it because when you leave, that feeling of connectedness, you know, it could bleed into just like, you know, okay.
28:44
Next day, you know, you go to the grocery store, you know, and you see someone who needs some help, you know, maybe you still have that feeling of connectedness and I think maturity really helps you with that.
28:56
I think as you get older, you get wiser.
28:58
You get to be able I think it's yeah, it's it there's an element of as as Kirk is talking about connecting, there's also an element of safety in a way in that the strength in numbers thing and about the collective being together that the the more you're together with like-minded people, the more you can express yourself and feel safe within that collective, within that group.
29:17
And I think, you know, when Kirk is sitting talking about, you know, thank god for this and thank god for heavy metal and so on.
29:24
And also thank god for being in in a in a group in a gang in a band in a collective of people that are aging mostly the same way.
29:34
Was just that they're very comfortable with the aging process in itself.
29:39
You know, if two guys were you know, being more comfortable being vulnerable and taking the mask off and expressing themselves that way and two other guys were, you know, chasing the fountain of youth and trying to pretend that they're still 30 years old or whatever.
29:55
still 30 years old or whatever. That would That would bring a lot of internal conflict, but the fact that we're 40 years into this, we're knocking on the door at 60 and we're comfortable with who we are at this point in our lives
30:08
with the path that we've been on, the path that's ahead of us, paying the respect to the bodies, to the health, to the mental health, to the physical health, to all of it, but it's not something that's being swept under the carpet and it's pretend and and and and trying to be pretended away. It's a big
30:21
It's a big part of of who we are.
30:24
It's certainly something that I'm incredibly proud of. It's cuz you're open.
30:28
There's an openness to this band now.
30:30
You talked about the feeling of being high.
30:32
And I think about the fact that the only way you can get to that now is cuz you're not You know, because you're open to the elements and you're not actually distracting yourself and you're not actually putting yourself into a place where you're numbing yourself from that pressure.
30:46
And that And that I don't know what to do with this. It's true, right?
30:49
To some degree youth is wasted on the young, right?
30:51
When you don't have the tools to deal with the experience, to be open enough to be present.
30:54
A lot of people are figuring that out now.
30:56
But man, you think about all those shows you did when you weren't not sober and you couldn't get that close to that feeling, right? Do you think about that? Yeah.
31:05
Well, I mean I I got into a cycle where I was just like, you know, play a show, go out, stay out all night, then wake up the next day hungover, go out on stage, sweat the hangover out on stage, and then go do it again. This is my job.
31:20
Yeah, but you know, there was no no progression.
31:26
You know, when I was doing that, I I was just kind of like just staying at this one level.
31:31
It took me a long time to notice that I wasn't progressing, wasn't going anywhere.
31:36
And you know, over time, you notice you take it into account and you do what you need to do to get back on track.
31:46
And it makes all the difference in the world having a clear head about everything, you know, and especially on stage, it makes a mountain of difference just in terms of like performance, you know, execution, everything. My own enjoyment.
32:04
It's just like it's like it makes a real real being in the moment. In the moment.
32:11
Allowing yourself to be in the moment. Yeah. And being present.
32:13
Absolutely being present. Yeah.
32:17
How many new songs you're going to play on this tour? Figuring it out?
32:18
No, we got it pretty figured out. Yeah.
32:23
I'll let Lars answer that cuz he's in charge of North of North of zero, South of 12.
32:29
Um We're We're representing the new album.
32:33
You know, it's been great.
32:33
On Death Magnetic, we ended up playing all 10 of them subsequently through the tour.
32:38
On Hardwired, I think we got up to nine or 10 through the tour of the 12.
32:45
We're We're going to represent.
32:45
I mean, obviously we've got the two different set lists and no repeats and all that.
32:51
So there's a different kind of structure to the set list and um it's not often you get a chance to start on a completely, you know, blank canvas and and 40 years in just forced to reinvent it, which I think is part of the appeal of this thing for us.
33:08
Also part of the daunting thing because there are certain safety measures in there and certain sort of flags you plant that end up being cornerstones, but we're kind of throwing it all out.
33:19
And so you'll see the next couple days, but it's represented well and we look forward to it.
33:27
And playing those I mean, we've been jamming those songs for the last three, four weeks and they are fun to play and they're real like And what you were kind enough to say about the the relentlessness and the energy and so on.
33:40
I mean, it it it's it's definitely going to be fun the next few days to to get them out there and the musical language of them obviously is a true representation representation of our current head space.
33:54
So with it some of the earlier songs when you go back to revisit them, there's some tweaks you have to make and maybe some reinterpretations that you do along the way and they kind of morph as your head space continues to sort of move in different places, but these songs are fresh out of the oven obviously and they're right in the current wheelhouse.
34:13
And so that's really that's really cool.
34:16
So doing the set list and kind of being from what you're saying, ultimately responsible for the way that the show maps out every single night.
34:24
I've never asked you this like that That's a heavy responsibility.
34:28
Obviously on a night when it's a great show, you can pat yourself on the back and go, man, I took my boys out and we took out 80,000 people with the perfect run.
34:36
But you know, you've got a lot of songs to represent, a lot of fans to try to make make very happy.
34:40
Do you relish that that responsibility?
34:43
I mean, I don't know if I relish but I accept it and James likes to point out I obsess over it in the best of ways, of course.
34:53
As we all do our own thing. Of course.
34:55
Everyone has obsessive qualities. I take it seriously.
34:58
First of all, the fact that um you know, these guys trust me enough to to to carry that is a huge thing.
35:04
So in terms of letting the team not letting the team down, of course.
35:10
But there is a I've been doing it for a long time, basically the whole time and and you know, I have tools now available and so it becomes a combination of new album, it becomes a a a combination obviously of of what's called the toe-tapping favorites.
35:23
Do you ever sit there and just crack yourself up and just draw a line through Master of Puppets just just for 5 minutes just to see what it looks like?
35:30
Yeah, there is all kinds of Yeah, I mean, listen, Battery.
35:33
Last time we we did We did a whole whole run last summer where we played Enter Sandman had always obviously lived towards the end of the set.
35:47
We played it third all last summer and the look on people's faces we come out, we say hello with Whiplash, we go into Creeping Death, then and then Sandman.
35:55
People like, holy is it time to go home? We We're going to stay? Should we leave? Yeah, exactly. This is a great idea.
36:03
Well, I remember going I mean, I saw one of Prince's last year's shows.
36:04
I was so grateful to see it and he started with Purple Rain.
36:08
And I remember feeling like I was watching the encore at the end, you know, at the beginning.
36:11
The whole thing was so surreal to me.
36:12
And so I can understand from fans' perspective how that would just throw you for a loop.
36:17
Well, and a band perspective. It's like your body. Yeah. Body memory.
36:20
We're up there and we're playing the last song third. Oh, are we done?
36:25
You know, I got too much energy left.
36:29
So it's you know, the deeper cuts We have a database that one of our great crew guys runs that have every time we played in Holland and in Amsterdam literally exists in a database.
36:38
And so on all the deep cuts, we can see, you know, the the Holy Nows or the Leper Messiahs or the whatever Harvester of Sorrows or the Trapped Under Ice is whatever.
36:51
Last time we played that deep cut in Holland was in, you know, 2004 or whatever.
36:56
So that one we can bring out again because it hasn't been there for 20 years.
37:00
So it's a balance of all these different things. thing as well?
37:03
Do you go through the data and figure out like cuz it's so regionally specified now.
37:05
Do you go through and go, look, I didn't realize that that song on that album actually over indexes in Holland or anything like that? Do you go that deep? Uh not to that level.
37:13
No, it's just more Like I said, it's a combination of obviously what we want to play, it's a combination of the few songs that should be played and then it's just figuring out the deeper cuts.
37:23
So when you play a special song that you don't end up playing that special song in that same city every time.
37:30
And every time we're in Holland, Amsterdam, is to give people the different show.
37:37
And so here we are at Johan Cruyff Stadium Arena.
37:40
Last time we played at Pinkpop, the time before that we played next door at the arena, the Ziggo Dome.
37:49
You know, so every time you're in there, you're playing a different place, different stage setup with a different song list.
37:56
So it's always a different experience for the fans and it's always a different experience for us.
38:00
So you don't fall into that autopilot thing.
38:05
And now it's 3 years later and here we are at the same stadium with the same setup and the same 16 songs and all that.
38:11
So it's just always trying to mix it up.
38:13
There's a reason why people hold hundreds of ticket stubs with Metallica on them.
38:17
I mean, your friend Eddie figured it out, too.
38:19
I mean, there's a reason why he goes and sits in the stadium and writes Pearl Jam set list an hour before the show. Yeah.
38:25
Cuz you know, he knows that you want to go to multiple Pearl Jam shows.
38:28
You just don't know what they're going to play.
38:29
Yeah, and we're so proud on the Hardwired tour we introduced a a ticket called a, you know, black ticket.
38:35
Now it's called a, you know, I disappear ticket.
38:37
And you buy that one ticket, you go to every show on the tour.
38:40
You get the one laminate.
38:40
I always joke about the one laminate.
38:42
You know, I I was joking with Boyd genius about this the other day and I was like, you guys are going to get to one laminate stage.
38:48
You know, where it's like such a big world tour.
38:50
You just Here's your one.
38:50
To give that to a fan is more precious than almost anything.
38:53
It's like you really are in the club now. It's a crazy thing.
38:57
I mean, you'll see tomorrow around the barricades and around there, you know, obviously we're starting from scratch here, but within a few shows, they'll be a group of Latin Americans, they'll be a group of Europeans, they'll be some incredible people from Asia and all wonderful parts of the world that will follow us around.
39:14
They'll be in the same spot kind of in front of maybe their favorite band member and we'll be singing James's lyrics back to him or doing the drum parts and all this type of stuff and and these people are insane. They go on tour with us.
39:27
They really go on tour with us and it's so beautiful because it it it goes back to that safety thing that I was talking about.
39:34
If I'm sitting up there, you know, okay, I'm out of it for a few minutes or whatever and I look down and I see the same five There's a guy that James is always talking about that will just drum my parts back to me. Oh, yeah. There they are.
39:47
It's it's safety, you know, it's like I know I'm safe because we've got our fans that follow us.
39:54
You can ask him if we have a good drummer.
39:57
It'll be funny cuz when Lars will do a something different or maybe maybe even make a unique mistake or unique playing part, me and the fan will look at each other like And they keep going on and on.
40:13
Lars, you know It's all totally James.
40:16
You know better than you do. Oh, yeah.
40:20
And they know when you screw the lyrics up, you know, and it's like okay, you know, whatever. It's okay, you know.
40:27
But but it goes back to what we were talking about is this 30 40 years ago when we were coming off stage we would get into like fist fights. You that up. You it up. No, you it up. Now we sit back there.
40:39
First thing we'll do for the first 10 minutes when we come off stage tomorrow is we'll sit and in a funny humorous way we'll kind of go haha in that song when we played, you know, James sang this out or I did the wrong beat or whatever.
40:51
Now we kind of go haha, that was really funny. Did you like my edit?
40:58
They're our songs and as far as we're concerned we can do with them what we want.
41:02
We don't we don't have to play them perfect.
41:03
And so now we connect over the fact that we're human and that, you know, so that pressure or I'm going to get back in the dressing room and somebody's going to yell at me, you know, it's like it's just that human thing and it makes you feel safe and it makes you feel that it's all worth it, you know?
41:22
Are you any closer to working out what was driving that pressure for all those years?
41:25
Was it I mean, the most obvious thing is maybe Perfection. Some kind of fear.
41:29
But yeah, it's buried in some some level of insecurity.
41:33
Like like if if we're not perfect someone might take it away. Insecurity.
41:36
Yeah, criticism, insecurity, fear of being judged. I mean, you name it.
41:41
There's a whole list right there of and it all all falls under the insecurity, you know, umbrella.
41:49
That doesn't go away, James, you know, those fans will there are still those people that will be disappointed with this and love that and they'll swing like a seesaw at all times.
41:54
And so And same within myself as well, you know, I have an expectation I didn't meet it, oh god.
42:00
And like Lars was talking about earlier, hey, that was great. Like No, it wasn't.
42:06
But the expectations just always get in the way.
42:08
But you summed it up beautifully before when you said just accepting the fact that you're human. Mhm.
42:12
Yeah, allowing ourselves to be human.
42:14
And just having compassion for yourself, you know.
42:18
Well, the more you do that, you you you know, we all have that compassion for other people.
42:21
It's easier, you know, it's easier to see that in other people.
42:26
I also think like having some some control of your destiny now as well, stepping out with a new album and and you know, it's really inspiring what what you're doing as an as an organization.
42:35
If I think of you like a sports team like, you know, you you're running a great season after season here.
42:38
You've got your own label.
42:39
You're doing things independently.
42:41
Worldwide number one album on your own label, it's like awesome.
42:44
Slight disappointment with Lithuania but you haven't played since 2010 so you might want to give it to Lithuania.
42:48
Um everyone has number one.
42:50
So we're pressing our own records now?
42:53
Now you're in the pressing plant business.
42:54
Thank god someone else showed up to Jack White's party, right?
42:57
If you take a step back and go and I think a lot about this as as we're going and through the the promotion of this and talking about the 72 seasons and every day people that tell me about your first 72 season.
43:10
And I still go back to who the would have thought that when James and I got together in LA 41 years ago we'd be sitting here being at, you know, Johan Cruyff Stadium home of where Ajax plays and the you know, and having a conversation about this crazy outsider thrash metal band that never fit in anywhere buying a vinyl plant. What? Who would have thought?
43:33
You know, if you said that 40 years ago if you said it 30 years ago. Yeah.
43:36
It's like yeah, we just finished And Justice for All and in 2023 you'll be back in Europe, you'll be doing a tour of football stadiums.
43:44
You'll still be, you know, putting out records that, you know, somewhat relevant etc. etc. etc.
43:52
And you're buying you know, vinyl plants and you know, Yeah, but you know, it's you know, it still blows my mind. At least right now.
44:01
Maybe it's the post COVID as we spent two years wondering what our future look was going to look like and whether we would ever get back to anything that resembled whatever normal was before that.
44:11
When we were out going around Europe last year we played 15 festivals in Europe last year and a few in America.
44:18
Just being out again and connecting with audiences and seeing the European cities having them feel like alive again.
44:25
I've never seen so many people on the streets of Madrid.
44:29
The whole city was alive and there was a a post pandemic spirit in the air of just of celebrating life, celebrating, you know, what the the the opportunities could be again out of that that misery and despair and the uncertainty of lockdown.
44:46
And I think for me sitting here and being with these guys, having this record in our back pockets, sitting here with you, you always get uh the deepest out of us which I love by the way.
45:01
And um it's just a sense of gratitude and a sense of appreciation. Same. Same.
45:06
sense of of just love and you know, it's just crazy. Who would have thought? Imagine how I feel.
45:13
You know, I was the guy who was drawing instruments like everybody else is going to be here tomorrow night and every other show.
45:17
Came into Metallica and was just like thrown on my back foot in the best possible way. Off balance, right?
45:23
Axis shifted 6° to the left. I go this direction now.
45:26
And I've been chasing you my whole life.
45:30
You know, all over the world.
45:30
So to be sitting here in a place like this as well, you know, having this conversation and the fact we're all still here, that's what's not lost on me.
45:38
And I can imagine as this as this album comes to an end that that really is ultimately the great achievement, isn't it? You're still here. Yes, we're still here.
45:46
We're still feeling like we're contributing to the good side.
45:54
To making it better, you know.
45:54
Uh Well, that is thought about every single day.
46:01
You know, that what you know, what are we doing here? Yeah.
46:04
What is the service we're bringing, you know, at the end of the day?
46:08
Yeah, I say this is a toy. Yeah.
46:08
It is just a it's wood and metal and a bunch of aluminum put together but with thought and with care and with love and with intent.
46:18
And yeah, that that'll go back to whatever it's supposed to be at the when this is all done.
46:24
But what we do with it and how we get to use this tool to connect is what it's all about.
46:30
Just take a second and just listen to like how quiet it is.
46:35
It's all I hear is I know.
46:36
All I hear is Okay, same here. Same here.
46:42
Those days may have gone for you and I, right?
46:44
And now on Apple Music silence.
46:47
Yeah, but it's just I I just love the anticipation. Mhm.
46:51
I almost want to do like a cut and then do that thing where it's just like the next shot is just chaos, volume, blood and guts and sweat and anger and emotion and all that that makes you guys so fiery and powerful. I love it.
47:08
But yeah, I mean, you know, I definitely still feel the calling.
47:13
And it's still the same call that I felt when I was a teenager playing guitar in my room.
47:19
And I know it it's got to be similar for the rest of these guys, you know. Still feeling hungry.
47:24
Still feeling like there's still music to be made.
47:27
Good intentions to be fleshed out and brought through our music.
47:35
I'll tell you one of the things about this experience in recording Yeah.
47:39
you know, this album in in uh collaborating on this music was uh just to be in a room together again and to have that yeah, like you feel that in the album.
47:50
You feel it in in every part every note that's played.
47:53
The segues, you know, that that can't happen on Zoom.
47:58
Some of the intro stuff and all that, you know, the tribal type of stuff, you know, all that stuff is happening.
48:04
You're hearing it and experiencing on the record.
48:06
What you're listening to is what happens and what's happened.
48:10
And I think that somebody said in one of the interviews the other day that when they hear this album they see us like 3 ft in front of them and that's what they love about it. They hear James singing.
48:21
They can almost you know, his breath is hitting them.
48:26
Not bad breath by the way, but you know, just you know, that energy of what Halitosis. Halitosis.
48:32
Let me just make that clear, you know.
48:34
But but and I just thought that was so amazing to to have somebody say that they feel that in this record.
48:39
Cuz that's something very special they say. I see you.
48:43
I close my eyes and I can see you all in front of me. I love that.
48:45
And that's because it's the magic of the moment, you know, and that's what happens with this record. Damn, that's good.
48:52
I wish I thought of that. That's right.
48:55
Um gentlemen, thanks for having us here in in beautiful Amsterdam. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Yeah, man. Long may it continue. along.
49:03
See you on the next album, right? See you down the road. Just getting started. Appreciate you, Zane. Thanks, buddy. All right, then.
49:12
So The calm before the storm.
49:16
snake pit you've ever created. That's insane.
49:18
It's the size of most major venues in the mainland Europe.
49:22
But it's it's the privileged spot.
49:22
Yeah, I mean, the snake pit has been part of what we've been doing for basically 30 years coming back to the going back to the black album days.
49:32
So the snake pit, you know, started off um one of our managers, you know, back in New York in the late '80s, early '90s, the idea that um when you would go to a restaurant that the best seat in the restaurant was actually not in the house, but the best seat was in the kitchen.
49:52
And um so in crazy cool restaurants, if you could somehow get into the kitchen and eat in the kitchen, you were in there where all the action was. Yeah.
49:59
So the idea that came out of that for that snake pit on the black album tour was basically to be in the middle of the stage.
50:05
So we had a stage uh that was shaped like a diamond and there was 30, 40 spots in the middle of that stage.
50:11
You know, radio contest, you know, winners, friends, family, a few crazy metalheads from around the audience would end up in that snake pit and they would be on stage with us. And then it morphed.
50:24
And basically for I guess 30 years now, the snake pit has been an integral part of at least a Metallica indoor show.
50:30
And then in the uh in the stadiums and we've been playing outside, it's been sort of this extension of the stage. You've seen it.
50:39
But they've never they've never been like crazy big.
50:43
There's been room for a couple hundred here, a couple hundred there, whatever, but it's always been Someone told me it's like a thousand in here.
50:47
Yeah, we we we were told between uh 900 to 1200, you know, depending on the density obviously and and as you know, when you get into these things um in different countries, the fire marshal has different, you know, and all this, but I mean, it's going to be incredible.
51:05
Well, we've been in here for a week now and we've been playing to the silence that you pointed out.
51:08
And you know, this is a big place uh and it's a European football stadium.
51:15
Obviously, it's further to the sides, but when this is populated not just with all these beautiful souls here on all the sides and on the floor, but when you get in here and this this space is full of uh Tidy though.
51:29
Lars, I got to I got to pay respect to everyone who's put this together.
51:35
This is the most pristine live scale concert production I've ever seen.
51:40
This makes you two look sloppy. Close in.
51:44
Close in on him right now. Get the reaction. Get the reaction. Get this. They're Irish.
51:51
They're going to go there. They're Irish.
51:53
And um Look at this, bro.
51:53
I feel like I need to just This is unbelievable.
52:00
So 36 hours from now, there'll be a be a lot of human This is sick.
52:06
There'll be a lot of, you know, will it be sweat, s- spit, I don't know which I don't I don't know which microphone I'm supposed to go to.
52:13
Like I'm immediately like do I go to this stage setup?
52:18
Do I go to this stage setup? Do I go to this?
52:21
It's kind like I said, it feels like an illusion.
52:22
Yeah, I a few people that have come in the last couple days, I watch them as they come in and they get their disoriented. Disoriented, yeah.
52:29
Yeah, it's like where do they go?
52:30
It's just like these towers and it's just kind of crazy.
52:32
I mean, to the point where I feel like I'm seeing six drum kits, not four.
52:37
Like it's it's kind of nuts. Look what you make, man. This is crazy.
52:44
Do you ever allow yourself the space when you walk into a place like this?
52:46
I know we were reflecting a little bit before up on the balcony with the fellas, but to really acknowledge just those dirty, unruly, ragged beginnings, you know, where it was like just plug in and let rip.
53:00
Well, it's uh like I said, certainly uh for me uh in the last post-pandemic, a lot of self-reflection and just way more unreal to me than it's ever been before.
53:10
We just never used to slow down long enough back in the day to take any of it in. Yeah, yeah.
53:15
And when you're always looking for the next fix, you're always looking for the next rush, you're always looking for the next thing to satisfy you, uh you just don't you're never in the moment.
53:26
And now we are you and I standing here going, "Fuck, look at this thing."
53:31
It's also the enemy of progress because you you're not going to be able to get on a stage like this and feel it the way you are unless you are in that moment, right?
53:36
You just like what comes after that show?
53:39
Yeah, I mean, when I sat up in the bleachers and looked at this thing for 2 hours Yeah.
53:42
and I said like, "What have we created?
53:45
And what's the answer to this next time?
53:48
You know, where do you go from here?"
53:51
Because, you know, my mind does race quite a bit and so, you know, maybe the answer next time is to go back and play places do you know what I mean?
54:01
Where you get this kind of intimacy back?
54:02
But this is really about the fact that the fans that are here, as James is walking by or James playing from a raw perspective or I'm right here, we can uh exchange pleasantries and all the rest of it.
54:17
That it is really about the intimacy of it.
54:19
And there's no barricade in here. No, this is this is yep.
54:25
So If anybody's out there, please don't unplug any of these because all these have a purpose, all right?
54:30
So if this if this blue one is not in there, it could up the whole game.
54:37
going to block this off, surely.
54:37
Like this is going to sit here like this?
54:42
Maybe they'll be a little thingy and they'll it up. Metallica on the back.
54:44
Someone's going to run out with that, bro.
54:46
Someone's going to have a crack at it.
54:49
even like, "What is this? What the does this do?"
54:54
Is that like for your Wi-Fi? It's so awesome, man. Pretty crazy.
54:57
This is obviously the biggest production that you've ever done. Yes. not even close, yeah.
55:03
So what was the one before that?
55:05
Was it hard Was it worldwide?
55:06
Well, we've never done in the round in the stadiums and so we we've been looking to do in the round um in the stadiums for probably 10, 15 years.
55:17
We've done in the round in the arenas.
55:19
Apart from from here, you know, most stadiums, if you look up, it's practical because there's no roof that you can hang anything from.
55:26
So everything that you're seeing here, you see the eight towers, everything in here is what's called ground supported. So you see the PA Yeah.
55:34
and you see all this cable.
55:36
There's nothing of this whole staging that touches the the stadium roof.
55:40
So all of this is ground supported and it's always been about how do you set that up without being able to hang anything from the roof. Yeah.
55:50
And the way our team cracked it was by having these towers.
55:52
And the one thing that's different because obviously U2 has played in the stadiums in the round, Garth Brooks has done it.
55:58
Uh Ed Sheeran did it last year and will do it in America this year.
56:03
But the one thing that's different about this setup is there's no center point because all those shows would have a center point.
56:11
Yes, the center point's the thing.
56:11
And there's the center point is right there, but you can see all those wires, they're not coming from anywhere other than those towers.
56:21
So all the weight of the PA and the lights and the shenanigans are all being held up by those eight towers. That's the crazy thing. This is so nuts.
56:29
But it's a kind of an engineering marvel and our team has done insanely great uh job of putting this whole thing together. Insanely great.
56:39
It's It is geometric design at its highest level. Yes.
56:44
It's structure Structure and order.
56:47
Two things you don't associate With what? With Metallica. I don't I don't know. Yes, you do.
56:52
There's no way you can play an 11-minute song at the pace you're playing it without structure and order.
56:57
It's been kind of the battle cry in the last week.
56:59
We go around and say, "Structure and order." Yeah.
57:05
And symmetry, you know, see here, we're right in line.
57:07
See, we're standing right here. Yeah. And it's right 114, 127.
57:11
And but this thing is is right now is booked for 2 years.
57:14
It's booked all the way up through the end of '24.
57:16
I love how you're doing it as well.
57:19
I love how you're like we can do this and live our lives.
57:22
We can come in, maximize the amount of people we can put we can entertain, make happy, and then get back to something resembling a life. Yes.
57:30
And I think If not that, it's balances, yeah.
57:33
If not that, what is the definition of success if not balance?
57:37
Those balances also is sort of what feeds it and what makes it possible because without those balances, we wouldn't be able to do it.
57:47
We can go into the craziness of this world, but we can't hang out here for more than a couple weeks at a time before we need to go back and just connect with our families, with our our homes, our our sort of our our our safe zones, you know, comfort zones at home.
58:04
And so one of the biggest places where we really uh are grateful for the success is that the fact that we have the opportunity to come out here and just do this for say 2 weeks at a time and then go home.
58:17
Because if we were to be out here for 8 months in a row, now we got to be out here till the end of the year, Yeah.
58:23
we couldn't do it because we're it would it would just drive us, you know, drive us off off the ledge, off the cliff, you know.
58:29
It's it's going to be a fun place to hang out for the next couple days and then we get 2 weeks off and then we pick it up in in Paris again at You get to know it.
58:36
You get to figure it out.
58:36
You get to go to take it all over the world in these beautiful, beautiful gladiatorial spaces. It's awesome.
58:42
It's interesting because I I've noticed the the ability when we're making records, you're in the studio, you're in it.
58:50
You have no perspective because you're so high on the experience and on the day-to-day of of it it sort of when it connects, but then leaving, that's where you get the perspective and then you go back to the studio months later and you go, "That doesn't work.
59:07
That that you blah blah blah."
59:07
It's the same thing here.
59:09
You know, when we played these two shows in Amsterdam, we all fly home on Sunday and then we have 2 weeks to Stade de France.
59:15
And I think the the reflective time at home when we come back to Stade de France, we'll go, "Okay, that needs to be nipped and tucked.
59:25
That needs to be nipped and tucked and blah blah blah."
59:26
And then Stade de France will be its own thing.
59:31
And then for Hamburg in Germany the week after that.
59:33
You know, so every time you're in the trenches, you get out of the trenches, back to the trenches a week later.
59:39
So, we set this up kind of like Nashville touring.
59:41
This is kind of like we just play on the weekends.
59:43
So, it's not like we're here you know, Thursday and Saturday and somewhere else Monday and Wednesday or whatever.
59:50
about it every single time. Exactly.
59:50
I feel like we should have a good luck hug, given that we're right in the center of the entire space. Come on. Good luck tomorrow, man.
59:58
I'm so happy that you're here.
1:00:00
I'm so happy your whole team is here.
1:00:02
Thanks for joining and coming over and being a part of this uh Oh, good Christmas. It feels special, man. opening moment.
1:00:08
Yes, this opening moment. Come on. All right, then.
1:00:12
Dude, you got Bono on the edge on the heels with this one.