James Hetfield, I mean, the minute he plugs in his guitar and adjusts the tone knob, he comes up with the world's greatest riff.

We all grew up with Black Sabbath. I mean, there's no secret there. Any of us, any of the members of any band I've ever been in, or anyone I've ever worked with.

I was in a party band in the early '80s, and we played Sabbath and Ozzy songs as well as Rush and Van Halen... all that kinds of stuff.

With our fans, a lot of times, people get upset because maybe they didn't get what they wanted, whatever. But we always write the songs for us, number one.

It's always nice, no matter what style of music, as long as it's grooving and you feel that, I feel that's what makes... part of what makes a great song, for sure.

A lot of the hardcore fans wanna hear the deep cuts - songs like 'Orion' or maybe like a 'Disposable Heroes' - you know, songs that we don't play all the time - and then, of course, they wanna hear 'Sandman' and 'Nothing Else Matters' and some of the hits.

You've gotta be careful because art is really important to most people, and you wanna respect that as much as possible. So I live by that rule.

With our producer, Greg Fidelman, it was really a joy to work with him and to try different things and experiment.

Between 'St. Anger' and 'Death Magnetic,' we had, if I'm not mistaken, five kids born. And, of course, that would allow things to take time.

I think every Metallica album is unique in its own way.

If you choose to take care of yourself, you're going to get more mileage for your career.

There were a lot of different styles in the house - Motown, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, jazz - and my dad played flamenco guitar. Soon I realized that bass was what was really grooving me.

I've always been a fan of animation. As a kid, I used to watch a lot of the Saturday-morning cartoons, and I was always a fan of even claymation and that whole medium.

To have the opportunity to bring 'Tallica Parking Lot' to life through images was really special. And also to have a lot of my heroes and my friends in the film was really, really special. People like Lemmy from Motorhead.

As long as there is communication, everything can be solved.

Traditionally, the role of the bass player was just to keep things simple and solid, so it's really a special thing when you can get a player that can actually bring in a lot of presence and also a visual presence, too.

It's all about the experience and having a good time and connecting with the fans.

Don't make music to make money, because that's not why you should be doing it. Have fun, be creative, and embrace the past.

Sabbath is always some of the best music ever. And the reason is because it grooves. It's funky. It's heavy. It's got lots of great changes, twists, and turns.

I knew Rocky George, the guitar player, 'cause I went to junior high school with him, so I've known him for many years.

I'm always pulling and really feeding off of my inspirations. I think most musicians do.

One thing about being in Metallica is I've always felt challenged.

I play in Metallica, and I have fun in Metallica. I tell you, I am the luckiest man on the planet because we have a good time and we're happy. When we put on our guitars, we're teenagers again, and that's where the fun comes in.

It's really, really great; it's special when people embrace your music.

With my experience with Metallica, I've already surfed Portugal, Morocco, and all over Australia with Kirk.

My father had a friend who actually had a hollow-body bass guitar and didn't work through an amp, but because it was hollow body, I could play it. So I kind of played on that for about a year, learning scales and all that. And here I am.

For me, the most important thing that I tell young people is to have fun.

We like to challenge ourselves, and having new material and presenting it to the world is fun and exciting and fresh.

You want your fanbase and new fans too, to embrace the music, the new music.

Mike Clark, who's a really amazing surfer, got me back into surfing. I surfed a lot from '82 to '86, and then I kind of started slacking.

Being able to surf in Tahiti and places like Brazil was unreal.

I'm a person that takes on situations from passion. I get passionate about things, and I try to help.

It's really a rush and a thrill to feel you've been part of a body of music that's inspiring.

I went to jazz school. Not to say I'm a great jazz musician, but I studied under some great teachers. It was an important part of my life.

'Tallica Parking Lot' is, basically, roughly about a four-minute animated short which is centered around the parking lot of Metallica, and that can be anywhere in the world.

With the fretless bass, you have a different tone and different sound, a different dynamic to the instrument, so you can really make it sing.

That's what I find so special: when you actually imagine something. But really, when it comes to you in a dream, and then you can bring it to life on the screen, it's very powerful.

I've been wearing Vans since I was a little kid. I wear them on stage, and I grew up skateboarding and surfing.

We used to go to Palm Springs, ditch school when I was in eleventh grade, and go hang out poolside with our ghetto blaster and listen to Pat Metheny 'Offramp' and kind of trip out on a lot of his music.

I call it a process of elimination. You're nurturing ideas, and that takes time. What happens is there's so many, what I say, 'great ideas.' What you have to do is try to consolidate them and put them into one song, and then your song becomes eight minutes long.

There's a lot of personality in Lars's drumming. That's what makes it unique.

What we're doing is special and unique in its own way but still keeping it heavy. For me as a listener, part of the journey I'm on with Metallica, there's just a certain edge that needs to be there.

When I first heard the song 'Eruption,' which is Eddie Van Halen's most famous solo composition, I was confused because it sounded incredible, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't know if it was a guitar. I didn't know if it was a synthesizer or a keyboard. I couldn't figure it out.

You can make an album, and people won't get it. Or won't connect with it. Or won't - whatever is going on in the universe at that time, it doesn't really register.

I've been a baseball fan in the early part of my life, so through the '70s and the '80s, I was a huge fan. I actually followed the Dodgers back then, back in the Kirk Gibson years, Steve Garvey.

I feel that music is such an inspirational form of energy, as baseball is. And especially with Metallica, believe it or not, our shows are very physical. Sports is a very physical thing, too.

Lemmy is, I think, for anybody in the world of rock n' roll - you don't have to be a bass player - he is a pioneer, and he was true to his music and also the lover of a lot of different styles of music.

Sometimes artists die young, and we don't know exactly why. I think that, in life, you have these special individuals, whether it's Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin or Kurt Cobain. They're on this journey - they're on this earth to change things, to make things incredible - and then they're not with us anymore.

I've played with the best drummers in rock, ranging from Josh Freese to Brooks Wackerman to even Dave Lombardo.

Playing with Ozzy was a dream come true.