Metallica Frontman’s 2015 Highlights: Life, Family, Baroness, Bieber

I wish we at MetalSucks had thought to ask Metallica’s James Hetfield for a “Best Of 2015” list. It turns out that he’s got it down awesomely, if we’re to judge from his informal “Papa H’s Top 10 Thingz Of 2015” list that surfaced Tuesday night. It was shared with members of Metallica’s fancy club, but it’s a revelation about things — sorry, thingz — unknown to casual fans of his iconic band. We learn that his son is tall and named Castor. We share his excitement about a rad new metal record and a rad dude’s return to a rad band. We envy Hetfield’s encounter with the singer of fucking Led Zeppelin and his playdate with a big gun aboard a helicopter. We groan about his plugs for the forthcoming Metallica record and for their VIP ticket packages. Here it is:

Anyone in sales should be pumped about a shout-out from a figure of Justin Bieber’s level of influence, but we might ask Hetfield to elaborate on its rank among the best moments from a period of 365 days. That beats all those hugs from Kirk Hammett at sunset? And “best guitar sound yet” is alarming in light of the common opinion that Metallica tone has been dogshit for two decades. No biggie, the happy stuff on his list is wonderful: Hetfield is alive and cheerful, while kinda a lot of our kind have died or surrendered to bitterness. See you in 2016 James Hetfield!!!