Metallica’s Full-Time Archivist: Probably One of the Better Jobs You Can Have
Maybe this isn’t news to the most hardcore of hardcore Metallica fans, but it’s the first I’m hearing of it: Metallica have their very own full-time archivist.
Lars Ulrich tells Revolver:
“We actually have a person who works for us, Bob Pfiefer, whose full-time job is to travel the world in solitude and try and unearth Metallica tapes and Metallica first-generation masters, and that type of stuff. That’s literally his only job! And you have to sort of be realistic about it. There’s some stuff that just doesn’t exist — no matter how many rocks you turn over, it’s just not going to show up. You can throw your little rock star shit fit, or whatever, but some of this stuff is just lost to time. When you’re looking for stuff from the Eighties and before, it’s pretty limited — a lot of radio stations didn’t keep all their archived stuff, TV shows often erased [their tapes] and recorded over it. For me as, say, a Deep Purple fan, I’m pretty sure that every single recording that exists of Deep Purple playing live from, say, 1969 to 1973, I’ve already heard. Because it’s not like two weeks of shows from their 1972 U.S. tour are suddenly going to show up in perfect condition. You kind of have to come to the conclusion that what’s there is there, and you accept that and move on.”
To reiterate: Metallica pay Bob Pfiefer a (presumably quite handsome) full-time salary (with benefits, I’d imagine) “to travel the world and try and unearth” super-cool, ultra-rare Metallica shit.
I’m not complaining. My job is awesome. But holy FUCK, that must be a fun gig, eh? Do you think he has business cards? I bet he has business cards. “Hey Bob, nice to meet you, what do you do?” “I’m Metallica’s archivist. I go around the world looking for cool Metallica shit. I’m like Indiana Jones, only exclusively for things related to Metallica. If they ever open a Metallibrary, I’ll probably be the curator.”
Shit. I wonder if any other metal bands have archivists. Anyone know if Pig Destroyer has one? Are they hiring?
[via The PRP]
