Metallica Members say they were ‘Shocked’ by Hetfield’s Return to Rehab

Nearly a year after James Hetfield checked into rehab to deal with his addiction to alcohol, his bandmates are finally speaking out on the issue.

In an interview with Metal Hammer, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo and Lars Ulrich say they were completely caught off guard by Hetfield’s September 2019 relapse, which forced them to postpone Metallica’s tours of Australia and New Zealand. “We really didn’t see it coming,” Trujillo says. “James seemed like he was fine, but then you look back and you try to analyze the situation over time and see where there were red flags. Being on the road can be very challenging, and I would imagine for James, to get up there in front of all those people and have to be ‘on,’ meanwhile your family’s not with you and all these things are going on, it builds up.”

Hammett adds he was so blindsided by Hetfield’s admission that it took him “a while” to get over it. “Whenever something happens to a band member like this, it’s so deeply unsettling,” he says. “It comes as a shock. You have to do a bit of scrambling just to cover some ground.”

Do you think going public with his addiction made it easier or more difficult for Hetfield to beat it?