Beyond Metallica: Memorable Side Projects of the Band’s Members

Sure, there were other metal bands before Metallica, but it's simply the reality that James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich and the band's talented bass players have helped define what it means to be a heavy metal powerhouse.

Metallica played their very first concert on March 14, 1982, at Radio City in Anaheim, CA, and today, they're showing now signs of slowing down. The band can easily sell out arenas and stadiums for two nights in a row, and that's exactly what they've been doing on their latest tour.

"Their ascent was to be relatively quick, driven by sheer work-rate, effort, and a rare musical chemistry," Metallica's official website notes, adding that "after hitting the opener’s circuit in LA (where they supported the likes of Saxon), they recorded their first-ever demo, 'No Life 'Til Leather. The tape-trading circuit went wild for it, and after repeatedly well-received shows in the Bay Area, Metallica found themselves relocating there after convincing bassist Cliff Burton to leave his band Trauma and replace McGovney."

Metallica has evolved over the years, but they've also kept a fairly consistent sound, which is either thrash or more melodic metal. While Metallica were pure thrash in their early careers, they switched gears to a more mainstream and melodic metal style of music later, and that made them popular worldwide. They lost some hardcore fans in the process, but it happens. The upside of Metallica going "mainstream" is that the band made metal music more known around the world and a simply a more popular musical genre.

Metallica is all metal, but some of their band members have dabbled outside of the metal world.

James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich Are Not Into Side Projects

Speaking with Meltdown of WRIF-FM, Hetfield said, Metallica's pretty much my side project. I get to do whatever I want in Metallica. [Laughs] There's not really a need for it. I write things that make me feel good, and if they end up in Metallica, then that’s even better. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they're like a 'Nothing Else Matters' kind of thing, and they're trying to be hidden: ‘Don’t listen to that.’ But, no, there's really no need for that. Or time — there's no time for that either. [Laughs]"

Speaking with Metallica's fan-club magazine So What!, Hetfield said the same thing and included Ulrich, too. "I think it's always been like that, and I still feel that a little bit," he said when asked about saying away from side projects, adding, "and I think Metallica, for Lars and myself— I'll speak mainly for me, but I know he feels the same way — Metallica is our side project, too," and "our main project, it's our side project, it's our 24-7 project. It doesn't mean that I don't want to try other things, like voiceover work, a book, photography, art, cars… you name it. I want it to add to me, not subtract from Metallica."

Robert Trujillo is a Bass Machine

As for Robert Trujillo, he's known for being a metal bassist, but he plays other genres, Motown included. In a 2023 interview with Meltdown, he talked about the impact that Motown had on him. "That was 100% in my wheelhouse," he said, adding that he grew up listening to that music and then was turned onto rock and metal. "There isn't a bass player in rock, in metal, and sort of in modern music, that's serious about their instrument that doesn't respect those bass lines coming out of Detroit," he added.

Trujillo also talked about how joining Metallica totally changed his life. He talked about joining the band and the work ethic that playing in Metallica brings, noting, "That's the thing about this band, it's always 100 percent."

But, in Trujillo's household, he says it's always creative, and that goes beyond music. He told the "Everblack" podcast, "My wife, she does her music actively, and she's got more projects than I even know" and that "she's doing a variety of original music-oriented projects, but she's also doing art and fashion."

He added that his daughter plays drums and is actually practicing three to five hours a day. So, in their household, "everybody plays instruments, everybody does art, music and plays piano, whatever."

Kirk Hammett Has Serious Side Projects

Hammett, however, is the one member of Metallica that has very distinct and real side projects. He released an album called Portals in 2022, an instrumental solo EP. Speaking with Kerrang! about Portals, he said that the first song, "Maiden And The Monster," came from an exhibition, while with the second song, "The Djinn," he "tried to write something really simple but when I sat down again with the initial idea it grew into a major piece because the ideas just kept coming."

He added, "I took it like, 'Okay, there are musical ideas resonating and it wants to become more than one musical idea,' and also said that "with enough ideas it becomes a song or an instrumental or whatever it needs to be."

Hammett also has a book called  Too Much Horror Business — The Kirk Hammett Collection and is known to be a total fan of all things horror. He has also produced horror movies.

On Sotheby's YouTube channel, he says, "Heavy metal and horror movies come from the same sources, they come from the same seeds, they have a lot of the same imagery and subject matter and whatnot" and that "for myself, part of the appeal of horror movies is coming in contact with my own mortality but not having to pay the price."

He adds, that more of the appeal of horror movies is "reliving a death or something without having to go through the actual experience" and "bringing yourself to a point where you're maybe in a state of fear, but for your own pleasure."

So, while the members of Metallica stick to Metallica for their main band, there's nothing wrong with having interests in other areas, and they certainly do.