James Hetfield Inducted into High School Hall of Fame

Metallica's James Hetfield was inducted into his High School Hall of Fame at Downey High.  Hetfield only attended the school for his freshman and sophomore year, but he was recognized on May 27th.  This is part of his speech:

"I’m here to talk about the tough times that I made it through.  My father left when I was 13 and my mother passed away when I was 16. I didn’t get to finish high school here, which was very unfortunate, ’cause I did have a lot of friends here, and I ended up moving to a new school and having to live with my older brother. 

So high school was not the best time for me. But music was a savior — a very big savior in my life — and I was able to climb into other people’s heads and their records and get involved in music and, basically, instead of hanging out at school, I went home and practiced guitar, and that was what I did. 

The other thing I wanna say is that it was a very pivotal time and I did not know until now.  A lot of things happened in our lives and they happened for a reason.

The thing that happened to me I was on a football team as a freshman, I came back the next year to be on the sophomore team, and Coach Cummings was his name, he says, ‘You’re gonna have to get a haircut. Your hair is way too long; it’s past the ear.’ And I look at football players and I say, ‘Well… You have to have big hair to be a good football player.’ But at that point he said, ‘You’ve gotta cut your hair or you’re off the team.’ And at that point it was a very major decision. ‘Do I wanna be a rocker? Or do I wanna be a football player’ ‘Cause my whole life growing up, I wanted to be on the Oakland Raiders; that was it.

And the other dream was I wanted to be the guy on the poster — the Aerosmith poster I had in my room. So at that point I made a decision, so I handed in my gear and I just concentrated on music. So thank you to him for making me choose. He was very distinct, very distinct, and he stood his ground and so did I. So I’m very, very glad that that happened at this school.”

I just wanna say thank you to the Hall Of Fame for inducting this misfit. And to all the people that are here today and all the young kids that I see here that love music and are inspired by it and it drives them in their lives. You get your inspiration from wherever you can and live your dream to the fullest, ’cause it can happen."

I think this induction serves as a resolution to the past of some sort for Hetfield, because he had a troubled childhood.  Even though he's a multimillionaire, I think it's wonderful that he took the time to go to a small event like this.  One more reason to love Metallica. 

"Hetfield's high school picture"