During the 1991 Gulf War, the band expressed direct criticism of political leadership. During live performances of "One" (a song highlighting the horrors of war), James Hetfield frequently dedicated the song to American politicians and President George H.W. Bush, often criticizing the political rhetoric surrounding the conflict and the human cost of war.
It's not just money, but also about it. It's easier for people in general, even musicians, to not critically think about issues. Specifically as we get older, if we don't take measures like reading, evolving, etc, it's easy to essentially get dumber. Hetfield probably measured the audiences by spouting little tidbits of BS at shows over the years, and realized at least a sizeable portion of their fans would placate him standing for nothing good. It's sad, but unlike him, Tom Morello stays informed, evolves his views, and is standing on business.
He grew up lower middle class, his dad abandoned his family at 13 and his mom died of cancer at 16. Both parents gone before he was out of high school. And he worked at a sticker factory before quitting his job to play guitar. Privileged?? Do you even know who you’re talking about?
Also, this gulf war claim is complete ai-fabricated slop without an ounce of truth to it. Very likely posted by a bot fyi.
How he started vs where he is now doesn't mean he is not as privileged. He had a rough life at the start, but that doesn't change or diminsh what they had said or James' position in life now
There is a difference between coming from a place of privilege vs getting to a place of privilege to afford to not be affected by the issues of the world any longer.
When they started, he was from a lower middle class family, he was young and made anti war songs like one, disposable heroes, and justice for all etc etc...
Now he's farrrr removed from any of that. He is out of touch, lives in a 11000 square feet mansion.
He is undoubtedly in a privileged position now (that he has undoubtedly made for himself) but that puts him in a postion to afford to lean a certain way in politics and not be personally affected in anyway.
That is a privilege.
If you can't see that, you simple do not WANT to see the difference.
This whole “privileged” crap is so stupid. People slap a word on anyone they please as the most superficial judgment on them, without depth or context. But notice how they conveniently cherry-pick who they call “privileged”…
The whole "enhanced interrogation" aka torture program was developed by and authorized by the George W. Bush administration. The President to end it was Barack Obama. The people tortured live in Guantanamo Bay prison camp until they die. They can't be tried for crimes because all the testimony came from torture, not to mention some of their brains are now mush. Who was punished for it? The one CIA whistleblower, literally no one else involved faced any punishment.
Yeah I'd say advocating for torture is a conservative position, at least in the lens of the United States that Hetfield is talking about here.
I’m sorry but I don’t think the Bush Administration can lay claim to playing loud music to keep prisoners awake. It’s a technique that has been used for decades.
Again, many militaries serving left wing governments have enthusiastically engaged in torturing prisoners.
Big props to Skinny Puppy and I wouldn’t want any of my creations used in the torturing of prisoners for any reason, but there’s nothing about torturing prisoners that is right wing or left wing. It’s just a war crime and war crimes are perpetrated across the political spectrum.
Maybe that’s where the misunderstanding. I agree any musician used for torture is not inherently political.
What I am saying is that as a musician, not being offended and even embracing this fact is most certainly right leaning. No left wing citizen or politician is going to be happy about their music used for torture.
I think that’s where we disagree. Left wing movements, governments, paramilitary groups, etc, have used torture just as often as their equivalents on the right. To the rapturous approval of their supporters.
Not really. The left was mostly against it.
Democrats and liberals in general supported the war.
But they aren't really left wing. And America's democrats generally rank as center to center right as far as global political trends go.
That’s his right to do so if he wants. We have different political parties in this country and people are free to choose the one they want. And it’s a beautiful thing.
But of course most of you redditers would love to have a single party system where anyone who thinks for themselves or dares to dissent gets thrown into the wood chipper.
Mmm it's crazy how basically any version of "I'm not political" these days just means "I'm MAGA all the way but for some weird reason advertising I'm a fascist makes people angry!".
I mean they also have a song with the lyrics "Ive even fucked a school girls twat". That plus the whole napster thing always made me wonder why people support them so much
Yeah.but this genocide has brown people dying and it's far away so now James is like " hey hey... Let's not get political"
If it's true blue American boys slaughtering foreigners in their own country then James has a crisis of conscience an is like "hey guys maybe American imperialism is bad?"
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u/Sad_Breakfast4930 17h ago
During the 1991 Gulf War, the band expressed direct criticism of political leadership. During live performances of "One" (a song highlighting the horrors of war), James Hetfield frequently dedicated the song to American politicians and President George H.W. Bush, often criticizing the political rhetoric surrounding the conflict and the human cost of war.