Metallica‘s James Hetfield has looked ahead to 2024 and shared his hopes to continue to “try and improve myself”.
The metal legends have spent 2023 touring the world as part of their ‘M72’ shows, which are set to continue into the new year.
Frontman Hetfield has since reflected on another year of touring and new music with the band, which also included the release of their new album ‘72 Seasons‘ in April.
“I usually don’t put a lot of stock into New Year’s stuff, but reflecting on the past year, [I’m] super grateful for what I’ve got, what I’ve gone through,” he said during a new episode of The Metallica Report (per Blabbermouth).
“[I] always really look forward to what the next year will bring. The older I get, the harder and easier it gets. So, I’m always looking forward to getting back out on the road, playing some shows, seeing some faces, familiar faces and new faces at the shows.”
He continued: “So, yeah. I don’t know what else. I guess the new year is kind of a cleansing, and I’ve got a new goal or something. I’m really just continuing to try and improve myself, get better, have a better attitude about life, about other people’s lives, and just try to bring as much joy to people as possible.”
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This year Metallica unrolled their ‘No Repeat Weekend’ structure for their ‘72 Seasons’ tour – back-to-back nights in one location during which they performed two different setlists.
2023 also saw Metallica mark a new first in their decades-long career, performing their first show in Saudi Arabia at Soundstorm festival. This week they released footage of ‘The Unforgiven’ from the show.
Back in September, drummer Lars Ulrich said he was “happy” people “still stream or buy or steal our records”. He added: “I’m just happy that fucking anybody cares about what we’re doing and shows up to see us play and still stream or buy or steal our records or whatever.”
Earlier in the year, he opened up about how long Metallica will keep touring for, sharing: “There is a point where it’s maybe not going to function anymore.”