Metallica diary-1

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12 Feb '01

the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals discussed Napster again and ended up with the following.

- Napster knew its users were violating copyright laws

- Napster can continue operating until a lower court redrafts its injunction.

- Napster must lock out those users who exchange copyrighted songs without permission as they are infringing on the copyright holders' rights to control the reproduction and distribution of their music. Hearing this, Metallica made an official statement and posteded on metallica.com It said:
"From day one our fight has always been to protect the rights of artists who chose not to have their music exploited without consent. The court's decision validates this right and confirms that Napster was wrong in taking not only Metallica's music but other artists who do not want to be a part of the Napster system and exploiting it without their approval.
We are delighted that the Court has upheld the rights of all artists to protect and control their creative efforts. The 9th Circuit Court has confirmed that musicians, songwriters, filmmakers, authors, visual artists and other members of the creative community are entitled to the same copyright protections online that they traditionally been afforded offline.
We have never objected to the technology, the internet or the digital distribution of music. All we have ever asked is that artists be able to control how, when and in what form their creativity is distributed through these channels. This is something that Napster has continually refused to do. Now the court has made that decision for them."

9 Feb '01

While there is quiet in the Metallica camp, the members sees their chances to be onstage with other bands and artists. Jerry Cantrell's band played on a local bar in San Francisco. Lars was there to support Jerry and accted as the Guitar roadie, handing up guitars to the guys on stage. Jerry also introduced him to the crowd. Cantrell was once a member of Alice In Chains.

21 Feb '01

Metallica picked the Grammy award for best "Rock Instrumental Performance" for the S&M version of "The Call of Ktulu". This is Metallicas 6th Grammy.

5 Mar '01

The issue of Playboy with the much talked about Metallica interview was released. The interview was done a few months earlier, before Jason told the band he wanted to leave. The journalist had talked to the guys one by one, and the result was not as planed. In the article Metallicas statements were put together which made it look like they were four childish guys fighting every day. Playboy Magazine also sent out a press release about the interview to promote the rag, so the news that Metallica was about to break up was spread like wildfire. Some quotes from the interview: James Hetfield's "vocal range is limited" but improving, according to Newsted. Lars Ulrich said Hetfield is homophobic, and continued: "I think homophobia is questioning your sexuality and not being comfortable with it." James Hetfield recalled that Danish-born Ulrich rarely bathed during the band's formative days in the early 1980s, and was not a good drummer. "To this day he is not Drummer of the Year. We all know that" he said.

27 Mar 01

Metallica complained to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco that Napster has failed to block access to its music as ordered under the court's injunction The U.S. recording industry accused Napster of willfully ignoring a federal judge's order to block copyrighted material, saying the Internet song-swap service was still facilitating the trade of millions of illegal music files.

1 Apr '01

Jason Newsted took his first steps alone when he joined "The Moss Brothers" on stage in San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley. The Moss brothers, Reuben and Evan 12 and 15 years old were good friends of Jason who has layed down the bass tracks on their two albums. "I am going to live my life." Jason told the fans waiting outside for autographs after the show when asked about why he left Metallica. "I couldn't live my life until now. I'll keep doing little things like this, you'll see me around."

4 Apr '01

Godsmack had a concert at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. At the start of the encore. Sully, the vocalist, rolls out some guy in a wheel-chair, and everybody was like: "Hey, that's cool. Sully brought a wheel-bound stricken person to enjoy the on-stage performance. Lars Ulrich was the one sitting in the wheel-chair. He got to his feet, took a drink of beer, and squirted it -water fountain style into Sully's open mouth. Lars then acknowledged the crowd, hugged Sully, and walked off stage.

23 Apr '01

The 3 surviving members started working in the studio with no new bass player. Behind the production knobs, once again, was Bob Rock. Thru the official website metallica.com Lars told the fans that "We've got a shitload of sick ideas and it's really cool to get back to being a band again". At that time the album was planed to be released late 2001, but we all know that this didn't happen.

4 May '01

Short break from the studio. Lars went on paternity leave and brought back a healthy young lad named Layne Ulrich, born on Sunday, May 6th. James went bear hunting in Russia.

18 May '01

Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina club, has been a celebrity destination since Hagar became an active owner and host at the hot Cabo San Lucas, Mexico nightspot in 1989. Since then, the legend has grown and "drop- in" jams have become a regular occurrence. A local band of Mexican rockers calling themselves "Vitamin T" were in the middle of a set, jamming to a cover of the Metallica song, "Until It Sleeps." At the mid-point of the song, vacationing Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett walked into the club. In the true spirit of the "Cabo Wabo Cantina," Hammett immediately made his way to the stage and joined "Vitamin T' for over an hour in an impromptu jam.

21 May '01

lars was asked if he could come down to KSJO, a radio station in San Francisco, for an interview. He said yes, but not for an interview. "I want to do my own radio show". Lars was supposed to start the show at 8pm, but late as always he showed up at 8:30, but did a good show, lasting 4 hours. He didn't talk a lot, but played a ton of music like songs by orginial artist of Garage Inc., some music from the NWOBHM album he put together som years ago and a few original Metallica demos from the early 80s.

30 May '01

May 30th: with fresh new energy, the band once again entered the studio to create and record more music

14 June '01

Embarking on their second hiatus of the summer, which started on June 14th and involved long-planned travels for Lars and James whilst Kirk continued to spend time with his newly discovered sport - surfing. He went to Santa Cruz, and visited the headquarters of wetsuit company, and overall beach apparel giants, O'Neill, where he surfed wiith some of their team riders.

12 JUL '01

Metallica and Napster announced the settlement of their legal dispute. The settlement enabled the parties to work together to make Napster a positive vehicle for artists and music enthusiasts alike. The band and the software company released a press release where Lars Ulrich said: "I think we've resolved this in a way that works for fans, recording artists and songwriters alike, Our beef hasn't been with the concept of sharing music; everyone knows that we've never objected to our fans trading tapes of our live concert performances. The problem we had with Napster was that they never asked us or other artists if we wanted to participate in their business. We believe that this settlement will create the kind of enhanced protection for artists that we've been seeking from Napster. We await Napster's implementation of a new model which will allow artists to choose how their creative efforts are distributed. It's good that they're going legit."

19 Jul '01

Metallica announced that the recording, and every other work with the band, had been delayed. Reason: James entered a rehabilitation facility to undergo treatment for alcoholism and other addictions. The official statement said: James has entered an undisclosed facility, and he will continue to receive treatment until further notice. Until then, we have postponed all current activities, including recording sessions for our new album.

1 Sep '01

Big things happened at the Betallibash 2001 fan convention in San Francisco. A lot of fans entered to meet each other, get some Metallica goodies and see the tribute band Creeping death. During the set played by Creeping death Lars and Kirk showed up and not only watched, but joined. Together they played "Die, Die My Darling", "No Remorse", "Helpless", "...And Justice For All", a jam of "Ride the Lightning", and finished off with "Am I Evil."