James Hetfield feels he & Metallica members are “individually … really average players”

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For James Hetfield, Metallica really is greater than the sum of its parts.

In an interview with Cigar Aficionado, the “Enter Sandman” rocker says, “I know individually we’re all really average players.”

“But when you put us together something happens,” he continues. “Something really happens.”

Hetfield also shares that “jamming with people is like a nightmare for me” and admits to feeling “so inadequate” during Metallica’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2009, during which they played with legends like Led Zeppelin‘s Jimmy Page.

“It’s a head game for me,” Hetfield explains. “I’m a perfectionist. And kind of a people pleaser. Most musicians are insecure.”

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