“We were sleeping on the floor, stealing food, stealing bikes”: Metallica turned to “thieving” to survive the early ’80s, says James Hetfield

While recording at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Metallica had to “borrow [things] forever” to make ends meet

Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield has revealed the lengths the heavy metal titans had to go through to make it through the early ’80s – and that they sometimes had to turn to “thieving”.

Hetfield made the revelation on the new episode of official podcast The Metallica Report, where he reminisced on recording classic albums Ride The Lightning (1984) and Master Of Puppets (1986) in Sweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen.

While in Copenhagen, Hetfield says, the band had to resort to theft so that they could afford to stay.