James Hetfield returned to public life last week after his stint in rehab when he attended the opening reception of his Reclaimed Rust: The James Hetfield Collection exhibition.
The Metallica vocalist and guitarist has lent the Petersen Automative Museum in Los Angeles 10 of his cars, along with a range of memorabilia.
At the event, Hetfield took to the stage for an interview in front of an audience and was asked what Metallica’s plans were for a new album – which will be the follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct.
He replied: “That's a great question. We do not know. Right now, I'm sitting in Petersen Museum, and I don't know what's going to happen next! That's the beauty of this. We'll sit down and figure out what works best for us.
“Whatever is coming up, we don't know. And we kind of thrive off of the fear of the unknown a bit, and being scared just enough to feel alive."
The Reclaimed Rust: The James Hetfield Collection is on now and will run through November 1.
Among the exhibits at the museum are Hetfield’s 1948 Jaguar ‘Black Pearl’ and his 1937 Lincoln Zephyr ‘Voodoo Priest’. The cars will be on display in the Bruce Meyer Family Gallery along with a selection of Metallica items and memorabilia, which includes his ESP Snow White Snakebyte guitar and the ESP Vulture in Black Satin.
Hetfield will rejoin his Metallica bandmates later this year for a series of US festival appearances, which will see there group perform two headline sets at each event.
