Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta has described the conversation with Metallica‘s James Hetfield that helped him stop drinking, saying the guitarist and singer told him to focus on getting through one sober show at a time.
Jasta, 49, spoke to Metal Hammer about meeting Hetfield backstage at MTV. According to the magazine, Jasta gave up alcohol in 2008. Hetfield himself had entered rehab for alcoholism and other addictions in 2001.
Jasta said the advice made staying sober feel less like an impossibility. He explained: “I already owed Metallica a huge debt of gratitude, because they played [Hatebreed’s] ‘Perseverance‘ music video when they hosted [MTV programme] ‘Headbanger’s Ball‘. So, when I became host, I told them I was trying to be sober at the time, and he said, ‘You just got to get through the first show.’”
He continued: “You just have to know that you can do a show sober. Once you do, once you get a couple under your belt, it gets better as you go, because it feels like such an impossibility. That’s just great life advice for anything: whatever you think is impossible, on the other side of doing it is the best feeling, because you had told yourself, ‘Oh, there’s no f**king way.’”
Metallica hosted the first episode of MTV2‘s revived “Headbangers Ball” in May 2003, and Jasta went on to become the show’s regular host, a role he held until 2007.
Jasta first spoke publicly about Hetfield‘s role in his sobriety in September 2019, when Hetfield returned to rehab and Metallica postponed their tour of Australia and New Zealand. At the time, Jasta wrote on social media: “Meeting James at MTV and speaking with him about my drinking problem was very eye-opening, because this is a guy who is in one of the biggest bands in the world, with so much pressure on him and so much weight to carry, and he really made me think: if he could quit, so could I.”
Jasta has fronted Hatebreed since the band formed in Connecticut in 1994 and is now the only founding member left in the group. Hatebreed have sold more than 1.5 million records in North America, and their song “Live For This” earned a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 2005 Grammy Awards. The award went to Motörhead for their cover of Metallica‘s “Whiplash“.
The band will release their new album, Fatal Paradox, on November 6 via BLKIIBLK. It is their first record without founding bassist Chris Beattie, who was dismissed in November 2024.
Beattie sued Jasta and the band in July 2025, claiming he is owed unpaid profits, including from merchandise sales and publishing. Earlier this year, a judge rejected the band’s request to throw out four of the six claims in the lawsuit, allowing the case to move forward.
Metallica begin their residency at Sphere in Las Vegas on October 1, with the run of shows ending on March 13, 2027. The band will then continue their “M72 World Tour” with North American stadium dates in May and June 2027, supported by Limp Bizkit and Avatar.
