James Hetfield commenting on "Fade To Black"

 

"That song was a pretty big step for us. It was pretty much our first ballad, so it was challenging and we knew it would freak people out. Band like Exodus and Slayer don't do ballads, but they've stuck themselves in that position we never wanted to do; limiting yourself to please your audience is bullshit.

Recording that song, I learned how frustrating acoustic guitar can be. You could hear every squeak, so I had to be careful. I wrote the song at a friend's house in New Jersey. I was pretty depressed at the time because our gear had just been stolen, and we had been thrown out of our manager's house for breaking shit and drinking his liquor cabinet dry. It's a suicide song , and we got a lot of flack for it; kids were killing themselves because of the song. But we also got hundreds and hundreds of letters from kids telling us how they related to the song and that made them feel better. "
 

Source(s): GuitarWorld issue of '91, "Fade to Black" Song Info Encyclopedia Metallica
 

 

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