Metallica frontman James Hetfield continues the payday publicity blitz in an interview with Rolling Stone that comes straight out of the celebrity endorsement playbook for music games.

There seems to be a formula to these interviews: 1) Genuflect to rhythm games as a whole, citing at least one quality that inspires music appreciation. 2) Tell people how you, a world-class musician, suck atrociously at playing the instrument controllers. 3) Mention the oldest-school game you can think of when someone asks you what you grew up playing, even if you haven’t touched a console in years and won’t ever again once your game finally releases.

How does Hetfield do? Well:

1) “I think Guitar Hero is a great gateway drug to real music. If you’ve got the music bug, nothing’s gonna stop you. It’s your destiny to express your gift.”

Check!

2) “The initial thought was, ‘This is gonna be so easy.’ And then I picked it up and tried doing it. And it was like [makes plunking sound]. ‘Are you kidding me? You guys suck! You’re supposed to follow me!’ I gotta be on with the lines. And Metallica’s not as on with the lines as some other bands. Especially having Lars as a drummer [Laughs].”

A little overboard there, but still satisfactory.

3) [Q: What's the first video game you fell in love with?] “My buddy had Pong. We were obsessed with it. That was it, man.”

And … check! Awesome job, James Hetfield!

Metallica’s James Hetfield Calls “Guitar Hero” a “Gateway Drug”: Inside the Band’s New Game [Rolling Stone]

We don’t expect celebrities to genuinely be good at the video games they appear in, but one would think that Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich could play his own band’s songs in Guitar Hero. But no…

Disappointingly, the Metallica founder, who will digitally appear in Guitar Hero Metallica in May doesn’t have the skills to unlock his own song. Lars tells music mag Blender the sad tale of proving to his kids that, you know, there are actually Metallica songs in Guitar Hero III.

“We were never good enough to earn our way to play ‘One.’” Ulrich says. “So after a couple of months, my kids didn’t actually believe there was a Metallica song in this fuckin’ game, so I had to call the guys: “Can we get the cheat codes, please?” And the same thing with ‘Enter Sandman’ on Rock Band.’”

But wait, it gets more disheartening.

“I’ll tell you a little secret about the gaming industry: You know who gave me the cheat codes to Rock Band? The guy at Guitar Hero! Isn’t it nice how they all sort of work together in a perverse way?” Ulrich said. Well, that shatters the illusion that Harmonix and Neversoft employees guard their secrets with ruthless abandon and that if either developer is seen on the other’s turf, a switchblade fight ensues.

Lars also recounts the harrowing tale of being wedged into a motion capture suit, which Guitar Hero Metallica tune is his sentimental favourite and how three Kill ‘Em All tracks almost didn’t make it into the game.

Lars Ulrich Reveals the Secrets Behind Guitar Hero Metallica [Blender]

Even as someone who hasn’t taken to the post-Harmonix Guitar Hero games, Guitar Hero: Metallica looks like a bucket of fun. This four-minute trailer, of which 94% is gameplay footage, only seals the deal.

We don’t need ESRB leaks. Metallica themselves have gone one better and released the full, complete tracklist for the upcoming Guitar Hero: Metallica on the band’s website. And it’s a good one.

You’ll find most of the band’s older classics represented (”One”, “Master of Puppets”, “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, etc), and should also find the selection of tracks from “other” bands – like Kyuss, Queen, Slayer & The Sword – to your liking as well.

The complete tracklist below.

Metallica Songs

All Nightmare Long
Battery
Creeping Death
Disposable Heroes
Dyers Eve
Enter Sandman
Fade To Black
Fight Fire With Fire
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Frantic
Fuel
Hit The Lights
King Nothing
Master of Puppets
Mercyful Fate (Medley)
No Leaf Clover
Nothing Else Matters
One
Orion
Sad But True
Seek And Destroy
The Memory Remains
The Shortest Straw
The Thing That Should Not Be
The Unforgiven
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Wherever I May Roam
Whiplash

Other Artists

Alice In Chains – No Excuses
Bob Seger – Turn The Page
Corrosion of Conformity – Albatross
Diamond Head – Am I Evil?
Foo Fighters – Stacked Actors
Judas Priest – Hell Bent For Leather
Kyuss – Demon Cleaner
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Tuesdays Gone
Machine Head – Beautiful Mourning
Mastodon – Blood And Thunder
Mercyful Fate – Evil
Michael Schenker Group – Armed and Ready
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
Queen – Stone Cold Crazy
Samhain – Mother of Mercy
Slayer – War Ensemble
Social Distortion – Mommy’s Little Monster
Suicidal Tendencies – War Inside My Head
System of a Down – Toxicity
The Sword – Black River
Thin Lizzy – The Boys Are Back in Town

PS3 and 360 owners should note that if you’ve already got the “Death Magnetic” DLC, those ten tracks will be included in the game’s main “campaign” mode. If you’ve got World Tour on Wii or PS2 version, the tracks “Broken Beat & Scarred,” “Cyanide” and “My Apocalypse” will come included on the disc, since DLC is impossible/tricky on those systems.

Guitar Hero . . . The Songs [Metallica]

Metallica’s own Guitar Hero game will be riding the lightning on its way to retail shelves on March 29 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, according to the band’s official site.

The second-class consoles, Wii and PlayStation 2, will get their own versions of Guitar Hero: Metallica, but not until Spring, which translates to “likely in early May.”

Metallica’s official site reminds us about what’s new in Guitar Hero: Metallica, including 28 tracks from the titular band, as well as guest appearances from Alice In chains, Foo Fighters and Slayer. For more info, hit up the band’s official site.

Guitar Hero . . . Worst Kept Secret, Part II [Metallica.com]

Perhaps the most promising thing about Guitar Hero Metallica isn’t Metallica themselves, but the slew of accompanying artists that are also appearing in the game. One of those is Slayer. And getting Slayer was tough.

Despite “Raining Blood” already making an appearance in the series, courtesy of Guitar Hero III, Metallica drummer/public spokeshole Lars Ulrich has told Game Informer magazine:

I’m super psyched we got Slayer in there. Slayer’s got to be part of any heavy metal video game. There had been some issues with their lyrics. That gets into a whole slew of stuff like, ‘Microsoft won’t do it if this lyrical content is in there.’ There’s all this bullshit you have to deal with, but we stood up for Slayer, and we finally got Slayer cleared like a week ago.

Glad this is both coming up, and getting sorted out, now. Many of the world’s finest rock/metal songs have naughty words in them (an issue now because the game now uses both master recordings and on-screen lyrics), so hopefully more worthy, naughty bands can be included in the future, even if they don’t have angry little European men to lean on multinational corporations.

Metallica: getting Slayer into Guitar Hero was a challenge [Game Informer, via Opposable Thumbs] [Image]

Who gets the exclusive first trailer for Guitar Hero: Metallica? Well, Metallica does. The band revealed the game in motion via its official site, with a guest appearance from… Ennio Morricone?

No, we don’t think the score from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly will be playable, but it sets the mood. Perhaps it’s Metallica’s subtle way of saying that James Hetfield’s in-game character model is downright hideous? I mean, I know the dude’s not exactly oozing handsome in real life, but he looks goddamn scary in Guitar Hero: Metallica.

The rest of the trailer is all about “Master of Puppets” and self-promotion, touting 20 of the band’s “fiercest songs” and guitar or full band gameplay. I’m a little excited! I just hope we can revert to Garage Days Revisited skins and that Activision nixes any plans for a Cliff Burton zombie mode.

Guitar Hero: Metallica [Metallica]

Speaking with USA Today, the band have spoken on their hopes for the game, their involvement in the project and how the game has a…storyline. Lars Ulrich explains:

We wanted a little bit of a different slant. Basically, you start out and you play some songs and you get warmed up, and there’s a competition. We’re trying to pick a band to play with us and go on the road with us.

A storyline? How ambitious.

As usual, though, the most interesting thing anyone could string together came from Kirk Hammett, who is a lot more optimistic about the positive influences music games can have on kids than guys from other, shittier bands:

It is kind of weird to know that people are going to have an experience that is going to be similar to my own experience playing and performing music. It’s going to open people up maybe to the prospect of taking the whole thing one step further and actually picking up an instrument. We might be rearing an entire culture of future musicians. That prospect is just super-cool.

Plenty more stuff at the links below, including the first screenshots.

First look: Metallica gets ‘Guitar Hero’ treatment [USA Today]

“We had to make a decision, and it was one or the other, and we felt that Guitar Hero were more suited for what we were looking for,” Ulrich said. You know, Lars, we may not be thinking of the same reasons, but that actually makes perfect sense.

A handful of Metallica tracks have appeared in Harmonix’s band game, but it sounds like Lars is implying that the band may be “proprietary” to Activision and Red Octane’s brand, something CEO Bobby Kotick had warned us about.

Harmonix reps told us earlier this year that the stealth- announcement of Guitar Hero: Metallica doesn’t alter their own plans for more Metallica DLC. We’ve seen no new Metallica tracks added to Rock Band’s library, with the exception of “Battery” from Rock Band 2.

Ulrich also teases briefly about Guitar Hero: Metallica, the game that we all expect to see sometime in 2009.

Lars Ulrich Tells Why Metallica Went With ‘guitar Hero’ [KBS Radio]

[thanks everyone who sent this in!]