In August he discussed his method for relying on fans when he suffered a lack of confidence on stage. Now Hetfield says in a video for addiction service Road Recovery: "I've been afraid of responsibility my whole life - not wanting to take responsibility for myself."

He recalls an elementary school summer session where he was told to work with a group of fellow pupils on a film project. "I was, 'Hey, how about we do this?' and all these ideas. Then they said, 'Okay now, choose your leaders who's responsible for the stuff.'

"I shrunk, man. I got scared. The group was like, 'You're the leader because you had all the ideas.' I was like, 'No, no, no' - and I bailed. I was afraid of responsibility. Afraid of failure, maybe; afraid that I didn't know what I was really doing."