Baroness and Metallica have not had the best of luck with busses. Metallica's cost the life of bassist Cliff Burton and Baroness' almost cost frontman John Baizley his arm (and the band damn near fell apart afterward). Now Baizley sat down and shared the story in an interview with Rolling Stone about how he talked to James Hetfield about what had happened and how Hetfield was pretty much there for him.
“His call was [as] important as every other call I got that week. I have since come to learn that, while I was in the hospital — roughly two and a half weeks, which felt like two and a half decades for me at the time — there were a lot of people who were nervous or somewhat reticent to call me; they didn’t know what condition I was in, or they were concerned that I needed time or space. I really didn’t. In fact, each time somebody called me from the States, it was a huge relief for me; it was a reminder that there was still a world out there moving on, and that in turn led me to believe that there was a place for me to work towards after my immediate situation was over.
But it was very hilarious the way he called. It was late at night in the trauma ward; most of the people I was in the room with were elderly, and they’d gone to bed early. I wasn’t going to bed at all, for some obvious reasons; it was very difficult for me to sleep. The nurse was an older lady, and she said, “Somebody just called you — a Jim Hatfield or John Hartfield, something like that. I told him I wasn’t sure if you were awake or taking calls.” I said, “I don’t know anybody by either of those names, but I don’t care if they’re trying to sell me a dishwasher or life insurance — bring me the number, because I need somebody to talk to, desperately!” So she handed me the little slip of paper with James Hetfield‘s name and cell-phone number on it [laughs].
So I called him up, and I had one of the most realistic and honest conversations that I had that week. He gave me obvious but very good advice. Coming from Hetfield, who’d been through a tragic bus-related incident, and things that were more severe than what I went through, his words had a little bit of weight to them. When he said, “Don’t worry; things will get better,” I thought, well, if it got better for him, it will get better for me. And I had many other conversations that weren’t with Metallica members, where people were telling me things I needed to hear, because I wasn’t quite believing them myself at the time.”
Wow. That's great that Hetfield wanted to talk to Baizley about the whole thing, considering he'd been through it. I guess it just goes to show that no matter how big some people might get, they still care about their fellow human being.
Sidenote- wouldn't Baizley and Hetfield make an awesome, twangy rock n' roll duo?
