During a recent appearance on the latest episode of The Metallica Report, James Hetfield said his girlfriend Adriana inspired his new Lemmy Kilmister tattoo.
The Metallica frontman talked about how the idea came about:
“I guess downtime, you get a little creative in more than one way besides writing songs. It’s like drawing or, I got my Photoshop back up and working and fiddling around with shirt ideas and stuff like that. And, yeah, tattoos is just something I’ve always loved. I’m a logo dude, as we all know. So, yeah, getting the hands done.”
He Decided For A Tattoo After Adriana’s Loss
Hetfield wanted to have a memory of the late Motörhead singer:
“And then Adriana, my girlfriend, her best friend passed away. And we had just talked about the ability to put ashes in the ink to represent someone who you carry around in your life. So thinking up of ideas of what would represent that person and memories for their life — I mean, that’s really what they are; they’re memories — and remembering that I had been given some ashes of Lemmy and a little silver bullet that was like a necklace and using that to get my — yeah, the Iron Cross and the ace of spades.”
The vocalist thinks Lemmy should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
“So Lemmy is able to still fly the bird to the world via me. And just a reminder of what an inspiration he has been in my life — what to do, what not to do. And for me paying respects to him in maybe lieu of him being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which still continues to piss me off.”
James Revealed The Tattoo To His Fans
Hetfield showed his new Motörhead tattoo on the band’s Instagram last month. The middle finger tattoo contains Lemmy’s ashes. He wrote:
“With the steady hand of friend and tattoo artist Corey Miller, this tattoo. A salute to my friend and inspiration Mr. Lemmy Kilmister. Without him, there would be NO Metallica. Black ink mixed with a pinch of his cremation ashes that were so graciously given to me. So now, he is still able to fly the bird at the world.”
Metallica’s 2016 album, ‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct,’ included a track called ‘Murder One’ in honor of Lemmy, named after his favorite amplifier. Hetfield said Lemmy was a big inspiration, and Metallica wouldn’t be here without Motörhead.
After Hetfield divorced Francesca Hetfield, people started paying attention to his love life. Last year, he was seen looking happy with a new partner, Adriana Gillett. Adriana confirmed they’re together on Instagram with a post.