James Alan Hetfield (August 3, 1963) in Downey, California, USA) is the rhythm guitarist, co-founder, main songwriter, and lead vocalist for the American heavy metal band Metallica. Hetfield co-founded Metallica in October 1981 after answering a classified ad by drummer Lars Ulrich in a Los Angeles newspaper, searching for band mates. Since then, Metallica have earned nine Grammy Awards and gone on to release nine studio albums, three live albums, two EPs, 24 music videos, and 45 singles. In 2009, Hetfield was ranked No. 8 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists. Hetfield was also ranked twenty-fourth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time.
***
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1981. The band was founded when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. Metallica's line-up has primarily consisted of Ulrich, rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, while going through a number of bassists (Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted). The spot is currently held by Robert Trujillo. The band's original lead guitarist, before Hammett, was current Megadeth guitarist and lead vocalist Dave Mustaine.
Metallica's early releases included fast tempos, instrumentals, and aggressive musicianship that placed them as one of the "big four" of the thrash metal subgenre alongside Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax during the genre's development into a popular style.
The band earned a growing fan base in the underground music community and critical acclaim, with the 1986 release Master of Puppets described as one of the most influential and "heavy" thrash metal albums. The band achieved substantial commercial success with their eponymous fifth album (also known as The Black Album), which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. With this release the band expanded its musical direction resulting in an album that appealed to a more mainstream audience.
In 2000, Metallica was among several artists who filed a lawsuit against Napster for sharing the band's copyright-protected material for free without any band member's consent.
A settlement was reached, and Napster became a pay-to-use service. Despite reaching number one on the Billboard 200, the release of St. Anger alienated many fans with the exclusion of guitar solos and the "steel-sounding" snare drum. A film titled Some Kind of Monster documented the recording process of St. Anger and the turmoil within the band during that time.
Metallica has released nine studio albums, three live albums, two EP's, 24 music videos, and 45 singles. The band has won nine Grammy Awards, and has had five consecutive albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200, making Metallica the first band to do so; this record was later matched by the Dave Matthews Band.
The band's 1991 album, Metallica, has sold over 15 million copies in the United States, and 22 million copies worldwide, which makes it the 25th-highest-selling album in the country.
In December 2009, it became the highest-selling album of the SoundScan era, surpassing 1997's Come On Over by country artist Shania Twain.
The band has sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide as of the release of their latest album, Death Magnetic. As of December 2009, Metallica is the fourth best-selling music artist since the SoundScan era began tracking sales on May 25, 1991, selling a total of 52,271,000 albums in the United States alone.
***
Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990's and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument. Some of her charting singles include Crucify, Silent All These Years, God, Cornflake Girl, Caught a Lite Sneeze, Professional Widow, Spark, 1000 Oceans, and A Sorta Fairytale, her most commercially successful single in the U.S. to date.
As of 2005, Amos had sold 12 million albums worldwide.[3]
[8964 Run-DMC / 8963 Hetfield / 8960 Bono]
