Metallica's Hetfield Earns Haters in Hikers

Posted on Aug 19th 2008 5:00PM by Benjy Eisen
Comments

One of the most expensive places to live in the Bay Area (and just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco), Marin County has always been a refuge for rock stars who have made it big, have lots of dough and wish to escape the city. At the same time, the county still carries many of the hippie ideals first imported to it from San Francisco's Summer of Love era.

Enter Sandman, err, James Hetfield. The Metallica frontman has long owned a 500-acre property in the area and, since then, also acquired an adjacent ranch. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Hetfield made plans to build a 14,000-square-foot house, a 6,000-square foot studio and additional installations. While building hasn't commenced, the property does overlap with a public trail popular with hikers, bicyclers and equestrians.

Hetfield -- whose albums with Metallica include titles such as 'Kill 'Em All' and 'St. Anger' -- recently erected a tall and impenetrable metal fence (complete with barbed wire), preventing use of the otherwise public trail. Recreational traversers are angry, to say the least. While city officials recognize his rights as property owner, they're hoping to work out a deal with him that would allow access to the trail while still keeping the rest of his property closed off. To bite another Metallica title, doing so could conceivably, um, create justice for all.