James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963) is the rhythm guitarist, co-founder, main songwriter, lead vocalist, and lyricist for the American heavy metal band Metallica.
Hetfield co-founded Metallica in October 1981 after answering a classified advertisement by drummer Lars Ulrich in the Los Angeles newspaper "The Recycler".
In 2009, Hetfield was ranked number 8 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists, and ranked 24th by Hit Parader on their list of The 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time.
