METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett revealed to RollingStone.com in a brand new interview that the band will head back into the studio in May to begin a new project. “We want to record it in two weeks,” Hammett said. “We had planned on doing it in March, but we pushed it back to May. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s not really 100 percent a METALLICA record. It’s a recording project, let’s put it that way. Without getting too deep into it, it’s more a recording project than a bona fide METALLICA album. Whether or not we can pull it off in just two weeks remains to be seen.” 

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich hinted in an interview that the band plans to enter the studio this spring and begin working on material for its 10th album. Ulrich first told The Pulse Of Radio that the group was thinking of getting back to work in “March or April” and made similar comments to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, telling the paper, “In the past, we would be fed up with METALLICA whenever we returned home after a gigantic world tour, but this time it’s different.”

Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio that the band is having such a good time lately that it doesn’t want to take several years off between records like before. “Sometimes after these marathon tours that we go on, we end up really needing some time away. But right now there’s such a good vibe in the band — everybody’s just really having a good time, appreciating each other, appreciating METALLICA, that I don’t think it’s gonna be a year,” he said. “My best guess would be we’ll probably get back to it in the springtime, start piecing some riffs together, play some songs, have some fun, kind of approach it without sort of real deadlines or any of that type of stuff.”

METALLICA‘s turmoil during the early 2000s was well-documented in the film “Some Kind Of Monster”, but Ulrich told the Danish paper that the band members’ relationship has changed over the years. He explained, “It helps our relationships that we’ve all got families and children and they all get along with each other. We really like each other at the moment. There were a few years when things were really bad . . . the fact that we have something to talk about other than tonight’s setlist is or if someone made a mistake during yesterday’s show makes a big difference.”

Although the band has cut back on its touring schedule, it still played more than 200 shows in 45 countries in support of 2008’s “Death Magnetic” album. Ulrich said, “Of course it’s still hard to play that many shows, but the older you get, the less you take success for granted . . . It’s awesome that a bunch if semi-old farts like us can still travel around the world and thousands of people wanna share that experience with us.”

METALLICA will next headline the “Big Four” concert on April 23 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, also featuring SLAYER, ANTHRAX and MEGADETH.

The single U.S. date is the result of popular demand after the four bands went on a wildly successful seven-date European run last year, with more shows possible.

ANTHRAX was at Groovemaster Studios in Chicago, Illinois last weekend recording three new songs for the band’s next album. 

A video recap of the recording experience from guitarist Scott Ian can be viewed below.

In a recent interview with RockMusicStar.com, ANTHRAX singer Joey Belladonna stated about the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s new CD, “Well, there are three or four more cuts that need to be recorded. Vocally, I’m already into my fourth or fifth song as far as pre-production. I’m not laying down anything for real yet. I’m working out what I can move and what I can do and how I can make it better.” He added, “The three or four that I’m talking about may have some changes [made to them]. But I’ve had my moments of looking at some of the tracks and thinking how I’m I going to do this one and make it cool. It would be cool if we were starting from day one, but we are moving from point ‘A’ to point ‘C’ at this point.”

When asked if working on new ANTHRAX songs was a challenge because of the fact that most of the material was written for previous vocalist, Dan Nelson, Joey said, “I kind of hate that someone was already singing this stuff and now I have to kind of dance around it and do it all over. They (ANTHRAX) have in their mind already how they want it to sound, so it’s kind of hard to shake it away. They are not going to say to me, ‘Go on and do something totally different and we will just dig it.’ [Laughs] It’s hard, but I’m not worried about it.”

Paul Liberatore of the Marin Independent Journal has published a couple of short excerpts from legendary rocker Sammy Hagar‘s upcoming autobiography, “Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock”, which is due on March 15 via It Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

On Eddie Van Halen just before the VAN HALEN reunion tour in 2003:

“I hadn’t seen him in 10 years. He looked like he hadn’t bathed in a week. He certainly hadn’t changed his clothes in at least that long. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. He had on a giant overcoat and army pants, tattered and ripped at the cuffs, held up with a piece of rope. I’d never seen him so skinny in my life. He was missing a number of teeth and the ones he had left were black. His boots were so worn out he had gaffer’s tape wrapped around them and his big toe still stuck out.”

On VAN HALEN singer David Lee Roth:

“I hated Dave. The guy rubbed me wrong. I’m sure I rub all kinds of people wrong, so it’s not like I’m putting him down. The guy was a great front man, great attitude in rock, and had an image from hell, but I just couldn’t stand the guy. He was the opposite of what I believed in and what I am. First of all, the guy’s not a great singer and he acts like he’s the coolest, hottest guy in the world when, to me, he looks gay.”

On taking full advantage of his rock star status during his decade as lead singer of VAN HALEN:

“I was eating in the greatest restaurants, drinking the finest wine, flying on private jets, walking on stage to sold-out audiences going crazy. The only thing missing was … I don’t think anything was missing.”

Read more from Marin Independent Journal.

Hagar provides readers with incredible behind-the-scenes stories from his multi-platinum career, including his rise as a solo artist and his eleven years with VAN HALEN, after the controversial departure of original lead vocalist David Lee Roth. During Hagar‘s time with VAN HALEN, the band released four consecutive No. 1 albums. From worldwide stadium concerts tours to private jets, Hagar enjoyed the trappings of fame and success with VAN HALEN until he was, as he puts it, “unceremoniously fired.” Hagar later thrived as a solo act, leading his band, the CABO WABOS, before returning triumphantly to VAN HALEN for an historic reunion tour after which he set off on his own once again.

Honest and compelling, Hagar‘s account spares no one, least of all himself. Hagar‘s autobiography reveals the inside story of one of rock music’s most recognizable voices, from his humble beginnings in the town of Fontana, California, to his incredible business success with Cabo Wabo Tequila and the Cabo Wabo Cantinas. The book was co-authored by Joel Selvin, longtime pop music writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.