How did Metallica celebrate when their ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, debuted at Number One? "We bought a bunch of drugs and cars," jokes frontman James Hetfield. "No, we just looked at each other, our jaws dropped and we said, 'Man!'" The moment was especially sweet for Hetfield: "A couple of years ago, we were yelling at each other, breaking up the band — and now look!" he says. "It's surreal. And for me, being here very clean [and sober], it seems extra meaningful." Hetfield, 45, checked in from Glendale, Arizona, hours before the kickoff of Metallica's 70-date, nine-month world tour.

You guys have been gigging all year. What new songs have been the most fun to play?
Over the summer we did "Cyanide" and "The Day That Never Comes." On this tour, we'll be rotating in four or five new ones every night. We want to give them a chance to become evergreens, like "Fade to Black" or "Seek and Destroy." They didn't become evergreens by being a good song on a record, but because we played it, and the crowd learned that they have their own parts to sing.

Where did you write the lyrics for Death Magnetic?
Mostly at home. There was one song called "Shine" — it's not on the record but will come out sometime — that I wrote at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 2006, when we inducted Black Sabbath. I just got inspired, and I wrote it like poetry.

Most likely, Metallica will be inducted into the Hall of Fame next April. Who will be onstage with you?
Everyone that played on a record should be there. You're considered for the Hall 25 years after your first recording, not after you formed.

That would omit Dave Mustaine.0
He wasn't on a record. Jason Newsted should be up there — he was in the band for 14 years and played on quite a few records — and so should Robert Trujillo.

Will it be weird to be there with Jason?
There's no reason for it to be weird. We don't want to be part of the soap opera of the Hall of Fame. Everybody wants to see a train wreck, like with Blondie onstage arguing over crap [at the 2006 ceremony]. That really cheapens the moment.

Have you listened to the leaked tracks from Chinese Democracy?
I haven't. I'm sure Lars has heard it — he's a big-time Axl follower [laughs]. He's followed him around and annoyed him, trying to capture some of the rock-star-ness. We played a festival with them in Germany in 2006 — not on the exact same day — and we went down and watched them. The guy's a good frontman. There's a lot of extra stuff that goes along with that, but he is talented.

On the new cut "Broken, Beat and Scarred," you sing, "Show your scars." Are you permanently scarred by that 1992 pyro accident onstage?
From the human barbecue in Montreal? There's some scars, for sure. And I think at one point we did a body scan and put it in our fan-club magazine, highlighting my broken wrist, broken ribs, the burns, this and that. I ruptured a disk in my back on the Summer Sanitarium Tour a few years back. That's the nagging one.