What’s the music really about? Phil Towle, the performance enhancement coach who “saved” Metallica…
What’s the music really about? Phil Towle, the performance enhancement coach who “saved” Metallica, probes the struggling youth in every hard-core rocker.
PT: James lost his only parent at 16 and felt abandoned. Lars came from a comfortable background, but he needed to control the future. Kirk was a mediator in a family of strife. They seem to have carried their childhood roles into their adult lives. Is this the essential story in all of our lives: that the roles we develop at age 12 or 16 don’t work forever?
Phil Towle: Yes. That’s why we can relate to “Some Kind of Monster” and to that human struggle.
The band is a family system, dysfunctional as others can be, but with great attachments. When the calibration was off, they were aware that something was wrong. They just didn’t know what to do. Their last couple of albums were not as good as they wanted them to be.
They would each attack the other. The more intense the conflict gets in any relationship, the closer you are to wanting to resolve something. The degree of conflict simply signals that you desperately want to do something about it, but are still committed to the old unhealthy ways of dealing with it. You either fragment or find some way to come together. They were ready for somebody to come in.
PT: These are poster boys of rage, yet even they found they have to look inside the rage.
Phil: Rage is the highest degree of fear of not being able to connect with another human being. Lars and James formed this group out of nothing. They couldn’t have done it without the love that they felt. Their songs all express pain about unrequited love. Adults get scared by this kind of music because they don’t understand. The music is in your face forcing you to listen–“I understand you, goddamn it.” Parents should be helping their kids listen to this kind of music.
PT: In the course of your work with Metallica, did you hear the music change in any way?
Phil: The music never lost its edge or passion; it just shifted from more of a fear base to a love base. And it is still shifting. The second and third albums will be better. These are individuals whose histories do not reflect ease of togetherness or trust and love. That’s why they’re so authentic in their ability to tap into the world of the disenfranchised.
PT: But who has had a childhood that makes it easy to trust and to love?
Phil: Nobody. That’s why we can all relate.
Source: from Psychology Today issue dated 2004-10-13