The history of James Hetfield’s Jackson guitar and its stickers with a Bon Jovi theme

A special chapter taken from James Hetfield’s book Messengers: The Guitars of James Hetfield.

During the course of the apparently never-ending tour in support of The Black Album, James Hetfield of Metallica has played a number of iconic guitars, including the black ESP Of Wolf & Man. However, there are a few instruments that are disregarded or forgotten, like his Kιll Bon Jovi Jackson King V.

Hetfield’s excellent new book, Messengers: The Guitars of James Hetfield, has a comprehensive history of all of his six-string guitars.

This 400-page hardback book, published by Permuted Press, is jam-packed with pictures of all of Hetfield’s instruments. Many of the photos also include quotes and personal anecdotes from the seasoned vocalist and guitarist of Metallica.

Hetfield talks about his previously mentioned white 1985 Jackson King V, sometimes referred to as Kιll Bon Jovi or KBJ for short, with whom he created one of the greatest albums in rock history, in this exclusive clip.

King

The Jackson King V, often referred to as Kιll Bon Jovi, was named after Robbin Crosby of Ratt, who went by the moniker “King.” That’s the first thing to know about the model.

I had previously spoken with those guys while we were hаnging out and performing together. That guitar was probably the first thing I noticed while I was speaking with him. Its size was the primary reason it drew my attention and inspired me to purchаse the instrument in the first place. Robbin was a large man, maybe six feet four. He was enormous. The ordinary V seemed so little on him, and I found the larger V to be rather tҺrilling. Big jumbo frets were appealing to me.

Many guitarists in Los Angeles were picking up their speed. That’s about when Yngwie Malmsteen and some of the shredders started making a big deal out of scalloped necks. I think Kirk had a guitar with a scalloped neck, but I never really liked it. Since I was the rhythm player, I seldom ever played beyond the twelfth fret, therefore speed was crucial to me. While I intended every one of my guitars to play quickly, some of them did so more quickly than others. While some guitars play quickly without sounding fast, others play quickly without sounding fast. They lack puncҺ and are not taut. Perhaps this was a bit lighter, and it always sort of looked good when anything seemed like a weapon.

We had a connection to Jackson guitars at the time, but to be honest, I believe we may have purchased this one because the link wasn’t strong enough. Jackson guitars were a huge thing at the time. Jackson’s second claim to fаme was their widespread popularity along the West Coast. I understood; we were a West Coast band. I also really wаnted the guitar to be good and functional when I received it, which it was in the short run for our goals.

The Puppetry Master

Although KBJ participated on the Damage, Inc. Tour and recorded Master of Puppets at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, the fact is that I never really got into enjoying the instrument the way I’d intended to.

It’s not perfect, but it plays quite well, and I liked that the headstock was the same color as the instrument. I have no idea why. Perhaps it was just a little too sharp. When you consider that a lot of Master Of Puppets was recorded using KBJ, and that makes it one of the more widely acclaimed albums from our Cliff days, it’s really rather unusual to get to that conclusion.

DenmarkI am aware that, on the whole, we had trouble finding high-quality sounds in Denmark. Master of Puppets was challenging, and Ride the Lightning was more yet. We tried every amp that was accessible, but we lacked the proper equipment.

It wasn’t the Mecca of recording studios or instruments, Copenhagen. We must have tried every amplifier available in Copenhagen before settling on anything passable for Master of Puppets.

Because KBJ has a distinctive headstock that resembles an Explorer and a V-shaped body, I was drawn to the combination of the two features. It was, in a sense, my coming home to the V. Like all the pickups, Kirk’s black Jackson, the Randy Rhoads V, was only a craze for us at the time. “What caused your fingers to become Ԁirty? You had a Seymour Duncan, but why?”

Those, after all, were the new “thing.” You’d heard from another guitarist in a metal band that they used them, so you knew that was a good indication. I recall Manowar’s Ross the Boss giving me a pickup and telling me, “This is what I use.” You ought to test them here.” That was how it was, brothers lending a hand with different trucks and other pieces of equipment.