James Hetfield Autographs
James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, co-founder, and a primary songwriter of heavy metal band Metallica. He is mainly known for his raspy voice and intricate rhythm playing, but occasionally performs lead guitar duties and solos both live and in studio. Hetfield co-founded Metallica in October 1981 after answering an advertisement by drummer Lars Ulrich in the Los Angeles newspaper The Recycler. Metallica has won ten Grammy Awards and released 11 studio albums, three live albums, four extended plays, and 24 singles. Hetfield is often regarded as one of the greatest heavy metal rhythm guitar players of all time.
In 2009, Hetfield was ranked at No. 8 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists and No. 24 by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. In Guitar World's poll, Hetfield was placed as the 19th greatest guitarist of all time, as well as being placed second (along with Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett) in The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists poll of the same magazine. Rolling Stone placed him along with bandmate Kirk Hammett as the 23rd greatest guitarist of all time.
Hetfield was born on August 3, 1963, in Downey, California, the son of Cynthia Bassett (née Nourse), a light opera singer, and Virgil Lee Hetfield, a truck driver. He is of English, German, Irish, and Scottish descent. He has two older half-brothers from his mother's first marriage and one younger sister. His parents divorced in 1976 when Hetfield was 13. They were strict Christian Scientists, and in accordance with their beliefs, they strongly disapproved of medicine or any other medical treatment and remained loyal to their faith, even as Cynthia was dying from cancer. This upbringing became the inspiration for many of Hetfield's lyrics during his career with Metallica, most notably in the songs "Dyers Eve" and "The God That Failed" from ...And Justice for All and Metallica respectively. Cynthia died of cancer in February 1980, when Hetfield was 16 years old. After the death of his mother, Hetfield went to live with his older half-brother David. Virgil died in early 1996, before the release of Metallica's Load. Hetfield attended Downey High School for his freshman and sophomore years and graduated from Brea Olinda High School in 1981.
Read more about James Hetfield on Wikipedia
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Current items with a signature of James Hetfield
These are the most current items with a signature of James Hetfield that were listed on eBay and on other online stores - click here for more items.
Traded items with a signature of James Hetfield
The most expensive item with a signature of James Hetfield (Metallica Signed Guitar SET OF 4 JSA James Hetfield Kirk Hammett Ulrich Trujillo) was sold in November 2025 for $15,000.00 while the cheapest item (Metallica James Hetfield signed 8x10 Photo) found a new owner for $0.01 in December 2019. The month with the most items sold (62) was April 2026 with an average selling price of $204.99 for an autographed item of James Hetfield. Sold items reached their highest average selling price in November 2022 with $899.00 and the month that saw the lowest prices with $1.00 was May 2017. In average, an autographed item from James Hetfield is worth $120.00.
Most recently, these items with a signature of James Hetfield were sold on eBay - click here for more items.
