Halfin Ross - The ultimate Metallica

Note

As Lars has written such a great intro (and boys and girls he really has)

I feel I should explain a bit about the sayings of mine that he still retains

PFL: Protruding Forehead Look, as in anyone losing their hair, or in the case of Lars and me, a large forehead.

Cutting Into My Jack Time: This one came from Bonhams singer Daniel McMaster, who told me to hurry up as I was CUTTING INTO THEIR JACK TIME!

NF: Trust me you dont want to know! It started with the drawing on the inner bag ofAnd Justice for All.

Grumble: As in a person of the female varietyas in wheres the Grumble?

Easy Nick and I Told You: These come from Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain, who on the Iron Maiden Powerslave Tour would have tantrums like a three-year-old child all day, every day. Nicko would on many occasions scream at various people in hotels and airports I TOLD YOUfollowed by DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?Iron Maiden played (I think) 114 shows on that tour, and Nicko changed rooms at least 98 times. Once he came down screaming WHO PUT ME IN THAT ROOM? THE COLOR OF THE WALLPAPERS MAKING ME SICK.So anyone who complains or raises their voice is told Easy, NickI even to this day call all children Nick after Nicko.

Theres even a few more, but Ill spare you. Ask Lars

R.H.

Ross Halfin.

cuz hes mellowed out!!

Well come back to that.

Ross asked me to write the intro for this, the 147th installment in the Another Useless Book of Metallica Photos That You Dont Really Need/Want (he may have retitled it by now!!) and as Im sitting here trying to figure out what the fuck to write, it just dawned on me that the previous 146 installments all have intros written by various members of the band, in some cheap attempt to legitimize them, to make you, the Tallica fanatic, feel that this, the next waste of space in your library, has a legit value somewhere north of toilet paper.

The last time I did this pointless intro exercise was in the spring of 1996, when Tallica and Ross were about to be taking a much-needed break from each other after 12 years ofehworking together. Honestly, we had run out of white walls to stand in front of, run out of tourist monuments to be used as background scenery in far-off exotic locations, run out of things to say to each other, run out of insults to throw at each other. The creative well was, welldry. Our relationship remained on hiatus for over a decade. The astute and observant of you may notice a somewhat large gap in the timeline of photos in this here book, probably most evident in the hair department, or perhaps that should read lack-of-hair department. There were a few semi-courteous social encounters here and there over the years, but nothing inspiring, nothing spark igniting. Why did we start using Ross again, I hear myself ask Tony DiCioccio, feeling somewhat puzzled and bewildered on a recent April evening as I try to recallCuz you started talking to him again. Why did I start talking to him again? Cuz hes mellowed out!! Well, that sounds as reasonable as anything I can remember three years later on, soThen more or less, just like that, we picked it back up again in the summer of 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal, where after a couple of good shoot days and one long debaucherous night involving shots of a different kind and lots of catching up, it effortlessly fell back into place. The love is back. Alright, lets not go that farthe appreciation??? Yes, we can use that one. The appreciation is back.

Ross Halfin is an enigma. A contradiction. An artist. An effortless master of his niche. A rock n roll photographer. Mostly hard rock, mostly live. An enigma because he doesnt really seem to do all that much except click away. And the results of that effortless clicking away often seem so much grander than I anticipate. So much more intense, spectacular, and often more defining than expected. When I notice him lurking around the stage and I have a momentary awareness of his presence, it just doesnt seem like he does all that much. But of course, as all great masters of their domain, he has his thing down. Way down. And his thing is being not only in the right place at the right time, but at the right angle, with the right perspective, the right line of sight, etc. Thats why he is an enigma to me. Because I often cant correlate the results with such effortlessness.

Ross Halfin has also been a big part of my life. Hes photographed more of it than not. Hes inspired parts of my life. Woah!!! Time out. How about influenced? Thats better. He somehow, at a very young age when we were green and gullible, helped shape our outlook on the rock n roll life. He had a certain aloof relationship with his work, with the people around him that kept him from being too mesmerized with his subjects, prevented him from being star-struck that moved him closer, closer in. Often this aloofness would surface as a barrage of insults, put-downs, and wind-ups, which, especially to the young American subjects who were less schooled in the high wire act of British humor/sarcasm/irony, would often leave Mr. Halfin, to put it mildly, one of the least liked men in rock n roll. But it did somehow keep his feet planted firmly on the ground and, in some peculiar way, rubbed off on the rest of us. It was as if making fun of the all-around ridiculousness, the rock star element of the world we inhabited, prevented us all from getting too caught up in its web, its traps, and the shortfalls that came in believing in the elements of grandeur, invincibility, and the lack of mortality. I do believe that our exposure to the English ways, especially in the early years, helped us tremendously over time, and in some way you could argue that the small army of English tour managers, assistants, minders, and writers that hovered around us over the years and kept us in line had Ross Halfin as their spiritual leader.

I also love Ross Halfin. I love the fact he takes my picture. I love the fact that the guy who took all those iconic pictures of the people that most influenced me during my most impressionable years now takes my picture. By the way, those people being Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Harris, Lemmy, Phil Lynott, the list goes onset your watches to 1978 onwards. Think Sounds, think Kerrang! Think an open, receptive, enthusiastic young Danish kid following Rosss escapades on a weekly basis across the globe, with a relentless thirst to be there with him on his next adventure. That guy now takes my picture and I fuckin love it. Actually, he doesnt just take my picture on stage, he hovers, hangs out, gets in my face, invades my zone, pushes me to another levelI bet that over the years he has spent more time within three feet of me being spit and sweated on than any of the other cats in the band, or Flemming, my tech, for that matter. This probably is Ross Halfins strongest attribute. He just gets right the fuck in there, like I said before, closer in, more so than anyone else. Every drop of sweat, every molecule of saliva, every out-of-place nose hair, it all gets captured cuz hes just fucking there. And that just fucking there is who he is. His personality, his reason for being, his way. And thats why you not only have to tolerate his way and accept his way, but deep down inside, at gunpoint, you will have to admit to even liking his way. Admit to understanding it and, dare I say, loving it. Because the pictures, or photographs as some prefer, are unlike anybody elses, closer in, more invasive, justmore.