Metallica frontman James Hetfield will make his first major public appearance since entering rehab last fall on January 30th, when an exhibit featuring 10 of his classic custom cars opens with a ticketed reception at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Hetfield will take part in a chat and help auction two of his ESP guitars at the event. The exhibit officially opens to the public on February 1st and will also feature guitars and other memorabilia in addition to the cars. It's expected to remain at the Petersen into October.
Hetfield has been largely out of the public eye since last fall when Metallica canceled an Australian tour and announced that Hetfield was returning to rehab to battle his addictions. The singer/guitarist first got treatment in 2002, a process that was chronicled in the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster.
Among the cars on display at “Reclaimed Rust: The James Hetfield Collection” will be Voodoo Priest, based on a '37 Lincoln Zephyr, a '36 Auburn roadster named Slow Burn, a Delahaye inspired '34 Packard, a '36 Ford in bare metal called Iron Fist, a purple '56 Ford F-100 pickup truck and Skyscraper, Hetfield's 1953 Buick Skylark.