Dr. Anger: Talking with Phil Towle, Metallica’s Performance Coach, About Death Magnetic

A Wayward Blog Exclusive Q&A

By PETER RUGG

These are familiar times. In May 2003, early hype was going around that Metallica’s St. Anger was a return to form after a decade of mediocrity. Then the album came out and took a shit on everybody’s chest. These past few weeks have been the same, except it looks like the band’s new album, Death Magnetic, might actually be good. Phil Towle said this would happen.

Towle was Metallica’s performance coach during St.Anger’s recording. The footage of their excruciatingly awkward therapy sessions would later be the most fascinating part of 2004’s Some Kind of Monster. The documentary of the band’s near-implosion was better reviewed than the resulting album.

Phil Towle with clients, Metallica. Courtesy PhilTowle.com.

Before getting called in to save the band and get paid $40,000 a month doing it, Towle lived in Leawood and worked as a performance coach for football teams like the St. Louis Rams. He sold his home in 2006 to move to Northen California. We got Metallica’s therapist to give us his review of Death Magnetic and to talk about how the James Hetfield-Lars Ulrich relationship is the greatest love story of all time.

The Pitch: What’s your relationship with the band right now?

Phil Towle: I’m friends with the members of the band. I spoke to Lars just a couple of days ago, and we keep in close touch. There’s no professional contact at this point in time.

When you first started working with Metallica, you said the results wouldn’t be seen until the next album. Now that you’re listening to the new album, what are the results?

I think they’re in better shape to be successful creatively. And the music sounds like it to me. I feel their power. I feel their confidence. I don’t feel them as tentative. I feel they’re strong in their message musically and lyrically. It’s all visceral to me. They feel like they’re having fun and doing something they enjoy doing with each other. They feel to me like they enjoyed this project and enjoyed playing this music, and they did a great job.

Where is this band psychologically compared to where they were when you met them?

I feel where we were before was in the process of construction. And there is great pleasure one ought to get out of the reconstruction phase. But it’s different, like if you were rebuilding a house and you get to look at the foundation, and as you rebuild in the various different stages you appreciate what’s done, and in the end the end product is what they’re celebrating more now. They’re celebrating what they’re capable of doing. Although I’m real curious already to see what they’re going to do with the next album.