Metallica lead singer, rhythm guitarist, co-founder and songwriter James Hetfield sold the 20 acres of vacant land he owned in Pima County, Arizona for $1.2 million, according to TMZ.
Reports say Hetfield bought the plot of land, which is near the United States border with Mexico, in 1998. Hetfield sold the land to Rosemont Copper Company. Rosemont Copper is a proposed large open pit copper mine project by the Canadian mining corporation Hudbay Minerals. The project site is located within the Santa Rita Mountains and Coronado National Forest, in Pima County.
READ ALSO: Rock star Maynard James Keenan opens Scottsdale wine bar
Even before closing the land deal, James Hetfield and Metallica have shown their love of Pinal County. Last month, Pima Community College was selected from a competitive field of community colleges across the country to receive $100,000 from Metallica’s All Within My Hands foundation as part of its Metallica Scholars initiative.
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 as the 87th greatest guitarist of all time.
But Hetfield isn’t the only connection Arizona has to influential hard rockers.
Maynard James Keenan oversees 110 acres of vines in northern and southern Arizona for Caduceus Cellars, Merkin Vineyards and his new Puscifer-branded canned bubbly wine. Keenan is also a Grammy award-winning vocalist for bands Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer.
