Beatallica are a very unusual band. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin group blends Metallica with the Beatles, and I don’t mean their influences. They take parts of Metallica songs and parts of Beatles songs and mash them together into a very entertaining new song. The group became internet sensations and also draw the attention of the legal teams of Metallica and The Beatles. But after some negotiations, the band’s first fully authorized album Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band has been released.


The band members use pseudonyms that also combine the Beatles and Metallica. There’s vocalist Jaymz Lennfield, guitarist Grg Hammettson, bassist Kliff McBurtney and drummer Ringo Larz. Lennfield gives us the scoop on the band’s interesting style and their future plans.

Chad Bowar: How would you describe what Beatallica is and does?
Jaymz Lennfield: Beatallica is the following: super fun, sort of cartoon violence music that you'd still let your younger siblings listen to and watch on a Saturday morning while eating a 4th bowl of ice cream for breakfast. We are the first live mash-up, or "bash-up" band--far different than a cover or tribute band. Beatallica is its own musical entity.

How and when did the idea for Beatallica come about?
2001 after a festival in Milwaukee called Spoof Fest. I was in a band that was thinking, "How would Metallica have fun on April Fool's Day?" Like most ideas, it's based on a whim, a lark, a warm 12 pack of something.

Give us a little background on some of the legal difficulties you had with the music and how you managed to get approval from all the different parties to release Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band.
Well, really, we were 3rd or 4th parties in the matter.

We let the legal hounds figure all that out. We're musicians, not lawyers or anything. Thankfully we are all level-headed folks and we all worked together to get an agreement done. It's multi-tiered as there is not just musical approvals needed, but trademark approval needed. Many people were involved: our label folks at Oglio, Metallica's legal teams, Lars Ulrich, the people at Sony/ATV. Man, we have a lot of Christmas cards to get ready. It's up to us to show all involved that we can do Beatallica in a way that will make them proud. You just can't use or borrow someone's stuff and f**k it up. How would you feel if I came over to your house, took your car, and smashed it into a tree? Sure we're sort of "cartoon characters," but we do try to be respectful in a business sense.

Take us through your songwriting process in meshing the two band’s sounds.
Sometimes that starts with a riff, sometimes with a lyrical line. The first Beatallica song, "For Horsemen" was started after our former guitar player heard the chorus riff. As I am a lyricist at heart, I tend to lean towards words first. But ultimately, there has to be flow, groove, a sense of direction. Like any piece of art, it has to make sense all around for the work to be complete. You just can't mash-up anything and expect that. It's a process. It's writing and re-writing,.then writing some more.

Have any of the members of Metallica heard your music that you know of?
Oh, of course they have. They have been aware of us for years now. We ran the debut album past them and their legal trademark team before we even announced a release date for it. We have a great relationship with them and it's all about respect.