James Hetfield, lead vocalist of notably angry pop quartet Metallica, is a new resident of the mountain town of Vail.

He told Joe Rogan that he left the Bay Area in part because “there was an elitist attitude there — that if you weren’t their way politically, their way environmentally, all of that, that you were looked down upon,” as Blabbermouth reported.

I’m sure there’s truth to that, especially considering Hetfield is an “outspoken big game hunter and pro-gun advocate,” as Blabbermouth put it.

However, I’m really not sure a place with a median home value of $817,000 (that’s Vail) is much less “elite” than a place where it’s $1.1 million (like San Francisco.)

Hetfield, though, is obviously using the term in more of the conservative cultural sense, where liberals are fancy elites who like to impress their ideas on the common folk. (Hey, remember that time Metallica got really mad about music piracy?)

To each his own, though — Hetfield seems to have found some genuine enjoyment in Colorado.

“I think in Colorado, everyone is very natural; people are not playing some game, they’re not posturing,” Hetfield reports.

He lately is enjoying planting his garden, harvesting honey, slaughtering organic meat and generally doing things that would be kind of funny lyrics for a rewrite of “Enter Sandman.”

Zucchini, and some bees…