Still amped: Hetfield’s Rock and Roll Camp cranks it up for 25th anniversary

A group of aspiring rockers in Mr. Hetfield’s Rock and Roll Summer Camp jammed on the Rusty Rudder deck July 24. 

The campers, musicians ages 8 to 16, opened the show with an electric rendition of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” which they learned just the day before – the day after Ozzy Osbourne died. 

“It’s been really, really great,” said first-time camper Ilean Meibaum, a fifth-grader at Rehoboth Elementary. “I would definitely do it again. Mr. Hetfield isn’t strict, and we get to have a lot of fun and make new friends. I wish it was longer, because it’s so much fun.”

Walt Hetfield, longtime Rehoboth Elementary music teacher and rock and roll musician, started the camp more than two decades ago, when he found many of his students wanted to play rock and roll music but had no space at school to do so.

He understood their struggle.

As a kid, he played the trumpet in his elementary and middle school orchestras, but when he switched to guitar in high school, things changed. His school ensemble, like most, didn’t include guitars.

“ In school music, it's really hard if you're interested in playing a guitar, a bass, a drum set,” he said. “There’s this niche that kind of gets ignored.”

After studying business in college, he became a professional musician and started giving private music lessons. In the late 1980s, the late Papa John Creach, violinist for Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna, encouraged him to get a formal music education, so back to college he went.

He found that music education hadn’t changed much since he was in school nearly two decades earlier. The focus was still on classical music.

“It was like the guitar players, we had some kind of disease they didn’t want to give the other students,” he said. “We were in a different building than the other students. We were allowed to mingle at times, but we didn’t get the respect among the ‘serious’ music people.”

Through Mr. Hetfield’s Rock and Roll Summer Camp, he offers a fun, welcoming space for young rockers that he wishes he had as a kid.

The two-week-long program is open to young vocalists or instrumentalists who already have a rudimentary familiarity with their instrument of interest, whatever it may be – guitar, drums, keyboard, saxophone, trumpet, etc. The goal is to get the kids into ensemble-playing situations.

The campers spend the first week learning music and rehearsing before their first show, which takes place at the end of that week. Then, the following week, they continue rehearsing and take a trip to the Milton recording studio Mid South Audio, where they record a CD and learn the recording process.

This year, they recorded nine songs in six hours, which Hetfield said is quite a lot. This year’s group was unusually skilled in a lot of ways, he said.  

“Even the new ones who were real young, they had it goin’ on,” he said.

The campers always perform at the Rusty Rudder on the Thursday of the second week. There was only one year they didn’t, and it was because of COVID.

Getting to perform at a real music venue gives them a taste of the culture at live shows. Hetfield said he’s very grateful to Rusty Rudder owner Alex Pires and manager Megan Holtzclaw for letting them play there.

“For these kids, they get the idea that the music is important,” Hetfield said. “They want to be the person on the stage, not the person paying to get in. And if you’re on the stage, you’re working.”

Many of his campers come back year after year, and several become counselors when they get older.

“This is a big highlight over summer,” said Stella Carmen, a counselor and former camper. “It gives us two weeks to get together and do what we love the most.”

Justin Fisher and Taylor Knox, members of the popular cover band, Decade80, participated in the camp for many years, first as campers and then as counselors.

“This camp was one of the very few constants in my musical career, and one of the biggest influences on my musical trajectory,” said Fisher, who was involved from 2006 to 2021. “It is probably the foremost factor that took me from playing alone in my room to playing with other people. Learning how to play with other people is a really distinct skill.”

Several others have also found success in the music industry.

Former camper Brittany Hazzard, for example, known professionally as Starrah, has written many popular songs with artists like Beyoncé, Madonna, Camila Cabello and Benny Blanco. Another, Zac Mayfield, went on to replace the drummer in his favorite band, Oh Sleeper, after the band saw a video online of him drumming along to one of their songs.

Over the years, Hetfield estimates that he’s had around 400 or so campers.

The campers’ setlist varies slightly from year to year. There are some songs, like “Wild Thing,” the campers do every year, but he also likes to give them space to express themselves and have a say in some of the other songs.

This year, their setlist also included “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes; “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks; “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Eurythmics; “We Got the Beat” by The Go-Go’s; “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana; “When I Come Around” by Green Day; “Zombie” by The Cranberries; “Song 2” by Blur; “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors; “Get Back” by The Beatles; “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey; and “My Generation” by The Who.

“I found my calling working with kids, teaching them music and doing it in a great place to live,” Hetfield said. “I’ve been really blessed, and I’ve had a lot of people help me along the way.”