Kirk Hammett recently spoke about being back to touring in a chat with ‘The Metallica Report,’ as the band hit the road again for their ‘M72’ world tour following a six-month break. He shared excitement about new dates but also noted his dislike for not touring as often as he would like:
“I’m just happy to be out here and bringing the music to the people, man, like I always am. And I’m happy having the feeling of, like, Metallica is a working, touring band, ’cause sometimes I miss that feeling, ’cause I don’t believe we tour enough. But that’s just how it is.”
The guitarist added:
“So, what I can get out of this, I’m always up for it. It’s just, like, ‘Yeah, bring it on.’ ’Cause this is what it’s all about, is playing guitar and writing, recording, going out on tour. It’s what it’s all about. And I don’t feel that there’s enough of it in my life right now.”
Everything Is ‘Familiar’ On The New Stops
The ‘M72’ tour featured two-night, no-repeat shows in each city since it kicked off in April 2023. The 2024 leg will begin in Europe with performances in Munich and Milan and will continue through Spain, Denmark, Norway, France, and Poland during the first part of the summer.
Hammett noted that not much about the tour changed in the past six months:
“No, it doesn’t feel like a whole new thing. Walking out to see the stage yesterday [in Munich, Germany] for the first time in about six months or so, it just felt like a continuation. Everything looks super familiar—familiar stage, familiar monitors, familiar screens, familiar crew, familiar faces, familiar guitars, familiar songs. It’s really easy for me to spot right into place.”
They Want To Be On The Road For Short Periods
Metallica spends as little time away from home as possible while on the road. Lars Ulrich says their success gives the band control over their tour scheduling. The drummer told Noisey in 2017:
“Over the years, when you’re fortunate enough to become successful, when you become successful you can become more financially independent. And so, we’ve been able to put parameters on how we tour so we can spend more time at home.”
He continued:
“We have a two-week rule: we don’t leave home for more than two weeks at a time, 16 days at the most. We did 180 dates on the last album in two-week increments. It’s not the most cost-effective way of touring the world, but we believe you can’t put a price on sanity. If you remain somewhat sane, then there’s a better chance of finishing all the shows and not jumping off the deep end in despair and misery.”
The band’s next round of North American dates will begin on August 2 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The tour will wrap up with four shows in Mexico City at the end of September 2024.