James Hetfield isn’t bothered with Metallica’s on-stage mistakes.
Some comments say Lars Ulrich is at his best performance in a long time. During a recent episode of The Metallica Report podcast, Hetfield mentioned that Ulrich is now more focused on staying on time, but he doesn’t mind making mistakes on stage:
“It doesn’t scare me, but I don’t mind f*cking things up. It’s fun. There’s still mistakes. There’s still unique moments that happen and it’s good.”
Metallica is known for onstage mistakes, like messing up songs or starting over. They play different sets each night and use a rehearsal room backstage to practice and tighten up songs before performing. Hetfield continued:
“We don’t want to be that freakin’ polished machine up there at all. So, no matter how practiced, no matter how good we think we’re doing, there’s still stuff that happens.”
Kirk Hammett Previously Made Mistakes On Stage
One such instance happened last year. Kirk Hammett apologized to fans for a mistake during Metallica’s performance at the Power Trip festival in Indio, California, on October 8. After playing ‘Orion,’ Metallica started ‘Nothing Else Matters,’ but Kirk made a mistake at the beginning and addressed the crowd:
“Sorry, guys. I did it again. I screwed it up again. I’m gonna play it again for you.”
He stopped briefly, then came back to the microphone and spoke:
“You know, it’s really hot in this f*cking desert [Laughs].”
But this wasn’t the first time Hammett has made this kind of mistake playing ‘Nothing Else Matters’ on stage. During the first night of the North American leg of Metallica’s M72 World Tour at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, he had to stop the performance due to errors in the intro. He told the crowd:
“Okay, it’s the first show…[Laughs] I’m gonna do this intro all over for you guys again. It’s just not good enough for myself, and if it’s not good enough for myself, it’s not good enough for you!”
At the Boston Calling festival in Allston, Massachusetts, on May 29, 2022, Kirk made another mistake starting ‘Nothing Else Matters.’ He even playfully fell to the ground briefly. Then, he got up and joked with the crowd about how great they were.