Five Finger Death Punch’s guitarist Zoltan Bathory recently joined an interview with Audacy Check In and said he finds it crazy that Metallica still gets bigger.
The musician first discussed his experience supporting Metallica on a stadium tour in 2023 and 2024. He mentioned it was thrilling to perform for massive crowds and added:
“So, Metallica is such a huge band; they had four decades to gain that fanbase, so you’re gonna have three generations of people in there. And it’s such a big band now that — and in some ways, they’re growing, believe it or not, Metallica, still; it’s crazy. And so it’s such a big band that even if you’re not necessarily into metal, you’ve gotta come; you have to come and see.”
How Did 5FDP And Metallica Get Together?
Five Finger Death Punch performed their first show as the opening act for Metallica on the M72 tour at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, last August. In a 2023 chat with Revolver, Zoltan shared how touring with Metallica came about:
“We played two shows with them last year. As a kid, I met them at a show [during] one of those meet-and-greets, but this was the first time meeting them as an adult. We were talking to Lars [Ulrich], and he was joking around like man, ‘How is it that we’ve never crossed paths?’ It’s two pretty significantly big bands, right? We were laughing about it… and then a couple of months later, we got a phone call [about touring together] like, ‘Hey, this is a possibility. If you guys want to do these dates, it’s going to be massive.’ Who’s going to say, ‘Ah, I don’t know, man?’ [Laughs] You [don’t have to] twist my arm.”
5FDP would open for Metallica on some European shows in spring 2023, but they had to cancel. This was because their singer, Ivan Moody, needed time to recover from hernia surgery. The band will also support Metallica on their 2024 summer tour.
You can watch the rest of Bathory’s interview below.