Photo: Press
Well, you can forget about Metallica and Lady Gaga working together again after the band’s frontman James Hetfield nixed the idea.
The metal veterans teamed up with the pop icon at the Grammys earlier this year to perform ‘Moth Into Flame’ from their new album, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, but sadly the performance was marred by a technical difficulty that saw Hetfield’s mic cut out.
You’d have thought that was enough of an omen but drummer Lar Ulrich told Rolling Stone that Gaga was the “quintessential perfect fifth member” of Metallica.
Perhaps so, but when asked by Chilean newspaper La Tercera (via Metal Injection) if they’d work together again, Hetfield replied: "No. But even just talking with her, being around her, her energy was very, very exciting. She has lots of ideas, and she likes to push the boundaries like we do. So it was a good fit."
Hetfield’s mic malfunction saw him share Gaga’s mic, an experience that had some positive by-products.
He said: “The actual show, live on TV, I was very angry. All the rehearsals, everything was perfect. Up to there, everything was working.
“But the silver lining is that Lady Gaga and me were singing closer, and there was a little more collaboration. She's an amazing person – very talented.”
As displayed by Lulu, their collaborative effort and widely-panned effort with the late Lou Reed, Metallica are probably best left to their own devices rather than working with others.
But let’s cut them some slack. Here’s the rehearsal footage with Lady Gaga with absolutely no malfunctions or cock-ups whatsoever.
Metallica return to the UK in October and will play:
22/24 The O2 Arena, London
26 The SSE Hydro, Glasgow
28 Manchester Arena, Manchester
30 Birmingham Genting Arena, Birmingham
Tickets are on sale now and available here.
