“He spit on me”: The fan attack that turned Metallica into a heavy metal goliath
Fans do the craziest shit to show their allegiance or displeasure with their favourite artists, don’t they? From screaming their lungs out in the front row of concerts to actively waging war to defend someone they’re never likely to meet over a disparaging social media post, we’re in an age where fandom is just as feral as ever. On the flipside, people will go to extreme lengths to voice their anger at an artist when they do something that they’re unhappy with – my own father, for example, snapped his copy of The Jam’s ‘That’s Entertainment’ in half on the grounds that they’d ‘sold out’, and still stands by this decision to this day.
Metal fans are no exception; in fact, they’re probably even wilder when it comes to how dedicated and how fickle they can be, and so when an act that you’ve followed for years does something that infuriates a subsection of their fanbase, expect a riot to break out. Fans will take any misstep as a personal affront to their fandom and won’t hold back when it comes to making their thoughts known about this. Metallica are no strangers to this kind of behaviour, and have had to deal with their legions of fans turning their backs on them on plenty of occasions – and worse.
Releasing a song in a style that some fans will actively dislike is one thing, and the very nature of selling out or losing a sense of artistic proficiency is, of course, something that might feel like a major grievance when you’ve spent so much money supporting an act’s every move until that point. However, some fans will find a bone to pick over much more trivial stuff, and if Metallica thought they might have disappointed fans with the release of lacklustre albums like St Anger, then perhaps they ought to recall the time they outraged one fan way back in 1989 with something that most wouldn’t even consider to be a blunder.
James Hetfield must have nerves of steel to be able to deal with the erratic behaviour of fans, but he still remains shocked by how one fan reacted when they made one major marketing decision to help boost their notoriety in the earlier days of the band. By 1989, they’d already had a number of high-profile and acclaimed releases under their belt, but taking things to the logical next step of attempting to expand their fan base seemingly didn’t go down well with one fan in San Francisco.
When the band chose to accompany the release of ‘One’ with a music video, marking the first time they’d appeared on MTV in their career, it was seen by most as a sign of their notoriety reaching stratospheric levels. Metal bands were rarely played on music television stations due to how uncommercial and abrasive it was seen as, but it turns out that their own fanbase weren’t happy with this decision, seeing it as a sign of the band selling out and rubbing shoulders with the industry bigwigs.
When Hetfield found himself trying to enjoy a concert in his spare time, one fan approached him and showed his discontent in a rather gross and unhygienic fashion. “There was one moment where I was at The Stone on Broadway in San Francisco, there to see some metal band,” Hetfield recalled in an interview with Metal Hammer in 2024. “Some kid came up to me and he spit on me!”
After establishing that the fan was angry over their decision to make a music video and exchanging a few choice words, Hetfield took the opportunity to reflect on the band’s choices, and ultimately concluded that he’d done nothing wrong. “That’s when I started to realise, ‘OK, you can stay small and in this thing but, if you have something to say that’s really important, you need to utilise these things, whether it’s video, the internet or a movie.’ That’s what you gotta do: you gotta go for it!”
Of course, the fact that Metallica rose to an even greater prominence after this goes to show that their decision paid off, and if one guy wants to hurl globs of phlegm at him for that, then so be it – Hetfield and the band will still be the ones laughing.
