James Hetfield’s favourite Metallica songs
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Why Metallica were banned from the MTV Music Awards
In pretty much every way, for better or worse, Metallica are the archetypal rock band. Whether it’s their partiality to roof-shaking sounds, hedonistic and self-destructive antics or their brash disregard for rules and societal expectations, they always knew how to keep their fans on the edge of their seats.
It seems there’s an expectation for rock bands to take on the role of the obstinate deviant, and god forbid they recede to the angelic ennui of Coldplay or U2. For this reason, Metallica weren’t the group to submit to any rules that looked to censor or impede the air of their presence.
In the mid-1990s, Metallica were at the height of their power, having released some of their most beloved and seminal material in Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, and were on the verge of pushing the bar higher still with 1996’s Load.
In November 1996, just as fans adjusted to Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield’s shorter hairstyles, Metallica were invited to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards, hosted by Robbie Williams at London’s Alexandra palace. Having released Load a few months before, naturally, they were excited to give the now-classic cut, ‘King Nothing’, a whirl on stage. In a moment of poor judgement, MTV officials asked the band to refrain from expletives last minute, causing them to rethink the Load track.
As a pioneering metal group, Metallica had a certain standard of devil-may-care to uphold, so instead of editing out the curse words or choosing one of their rare family-friendly tracks, they decided to push in the opposite direction. In a bid to teach the MTV officials a thing or two about telling rock stars what to do, Hetfield and co. played a couple of covers that the audience wouldn’t forget in a hurry.
First up was ‘Last Caress’, originally by The Misfits, which touches upon the controversial subjects of baby murder and rape. This was swiftly followed up with a rendition of Anti-Nowhere League’s ‘So What?’, another track full to the rafters with naughty words and offensive subject matter. Needless to say, the MTV executives weren’t amused. They banned Metallica from future ceremonies with immediate effect and wiped the performance from future airings of the ceremony, even omitting any mention of Metallica’s presence at the event.
Watch footage of Metallica’s banned performance at the 1996 MTV Awards below.
