“Humbling”: Metallica’s uneasy experience supporting The Rolling Stones
By the 2000s, Metallica seemed to qualify as a musical religion for some people more than just a band. Regardless of how the hardened thrash fans felt about them crossing over in the 1990s, hearing them become one of the biggest acts in the world was surely vindicating for those metalheads who were told that their brand of music was the work of the devil and never had a chance at the limelight. For every legendary act like Metallica, there’s always someone bigger, and James Hetfield remembered getting knocked down a few pegs when opening for The Rolling Stones.
If Metallica were musical prophets, then The Stones would be saints in human form. Mick Jagger had already lived through multiple lifetimes of rock and roll debauchery, and the jury’s out as to whether Keith Richards actually signed a deal with the devil after cheating death so many times.
In fact, the idea of Metallica opening for The Rolling Stones doesn’t even make that much sense. No matter how many people love tracks like ‘Satisfaction’ or ‘Wild Horses’, there’s a good chance that not a lot of Stones fans who knew them back in the day were going out of their way to throw on ‘Enter Sandman’ or anything.
While Metallica was also coming off a creative low point with St. Anger, their opportunity to get back on the road was perfect for The Stones. After all, they had survived being together for half a century; surely, they had become the mature version of rockstars, right? In one sense, yes, but Hetfield said there were some guidelines that didn’t suit him.
Before they even got onstage, Metallica only had one trailer for themselves. Since The Stones are the kind of act whose backstage area almost looks like a small village, having only one trailer for four of the biggest names in metal music was already a more humbling experience.
When talking about when to eat, Hetfield also got an education, telling Rolling Stone, “The fact that we were in a trailer, not even in the backstage area, was somewhat humbling. We needed to eat before everyone else. I opened up the shepherd’s pie, and someone said, ‘Hey, don’t touch that. Ron Wood always puts the first spoon in the shepherd’s pie.’ So I took the biggest spoonful I could and filled my plate.”
Then again, that’s the main spirit behind any Metallica event. At their heart, they are still the same reckless punks that started thrash metal in the 1980s, so it wasn’t out of the question for them not to take everything that seriously, even when it came to taking the piss out of one of the biggest acts in rock and roll.
Metallica was definitely a fish out of water again when opening for The Stones, but getting into Ronnie Wood’s food was never meant to be a sign of disrespect or anything. In fact, if Keith Richards had heard about their shenanigans, he would have probably just served up his pirate smile before downing another round of Jack and Coke.
