When Bradley Cooper introduced Lady Gaga to Metallica: “It just kind of came up”
It must be pretty fun being famous and having famous mates. If you fancy doing something, like, I don’t know, cooking with Gordon Ramsay, for instance, then if you’re David Beckham, you just give him a bell and set it up. The same goes for Lady Gaga; she thought it would be fun to sing on stage with rock gods Metallica, so she just asked Bradley Cooper to sort it. Job done.
Back in 2017, Cooper and Gaga were gearing up to appear together in their update of A Star is Born, the well-trodden tale of an ageing rocker who stumbles upon a talented newcomer and tries to live vicariously through her. The movie turned out to be a huge hit for both of them; it was Cooper’s directorial debut and he won two Oscar nominations at the first time of asking for Best Actor and Best Picture, while Gaga picked up a Best Actress nomination.
Cooper also co-wrote the screenplay, much of which was different from the 1937 and 1976 versions, and he spoke of how he was inspired by Metallica while penning the movie. He told Variety: “I’m a huge fan of Metallica. About six years ago, I was at a Metallica concert, standing behind the drum kit, and I saw the scope of it… and thought, wow, this composition is incredible, and that’s what it feels like to be on stage, to be a rock star… So in the movie, you’re always on the stage.”
The reason Cooper was able to watch a gig by the metal heroes from such a vaunted position is that, as we spoke about earlier, he happens to be friends with the band’s drummer, Lars Ulrich.
And that was a connection he used again that year when Gaga, who was in the midst of filming, went to Cooper’s house, where he was hanging out with Ulrich. She said, “It just kind of came up. I’ve seen them a couple of times live, but I saw them live recently, and we were watching the show and I’ll tell you something, those guys play better than they’ve ever played in their whole lives.”
That meeting resulted in Gaga being offered the opportunity to appear on stage with the band when they headlined a TV spot at the 59th Grammy awards, taking backing vocals on ‘Moth Into Flame’ from their album Hardwired… to Self Destruct and dancing around the place quite a lot. Did it work? We’ll let you be the judge of that when you watch the video below, but at least she seemed to be having fun.
Cooper, meanwhile, took the success of A Star is Born and continued his self-propelled, and one imagines, self-imagined route toward being an auteur for the ages by completely immersing himself in a movie called Maestro about the famed composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Cooper took years and years to learn the craft of conducting, aside from starring, writing, directing and producing the film.
It paid off to some degree, receiving seven Oscar nominations and a host of Golden Globe shouts, but didn’t win in any of the categories. He may well fare better with his latest effort, Is This Thing On?, which stars Will Arnett and tells the story of a struggling divorcee who turns to stand-up comedy to deal with his issues. Bizarrely, it is based on the life of Scouse comic John Bishop, although he isn’t in it.
