Metallica dropped by Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show on Wednesday (Aug. 12) to talk about their upcoming live drive-in show, collaborating with Lady Gaga at the 2017 Grammys, and how they’ve soldiered on during the COVID-19 lockdown.
One of the most pressing topics the band tackled was their protocol for rehearsing while properly distanced during the pandemic. During a few days of working things out last week, drummer Lars Ulrich told Stern that he wore his mask the whole time, while singer/guitarist James Hetfield, for obvious reasons, could not. “We got tested practically every other day or something crazy,” Hetfield said, noting that thought he COVID screening is notoriously intrusive, he’s used to it after years of getting his vocal cords probed for nodes.
“It’s still not fun,” he said. “It’s not fun to have a stick shoved in your face.” Guitarist Kirk Hammett seconded that emotion, but said sticking things up your nose just reminds him of the bad old drug days. “I never knew, Kirk,” Hetfield joked.
Ulrich said they’ve created their own NBA-like bubble for the 25-30 people on their team helping them gear up for their first gig of 2020, an Aug. 29 gig that will be beamed out to hundreds of drive-in and outdoor theaters across the U.S. and Canada as part of the Encore Drive-In Nights series.
Stern asked Hetfield how he was dealing with staying sober during the lockdown, with the singer calling the downtime a “real blessing,” as it’s allowed him to be home in Colorado for more than two weeks at a time during a period when the band would normally be on the road. “As ironic as it sounds, building a community, which I never had before… now being at home almost having a schedule, ‘I’m gonna have a a barbecue every Wednesday, or we’re gonna come over and have cigar firepit on this day’ or we got this going on, actually building a community of friends that I did not have at home before it has been a blessing.”
When Howard wondered how they view their old selves now, the band described why their lean, mean, no mascara look and sound in the early days was a reaction against the teased hair and spandex look and sound of the metal scene at the time. “These are our peers now and we totally respect these guys in different ways,” said Ulrich about how the group has come to appreciate all the acts they looked sideways at all those years ago. “All those other bands? That was the enemy, the opposition, that was who stood in our way for achieving what we wanted to do.”
They also touched out how the old Metallica would never have done something like collaborate with Gaga, as the band did in 2017 when they teamed up with the pop icon at the Grammy awards for a chaotic run through “Moth Into Flame.” Hammett explained, “After a while you kind of get mature about it all and realize we’re all in this together,” with Hetfield adding that he respected Gaga as an artist already and was doubly impressed when she showed up two hours early to rehearsal to work on her choreography. “She’s extremely creative and a fearless artist,” he said.
As for another famous collaboration they were excited about that didn’t go as they expected — the controversial 2011 Lulu album they tracked with late punk godfather Lou Reed — Hammett recalling that Reed had a strict “no guitar solos” rule that threw him at first. But when Kirk thought one song needed some solo action, he had to send Reed an email and “wait and wait and wait” for a reply, which he got the next day at rehearsal when Lou said only “I got your email.” And that was it.
As long as they were set up at Metallica HQ, in addition to running down the process of recording their ambitious orchestral Metallica & San Francisco Symphony: S&M2 album sequel, due out on Aug. 28, and they also played “Wherever I May Roam” and “The Unforgiven” from 1991’s iconic Black album, as well as an acoustic “All Within My Hands” from St. Anger.
Knowing that Stern is a superfan, Hammett indulged his request for a bit of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” and Hetfield stumbled his way through a shambolic take on “Stairway to Heaven.” Following on the heels of recent similar shows with Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton, the band will be in your hometown on Aug. 29 with a recently recorded hour-and-45-minute set that will unspool at 300 drive-in theaters across North America.
“It’s an experiment to see what other cool new ways, in a new world order, obviously post-COVID, or still during COVID, that we can connect and bring music to fans all over the country,” Ulrich said. “It’s pretty much us playing a concert, without a crowd, with lights and everything. Selfishly, it was really for us to get together and jam because we missed jamming,” Hetfield added. “And hopefully brining some joy to people out in the world in COVID. They can be safe in their car.”
Check out clips from the show below.