(Credits: Far Out / Kreepin Deth)
Fri 30 January 2026 14:24, UK
“We do this basically for ourselves,” James Hetfield once said of Metallica. “People appreciate it, which is cool, but I think they appreciate that we’re doing it for ourselves. We’re doing it our way.” So, what happens when you don’t do it their way?
Anyone thrown into a Metallica show knows to enter at their own risk. While the band may be on tamer territory these days, the golden age of the band’s thrash years resulted in massive shows that weren’t for the faint of heart, with mosh pits that stretched around the stadium and sporting thousands of metalheads going mental on every single track.
Although James Hetfield did want to promote a healthy environment onstage, he admitted that one show was too detrimental to bear. The band were born amid the rough and tumble world of dive bar gigs, and they always wanted to retain an air of that spit and sawdust vitality.
Yet, they didn’t want to tie themselves to the past either. Especially when they started racking up ridiculous record sales that now exceed a whopping 150 million. So, as the band moved into the 1990s, they wanted to stretch beyond the parameters of traditional thrash metal. Working with Bob Rock, the band turned in one of the most celebrated rock records of the modern age with The Black Album, featuring soon-to-be concert staples like ‘Sad But True’ and ‘Enter Sandman’.
To capitalise on their momentum, drummer Lars Ulrich thought it would be a good idea to get two of the biggest bands in the world on the same bill. Being taken with the sound of Guns N’ Roses, Ulrich helped arrange the tour, with both bands playing mammoth two-hour sets at every single stop. Although it seemed like it would be perfect, the shows were marred by problems right out of the gate.
James Hetfield on stage with Metallica. (Credits: Far Out / Carlos Rodríguez / Andes)
Due to Axl Rose’s inconsistent schedule, many shows disappointed fans, with the LA rockers only playing for a few minutes or not showing up at all. As much as the band raked in cash, things turned deadly when they arrived to play a gig in Toronto. He once even comically confirmed that he has an aversion to clocks and prefers to live by his own internal time-keeping method.
So, how bad did it get?
Having massive fireballs as part of their stage act, Hetfield accidentally moved the wrong way and found himself underneath a canister meant to shoot up a chemical flame. Severely injuring himself halfway through the set, Hetfield needed urgent medical attention and was rushed to a nearby hospital, leading to months of him trying to fight back to playing guitar.
Although this would have been the perfect time for Guns N’ Roses to step up and save the day, Rose was not up to it that night, leaving the stage after only three songs, complaining of voice and monitor problems. Unsatisfied with the lack of performance, the audience ended up turning violent, causing a massive riot in the middle of the stadium that carried on outside.
While Hetfield would go on to say that he understood Rose’s problem, he thought that his choice to leave the stage caused a lot more damage, telling Rolling Stone, “He threw a fit, and that was that. I was so disappointed in him. Because he could have won so many people over by continuing the show. And he went the exact opposite way and made things ten times worse and jeopardised people’s lives. There was a lot of unnecessary violence because of his attitude”.
Even though the band carried on for the rest of the tour, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash would later admit how ashamed he was of the band’s behaviour on the tour, saying that he could barely look any members of Metallica in the eye throughout the remainder of the dates. Regardless of the violence that happened that day, Hetfield did right by his fans later, coming back to play the show again, covered in bandages as a guitar tech filled in his rhythm parts. There’s a bad show… and then there’s that!
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