Accusations of “selling out” have followed for almost as long as they’ve been a band. From the moment the metal titans , gatekeepers have been pissed off at them, sometimes for the most ludicrous of reasons. And one seemingly innocuous act that infuriated the purists was the first time the Four Horsemen made a music video.
Metallica made their MTV debut in 1989, with the release of the haunting clip for single . It was a moment of victory for the band, following years of rejection from mainstream TV and radio, even as became a megahit and they toured extensively with . As singer/guitarist James Hetfield revealed in 2018, however, that win didn’t enthuse everybody.
“When [MTV] asked us, ‘We need a video,’ that helped us a lot,” Papa Het reflected during a video interview on ’s 30th anniversary. “There was one moment where I was at [legendary venue] The Stone on Broadway in San Francisco, there to see some metal band. Some kid came up to me and he spit on me!” The ‘fan’ proceeded to verbally accost Hetfield, accusing him and his Metallica bandmates for selling out by making a music video.
The frontman responded with undented bravado. “Right there, I went, ‘Yes we did. Fuck you!’” he remembered.
Hetfield goes on to sound shockingly grateful for the experience. He looks back on it almost three decades later as a learning curve, where he figured out that catering to insular minds would never let Metallica grow and develop. “That’s when I started to realise, ‘OK, you can stay small and in this thing but, if you have something to say that’s really important, you need to utilise these things, whether it’s video, the internet or a movie.
’ That’s what you gotta do: you gotta go for it!” Following the release of in ’89, Metallica would continue to flourish, headlining arenas around the world before topping global charts with 1991’s . The simplified-sounding follow-up again (unsurprisingly) riled up thrash’s elitists, but also affirmed its creators as heavy metal band, setting new standards for what the genre can achieve commercially. The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
Decades on, Metallica continue to cram stadiums. The band just finished the European leg of their 2024 tour and will embark on a series of North and Central American shows next month. See the full list of announced dates below.
Aug 02: Foxborough Gillette Stadium, MA, USA Aug 04: Foxborough Gillette Stadium, MA, USA Aug 09: Chicago Soldier Field, IL, USA Aug 11: Chicago Soldier Field, IL, USA Aug 16: Minneapolis US Bank Stadium, MN, USA Aug 18: Minneapolis US Bank Stadium, MN, USA Aug 23: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, Canada Aug 25: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, Canada Aug 30: Seattle Lumen Field, WA, USA Sep 01: Seattle Lumen Field, WA, USA Sep 20: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico Sep 22: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico Sep 27: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico Sep 29: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too.
When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering. “We grew up with the album Crises from Mike Oldfield..
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