Metallica’s Glastonbury Debacle

The debacle of events leading up to Metallica’s appearance at Glastonbury seems to be getting worse and worse.

First off, the mere announcement on May 8 that Metallica would be the third and final headliner at this year’s Glastonbury, the largest green field festival in the world, set off a firestorm of response by the event’s fans. Traditionally, the festival is seen as having a more hippie vibe, something that Metallica has never been accused of. Over the last 40 years, the festival has included such diverse acts as Paul McCartney, Oasis, David Bowie, U2, Radiohead, Neil Young, and even Jay-Z…

But never a band like Metallica.

Reaction by Metallica, at first, was all smiles and excitement. “We’re psyched and honored to be among the first hard rock bands to hit the Pyramid Stage and join this prestigious group,” Metallica said.

The organizer of the event, 78 year-old Michael Evis, went on record right away, praising Metallica and publicly looking forward to Metallica’s performance. He explained, “I’m looking forward to seeing them. They will do the best of their lives here.”

Unfortunately, the reaction of the fans to Metallica headlining the show didn’t improve. What’s more, it didn’t help when it was announced that Metallica’s frontman, James Hetfield, would be narrating a documentary on the History Channel about bear hunting.

A petition to remove Metallica from the lineup was drawn up by concerned festival goers.

And then the other bands, almost as if emboldened by the fan protest, dared to speak up. Alex Turner, frontman for Arctic Monkeys, wondered publicly whether or not Metallica was a suitable headliner for the gig. He said, “I’m not sure it adds up. I know we’d buzz off it, but fundamentally could you have Metallica in the hippy nucleus?”

From there, things just got worse. Scottish post-rock icons Mogwai slammed Metallica in an interview with Gigwise. The band remarked, “I can’t wait to hear that guy play the drums again — unbelievably bad. He’s terrible.”

Finally, enough was enough. When asked about the comments from Mogwai by Metal Hammer magazine, Lars Ulrich — Metallica’s drummer — responded, “Who?” Ulrich continued, “To be totally honest, I don’t know how serious I can take all of it. I know that almost on a daily basis there is some musician somewhere who gets asked what he thinks about Glastonbury and Metallica, and I find the good in that — that after more than 30 years, we can still get talked about. I guess it’s fun that you can still make some waves, without doing anything other than saying yes to an invitation to a festival. So, happy days.”

The Glastonbury Festival, featuring headliners, Metallica, will be on June 28.