Metallica’s James Hetfield has made a subtle jab at “some other entertainers” who use their time on stage “to influence you with their bullshit”.
The heavy metal icon made the comments while on stage with Metallica recently as part of their ongoing residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, which kicked off earlier this month and will run through to early 2027.
Midway through their set on Saturday (October 10), Hetfield thanked the crowd for potentially travelling far and wide to see their show, and reassured them that they were wanting to create a sense of escape from the world’s issues – not lecture them with their own “bullshit” agendas.
“Unless you live in Vegas, you’ve come a long way to spend some time with Metallica,” he said. “We’re grateful for that — your travels, the money you spend, the time it took, thanks for coming to celebrate with us.”
“And I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit, OK,” he added. “No bullshit. We’re here to forget about all the outside shit, OK? Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!”
Metallica frontman James Hetfield took a swipe at artists who use their concerts to lecture audiences about politics during the band's Las Vegas residency.
In what could easily be seen as a dig at the likes of Macklemore, Hetfield told the crowd:
"Unless you live in Vegas,… pic.twitter.com/ImZyOgFeuJ
Although the thrash metal icon didn’t mention any names with his comments, some fans have suggested that it could be a nod to Macklemore, who was dropped as a support act for Ed Sheeran’s ‘Loop’ tour after making a speech calling for a “free Palestine”.
After making his comments on-stage, Robert Kraft – who owns the Gillette Stadium and is also owner of the New England Patriots – said that he found Macklemore’s speech “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”. Following more disapproval from the likes of Pink and the Israeli American Council, the rapper was removed from the tour.
Since then, countless big names including Greta Thunberg, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Dropkick Murphys, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Billy Bragg and Hayley Williams have shown their support for Macklemore, and Ed Sheeran’s band and other tour support acts have pulled out in solidarity with the rapper. Ed Sheeran spoke out about the situation too, calling the “suffering and pain caused on both sides” as a “tragedy”.
Since then, Macklemore has since donated his entire $1million earnings from the tour to six organisations supporting Palestinians, and announced a ‘Free Palestine Tour’, while Sheeran’s scheduled gigs at the Gillette Stadium were cancelled due to “severe weather warnings” in the area.
