Metallica’s Hetfield rules out Lady Gaga collaboration

Metallica with Lady Gaga at this year's Grammys
Metallica with Lady Gaga at this year's Grammys

Metallica vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield has ruled out the band working with Lady Gaga again in the future.

They teamed up at the Grammy Awards earlier this year in Los Angeles to perform Moth Into Flame from Metallica’s latest album Hardwired… To Self-Destruct.

That led drummer Lars Ulrich to call the pop icon the“quintessential perfect fifth member of this band” and suggested further work with Gaga was a possibility.

But when asked if another collaboration is likely, Hetfield tells Chilean newspaper La Tercera (via Metal Injection): “No. But even just talking with her, being around her, her energy was very, very exciting. She has lots of ideas, and she likes to push the boundaries like we do. So it was a good fit.”

The performance was marred by technical difficulties affecting Hetfield’s microphone at the start of the song, forcing Hetfield to share Gaga’s mic for a brief spell.

Hetfield reflects: “The actual show, live on TV, I was very angry. All the rehearsals, everything was perfect. Up to there, everything was working.

“But the silver lining is that Lady Gaga and me were singing closer, and there was a little more collaboration. She’s an amazing person – very talented.”

Metallica will head back out on the road from next month on the North American leg of their WorldWired tour in support of Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. They’ll then return to Europe in September, with shows planned into 2018.

Metallica 2017⁄2018 WorldWired tour dates

2017

May 10: Baltimore M&T Bank Stadium, MD
May 12: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA
May 14: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NY
May 17: Uniondale The New Coliseum, NY
May 19: Foxborough Gillette Stadium, MA
May 21: Columbus Rock On The Range, OH
Jun 04: St Louis Busch Stadium, MO
Jun 07: Denver Sports Authority Field at Mile High, CO
Jun 11: Houston NRG Stadium, TX
Jun 14: San Antonio Alamodome, TX
Jun 16: Dallas AT&T Stadium, TX
Jun 18: Chicago Soldier Field, IL
Jul 05: Orlando Camping World Stadium, FL
Jul 07: Miami Hard Rock Stadium, FL
Jul 09: Atlanta SunTrust park, GA
Jul 12: Detroit Comercia Park, MO
Jul 14: Quebec City Festival D’Ete de Quebec, QC
Jul 16: Toronto Rogers Centre, ON
Jul 19: Montreal Parc Jean-Drapeau, QC
Jul 29: Los Angeles Rose Bowl, CA
Aug 04: Phoenix University of Phoenix Stadium, AZ
Aug 06: San Diego Petco Park, CA
Aug 09: Seattle CenturyLink Field , WA
Aug 14: Vancouver BC Place, BC
Aug 16: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, AB
Sep 02: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Sep 04: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
Sep 06: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
Sep 08: Paris AccorHotels Arena, France
Sep 10: Paris AccorHotels Arena, France
Sep 12: Lyon Halle Tony Garnier, France
Sep 14: Cologne Lanxess Arena, Germany
Sep 16: Cologne Lanxess Arena, Germany
Oct 22: London O2 Arena, UK
Oct 24: London O2 Arena, UK
Oct 26: Glasgow SSE Hydro, UK
Oct 28: Manchester Arena, UK
Oct 30: Birmingham Genting Arena, UK
Nov 01: Antwerp Sportpaleism Belgium
Nov 03: Antwerp Sportpaleism Belgium

2018

Feb 01: Lisbon MEO Arena, Portugal
Feb 03: Madrid Wizink Center, Spain
Feb 05: Madrid Wizink Center, Spain
Feb 07: Barcelona Palau Sant Jordi, Spain
Feb 10: Turin Pala Alpitour, Italy
Feb 12: Bologna Unipol Arena, Italy
Feb 14: Bologna Unipol Arena, Italy
Feb 16: Mannheim SAP Arena, Germany
Mar 27: Herning Jyske Bank Boxen, Denmark
Mar 29: Hamburg Barclaycard Arena, Germamny
Mar 31: Vienna Wiener Stadthalle, Austria
Apr 02: Prague O2 Arena, Czech Republic
Apr 05: Budapest Sports Arena, Hungary
Arp 07: Stuttgart Schleyerhalle, Germany
Arp 09: Stuttgart Schleyerhalle, Germany
Apr 11: Geneva Palexpo, Switzerland
Apr 26: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany
Apr 28: Krakow Tauron Arena, Poland
Apr 30: Leipzig Arena, Germany
May 02: Oslo Telenor Arena, Norway
May 05: Stockholm Ericsson Globe, Sweden
May 07: Stockholm Ericsson Globe, Sweden
May 09: Helsinki Hartwall Arena, Finland
May 11: Helsinki Hartwall Arena, Finland

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Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.