Poor outdated James Hetfield. The Metallica frontman has confronted greater than his fair proportion of tour-fluctuating accidents through the years, from a skateboarding accident that derailed some Grasp Of Puppets dates to when he famously went up in flames in 1992. Nonetheless, one accident that’s seldom talked about is when he damage his again jet-skiing in 2000, and thus his band have been pressured to play their three strangest-ever live shows in his absence.
The damage occurred on the primary Independence Day weekend of the brand new millennium. Metallica have been halfway via their Summer time Sanitarium tour and, between a July 4 gig in Baltimore and the subsequent present in Atlanta three days later, had a modicum of downtime. Particulars of what really occurred are skinny on the bottom, however Metallica’s administration advised MTV that their singer spent a few of the inter-gig break “on a lake exterior of Atlanta”; there he “undergo[ed] from herniated and bulging discs in his again following a jet-ski accident”. Papa Het would sit out the trek’s subsequent three live shows – July 7 in Atlanta; July 8 in Sparta, Kentucky; and July 9 in Irving, Texas – however was projected to return to the stage as regular afterwards.
“So far as we all know, the tour goes to proceed in Denver on [July 12] as scheduled, and James is anticipated to take part,” an unnamed spokesperson advised MTV. “Hopefully, he’s going to make a fast restoration and every thing will return to regular. He’s one powerful motherfucker. He’s all about getting a gig executed.”
Though the lack of their ferocious chief could be non permanent, Metallica have been nonetheless in a bind. Fortunately, their helps throughout the Summer time Sanitarium run included three of the most well-liked nu steel acts of the day: Korn, System Of A Down and Child Rock. Therefore, the plans have been laid for the three remaining horsemen’s headline slots to change into impromptu jam periods: bassist Jason Newsted would sort out lead vocals, whereas different bands’ members got here and went from track to track.
With there being no time for the helps to study Metallica’s catalogue, although, the setlist turned extremely oddball. A canopy of Earache My Eye by stoner comedy duo Cheech & Chong made the reduce on all three nights and, even weirder, there weren’t any members of Metallica onstage throughout the first one. As an alternative, Korn took full cost, as in addition they did for a efficiency of their very own deep reduce, Counting, proper after. Korn, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett performed Blind collectively later within the mini tour-within-a-tour, the place the drummer completely demolished his snare.
Reinterpretations of Child Rock’s American Unhealthy Ass have been executed with the person himself. It probably wasn’t too arduous, on condition that the track samples the riff of Metallica’s personal Unhappy However True for a lot of its runtime. But, throughout all three nights, it appeared on the setlist straight after a playthrough of the particular Unhappy However True, so we are able to think about these 10 minutes have been considerably repetitive for the audiences.
As for System Of A Down’s contributions… Serj Tankian, bless him, did his greatest. There’s video of the vocalist becoming a member of Metallica for Mastertarium (a mash-up of Grasp Of Puppets and Welcome Residence (Sanitarium)) clearly with out realizing what to do. Whereas he had the lyrics sheet in hand, he usually screamed his phrases into the microphone, even throughout the quiet bits.
For sure, these three stops on the Summer time Sanitarium dash have been among the many oddest moements in Metallica’s total historical past. For veteran metalheads that have been hooked in by Trip The Lightning and The Black Album, jams of Cheech & Chong in all probability weren’t probably the most thrilling prospect on the planet. However, to their credit score, not solely did the band plough on with out their frontman main the best way; they returned to each venue he’d missed a month later, guaranteeing the Metallica household have been rewarded for his or her endurance.
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