“Why there?” Metallica’s James Hetfield on Bataclan attack

Posted by on March 29, 2016

metallicaliberteOn April 16th, Metallica’s offering for Record Store Day  will be a live album, Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, Metallica! – Live at Le Bataclan. Paris, France – June 11, 2003. Of course the name of the venue will probably be recognizable to anyone that’s paid attention to current events in the last six months, as it was the site of a terror attack in November. The attack killed 89 people there to see an Eagles of Death metal show, In an interview with Metallica’s fanzine So What!, James Hetfield reflected on hearing about the attacks as they were happening:

“My first reaction was, ‘Why there?’ And then, ‘Who was playing?’ I learned it was the Eagles [of Death Metal]. And I also learned that Deftones were playing there the next night. So they were there that afternoon, just to check out the Eagles, and about half an hour before the incident happened, they decided to leave and thank God they did. … Just the insanity of that.”

He remembered Metallica’s Bataclan show well, as it had happened just after St. Anger was released, and it was a small club show for them:

“The walls were dripping, sweating,” he said. “There was no air, and I remember I felt fortunate to be on the stage moving around at least. … We had to take a break, ice buckets with towels and you know, you’re throwing them on you to get your temperature down a little bit. “Obviously it is not suffering compared to what’s happened there recently – there’s been some really insane suffering and insanity that’s happened in there recently – but to actually have played a gig in a place that this has happened … it’s surreal. It’s extremely surreal. And seeing the footage of the alleyway, the one where that stairwell goes down to … brutal.”

In addition to the live album, the day before Record Store Day will be when Metallica release deluxe editions of Kill ‘Em All and Ride the Lightning, and since we haven’t posted it yet, here’s what the remastered version of “Creeping Death” sounds like:


 
[via Rolling Stone]

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