Metallica Cuts Concert Short After Hetfield Illness, Cancels Following Date

Metallica was forced to cut their Copenhagen, Denmark show at the Royal Arena short due to frontman James Hetfield falling ill during the show. Not happy with his performance, Hetfield told the crowd how he felt, and even asked the fans in attendance if they should go on, or come back another night when he feels more like he’s on his A game. Hetfield even went as far as to tell fans that he wanted to stop the show because of how he was feeling.

Hetfield stated to the crowd: Its not fair to you guys, man, you paid a lot of good money to come and see your favorite band, and we don’t sound good. I’m gonna leave it up to you, man. Would you rather hear us sound better another time? I wanna stop, What do you say?

After 15,000 plus fans responded with a resounding no, Hetfield responded to the crowd: Okay. You asked for it. All right. I’ll keep doing my best, all right? I appreciate you guys so much, man. Thank you for your support.”

Due to Hetfield’s illness, the songs “Sad But True” and “Halo On Fire,” were cut from the setlist. Metallica still played 16 songs, including several tracks from their tenth studio album Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, before calling it quits for the evening.

Metallica was slated to play three more shows at the Royal Arena on Feb. 5, 7, and 9, but a social media post from the band stated that Hetfield, under doctors orders, will not be able to perform the Feb. 5 date, which has been rescheduled for Sept. 2, 2017.

Metallica stated:

We’re very disappointed to have to share with you that unfortunately as Saturday has progressed, James’ health, and specifically his throat, is not improving and he is under strict doctor’s orders to not sing one single note. So sadly we have to report that we will be postponing tomorrow’s show at the Royal Arena until September 2, 2017.

Our week here in Copenhagen is something we have had circled on the calendar for a very long time as a special event not only for our friends in Denmark but also for us and we were really looking forward to celebrating the new arena with you. To those of you who were there yesterday, we appreciate you encouraging us to carry on . . . that meant the world to us! We all felt really bummed that we were unable to give you the maximum Metallica experience; it was one of the most challenging shows we’ve ever played, but your love and support got us through.

We know that many of you made travel plans to spend the weekend with us and we are very sorry for any inconvenience this will cause. We hope that you will be able to come back to Copenhagen in September and we’ll do our best to make it up to everyone with something unique for you at the make-up gig, along with a kick ass show of course! And to APHYXION, the band who won your votes to be Sunday’s opening act, we hope you’re available in September.

Thank you again for all the support and care you’ve always shown us in Denmark. We will be back!

The technicalities: If you have already traveled to Denmark and are able to attend either of the shows on February 7th or 9th, please contact Ticketmaster Denmark, who will do their best to help with replacement tickets for one of these shows although they are very limited. If you are not able to attend the rescheduled date on September 2nd, please contact them before March 1st for a refund of your tickets. Phone: + 45 7015 6565 or by email servicecenter@ticketmaster.dk.

A refund will only apply to the original buyer of the tickets, and you will need to verify your ownership of the tickets by providing Ticketmaster with the last 4 digits of your credit card number. Face value will be refunded but not service fees.

PS: We are monitoring James’ voice on a day-to-day basis so watch this space for updates.

Metallica is scheduled to appear at the 59th Grammy awards on Feb. 12, where the band is nominated for Best Rock Song for their single “Hardwired.”

https://youtu.be/PMsSRPq2VZ0

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