METALLICA – To Call It A Day After ‘Hardwired Tour’?

“We’ll never stop, we’ll never quit, cause we’re Metallica.”

Sure, it’s one of the most famous rock n roll battle cries… but is the end for the mighty thrash band coming sooner than fans realize?

Rumors swirled in 2016 that longtime frontman James Hetfield planned on quitting the band, and while he did stop working in the studio with drummer Lars Ulrich for one week due to incessant fighting over riffs, they soldiered forward and turned in one of the best selling releases in all of music last year. All that being said, the fact is there’s a possibility that they could call it a day after the “Hardwired” tour, although there’s certainly been no indication this is going to happen.

James Hetfield was asked last year when he thinks his band is planning to call it a day, and he told Toronto Sun:

“If one show somebody can’t get up and perform then we kind of know, Hetfield answered. “We’re trying to be as smart as possible with it and tour age appropriate. At the end of the day we want to have fun out here and if we’re doing three in a row and it’s hard to get up the third show then why? It’s not the money that’s driving us, it’s the fun.”

Ready To Ride The Lightning To Retirement?

“As an artist, when do you stop, he said to 93.3 Radio. “Are you supposed to stop? If you stop, do you die?”

“I look at Lemmy. That guy was up there kicking ass to the last moments, and that, to me, is respectable, but that is him.”

“That’s what he loved; that’s how he lived. Why would you die sitting in a rocking chair somewhere else? “For us, being explorers, we’ve got to have something that’s our next adventure.”

“And I’ll tell you, those adventures show up for us, whether it’s management getting offers or whatever it may be, there’s always an adventure that shows up for us, and we’re up for it.”

“We wanna do firsts, and there’s quite a few firsts that didn’t really pan out, and then there’s some that almost killed us. [Laughs] “But we’re up for trying new stuff and making it fun and bringing smiles to the fans out there, and that makes me smile.”

Hetfield went on the record about KISS and THE SCORPIONS doing giant promotions for their “farewell tours” . . . and then deciding NOT to retire.

“I don’t think that’s fair to anyone. Kiss [did a] farewell tour for the 10th time? [The] Scorpions were done, and then they [toured]? You can’t say that and then not DO it.”

When you think about the fact that it took eight years for the biggest metal band in the world to release their latest studio effort, if they repeat that cycle yet again Lars and James will be sixty years olds trying to pull off intense thrash in the year 2025. The odds are they will start slowing down big time over the next 3-5 years, that is the stone cold reality. Even if they do actually cut another album will it be anti-climatic and a detriment to their legacy?

Do they want to stick around too long past their expiration date or go out on top where they’re at right now? Lars, James, Kirk and Robert kick off their 25 city U.S. tour in Baltimore, MD on May 10th and ends in Edmonton, Canada on August 16th.

As long as they don’t invite any other disco queens to join their band as a 5th member and find themselves in another awkward publicity moment, fans would love to see the Four Horsemen keep creating new music and performing live concerts until one of them dies.

And perhaps instead of a final tour there will just be a last show featuring ‘The Big 4 of Thrash’ with Metallica as the headliner at a massive outdoor festival in front of hundreds of thousands of the most devoted fans going out with a thunderous bang instead of a ‘too far past your prime’ whimper.

https://metallica.com/