Metallica and Lady Gaga’s performance of “Moth Into Flame” at the 59th annual Grammys didn’t exactly go right with the presenter not mentioning Metallica and the fact that James Hetfield’s mic wasn’t working. Now, in a recent interview on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” Ulrich discussed the whole situation.
Ulrich said the following:
“In the heat of the battle, you’re out there and you’re playing, when it’s a technical issue, you don’t really know — ‘Is it going to the house?’ ‘Is his vocals going to the truck? ‘Maybe it’s just the monitors.’ — so you’ve just gotta keep playing. We get off stage, we get back there, and I haven’t seen [James] like that in twenty years. I mean, he was livid. He’s aged really well and he’s a pretty chill guy, but the first five or ten minutes in that dressing room was not a lot of fun. But, like they say, the show must go on, and we fought through it. And with the fire and Gaga in my lap for about a minute at one point, it was just, ‘Keep going, keep going, keep going.’ So we fought through it, and a lot of people said that at least it made for great television, which is really the point of doing the Grammys to begin with.”
Ulrich also added the following in a recent chat with Entertainment Weekly:
“From where I was sitting it was so chaotic—you know, firewalls and dancers, and James’ mic not working for the first verse—I mean, the whole thing was such a clusterfuck. There was just this totally energetic, crazy—it was just energy and excitement and nuttiness. So her [Gaga] right in my face just added to the whole exhilarating energy that was happening for those five minutes. It was awesome.”
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