James Hetfield used Metallica’s show at the Las Vegas Sphere on Saturday night to draw a clean line between the band and performers who bring political agendas to the stage. The 63-year-old frontman thanked the crowd for traveling, spending money and giving time to be there, then said Metallica was there for “love, energy and heavy music, baby!”
Las Vegas Sphere on Saturday
“Unless you live in Vegas, you’ve come a long way to spend some time with Metallica,” Hetfield told the audience. “We’re grateful for that — your travels, the money you spend, the time it took, thanks for coming to celebrate with us.” Those remarks set up his sharper point: “I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bulls---, OK?”
He doubled down a beat later: “We are here …no bulls--- …we’re here to forget about all the outside s---, OK?” The message was not subtle, but Hetfield did not name any artist from the stage. That choice kept the focus on Metallica’s own lane: a concert built around performance, not messaging.
Macklemore and Ed Sheeran
The timing made the comments land harder. Last month, Macklemore was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s remaining scheduled performances on the Loop Tour after repeated “Free Palestine” comments, and he had already played “Hind’s Hall” while opening for Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After Macklemore’s removal, all of Ed Sheeran’s remaining opening acts and supporting musicians pulled out in solidarity with him.
Robert Kraft later said he opposed Macklemore performing at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, because of Macklemore’s recent actions and what Kraft called a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery. Macklemore said Kraft told Ed Sheeran that he would not be allowed to perform there. That sequence gave Hetfield’s comments a live-business edge: concert stages have become places where artists now have to decide whether the show is the product, or whether the message is.
Metallica’s agenda
Hetfield’s answer was explicit. “Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!” For fans in the room, that was the operating rule for the night; for other performers, it was a reminder that the backlash around concert politics is now changing tour decisions in real time.
