Watch Metallica beat a superfan in a TV pop quiz then rifle through his wallet

(Image credit: Press)

When you’re a band as monumental as Metallica, the press tour around a new album involves a lot more than just a few interviews with magazines and newspapers. National TV shows also fall over themselves to get access to you, very much aware that you’re the men responsible for one of the best-selling and longest-charting albums in history. And sometimes, once they get hold of you, said TV shows can have you doing all kinds of wacky shit.

The Four Horsemen would find that out firsthand in 2016 during a stop at Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. In addition to the band talking to the host, they agreed to do a segment where they would compete in a quiz against a superfan. The twist being that every question in that quiz was about Metallica.

The deck seems pretty stacked against the fan, known simply as Dave. Not only should Metallica in theory already know the answer to the quiz’s every question, but he also had to compete against all four members. But the plucky underdog started strongly, beating Lars Ulrich to the punch when asked what year the band were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (it was 2009). Sadly, Dave could not sustain this early momentum, and his idols soon eased to a 4-2 victory.

This meant that Dave, sadly, would not get to take home the grand prize of an ESP guitar signed by the band. Instead, Metallica claimed a prize of their own: Dave’s wallet. After Kimmel passed the band the pocketbook, they instantly went for a rummage, but were visibly underwhelmed with their booty, with Lars and Robert Trujillo exclaiming, “Where’s the money?!”

“Condoms?” Lars also asked, a somewhat personal question which was met with an uncertain “maybe” in response.

The good news is Dave got a consolation prize, as the band invited him to the following summer’s US tour and even offered to fly him out to a date. Awwww. He also won the life lesson that, apparently, it's wise to pay careful attention to the contents of your pockets when Metallica are about. That money they lost on the Through The Never movie has to be recouped somehow, right?

Watch the clip below:

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.