Metallica and Lady Gaga: What Moth Into Flame should have sounded like

James Hetfield and Lady Gaga (Image credit: Vimeo)

Metallica have released the dress rehearsal footage of their Grammy Awards show performance with Lady Gaga. The original broadcast was marred by glitches, including microphone trouble for frontman James Hetfield, who was forced to share a microphone with Gaga for the first part of their performance of Moth Into Flame after his own failed to work. Frustrated by the technical problems, Hetfield kicked over his mic stand and threw his guitar offstage at the end of the song. “I haven’t seen him like that in 20 years,” says drummer Lars Ulrich. “He was livid.” Ulrich later described Gaga as “the perfect fifth member of Metallica.”

The newly-released video shows the song as it should have been presented on the night, with both mics working and a frustration-free climax for Hetfield. “Ok, our little Grammy … hiccup … wasn’t that dramatic,” say the band. “But it still left all of us wondering, ‘What if?’ To answer that question and do justice to what we felt was an inspiring collaboration, we decided to share footage from earlier that day when all cylinders were firing just right.”

It wasn’t the only glitch on the night. As Megadeth picked up the Grammy for latest album Dystopia in the Best Metal Performance category, the house band played Metallica’s Master Of Puppets by mistake. Mainman Dave Mustaine saw the funny side, later tweeting “you can’t blame ‘em for not being able to play Megadeth.”

Metallica 2017 tour dates

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Mar 25: Sao Paulo Lollapalooza, Brazil
May 10: Baltimore M&T Bank Stadium, MD
May 12: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA
May 14: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NY
May 17: Uniondale The New Coliseum, NY
May 19: Foxborough Gillette Stadium, MA
May 21: Columbus Rock On The Range, OH
Jun 04: St Louis Busch Stadium, MO
Jun 07: Denver Sports Authority Field at Mile High, CO
Jun 11: Houston NRG Stadium, TX
Jun 14: San Antonio Alamodome, TX
Jun 16: Dallas AT&T Stadium, TX
Jun 18: Chicago Soldier Field, IL
Jul 05: Orlando Camping World Stadium, FL
Jul 07: Miami Hard Rock Stadium, FL
Jul 09: Atlanta SunTrust park, GA
Jul 12: Detroit Comercia Park, MO
Jul 14: Quebec City Festival D’Ete de Quebec, QC
Jul 16: Toronto Rogers Centre, ON
Jul 19: Montreal Parc Jean-Drapeau, QC
Jul 29: Los Angeles Rose Bowl, CA
Aug 04: Phoenix University of Phoenix Stadium, AZ
Aug 06: San Diego Petco Park, CA
Aug 09: Seattle CenturyLink Field , WA
Aug 14: Vancouver BC Place, BC
Aug 16: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, AB
Sep 02: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark

Watch Metallica play Master Of Puppets live in Singapore

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