Metallica Cancels Tour As James Hetfield Returns To Rehab

Metallica frontman James Hetfield is going back to rehab and the rock band is canceling a tour through Australia and New Zealand.

Getty Image / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / Stringer


Metallica has canceled their upcoming tour so that lead singer James Hetfield can return to rehab. The legendary rock band will postpone their forthcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand.

On Friday, the band announced the postponement of the tour. “As most of you probably know, our brother James has been struggling with addiction on and off for many years. He has now, unfortunately, had to re-enter a treatment program to work on his recovery again,” Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo said in a statement on Metallica’s website.

Metallica assured their rock music fans that they would make up the WorldWired leg of their tour in Australia and New Zealand.

“We fully intend to make our way to your part of the world as soon as health and schedule permit. We’ll let you know as soon as we can,” Metallica said. “Once again, we are devastated that we have inconvenienced so many of you, especially our most loyal fans who often travel great distances to experience our shows. We appreciate your understanding and support for James and, as always, thank you for being a part of our Metallica family.”

Metallica promised to refund all tickets sold for the now-canceled tour, which was scheduled to begin October 17 in Perth, Australia, and end on November 2 in Auckland, New Zealand.

The Metallica frontman has struggled with addiction for decades, especially alcoholism. During Metallica’s recording of their St. Anger in 2001, Hetfield had to go to rehab for his alcohol abuse. Hetfield rejoined the illustrious heavy metal band after seven months in rehab and four months recovering with his family. Metallica began recording their eighth studio album on April 23, 2001, and was eventually released St. Anger on June 5, 2003.

Hetfield appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2017 and said that he was sober for 15 years.

“Fear was a big motivator in that for me,” Hetfield told Joe Rogan. “Losing my family, that was the thing that scared me so much, that was the bottom I hit, that my family is going to go away because of my behaviors that I brought home from the road. I got kicked out of my house by my wife, I was living on my own somewhere, I did not want that. Maybe as part of my upbringing, my family kind of disintegrated when I was a kid. Father left, mother passed away, had to live with my brother, and then kind of just, where did my stuff go? It just kind of floated away, and I do not want that happening. No matter what’s going on, we’re going to talk this stuff out, and make it work.”

In the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster, the film caught the internal strife amongst bandmembers while making St. Anger and how Hetfield’s addictions added fuel to the fire.

“We were at a crossroads,” Lars Ulrich said of the documentary. “We had been really good at being able to compartmentalize a lot of this stuff. Suppress it with drinking or other extravagances. This was the first time we had to talk to each other, get to know each other and work stuff out. The cameras were there catching all of it.”

The band did not reveal what Hetfield’s addiction was or which rehabilitation treatment facility he was attending.

[Yahoo]