Metallica appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Friday night (September 10th) to promote the releases of The Metallica Blacklist covers compilation and the deluxe 30th anniversary box set edition of “The Black Album.” The band performed two songs, sat down with the late-night host for an interview, and participated in a funny skit in which they read 1-star Amazon reviews of the classic 1991 album.
Much like Kimmel’s “Mean Tweets” segment, Metallica were subjected to some scathing commentary as the band members each took turns reading the 1-star Amazon reviews. Lars Ulrich began with one that read, “The Black Album? I call it ‘The Shitty Album!’ This is by far one of the most loathsome crimes every committed against music.”
James Hetfield read one that insisted, “This album sucks, sad but true! I bought this when it came out. I was horrified when I listened to it. I threw it off a bridge and watched a truck smash it.”
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Toward the end of the skit, Hetfield had enough of the negatively, exclaiming, “What the f**k are we doing?,” before walking up to the camera and flipping it the bird and mouthing “F**k you!”
During the interview segment, the band discussed how the 1991 self-titled effort came to be known as “The Black Album,” with Lars crediting the press and fans for giving the LP its famous nickname. When Kimmel asked if they had any issues with Jay-Z calling his 2003 LP The Black Album, Hetfield responded, “Well, yeah,” but went on to acknowledge that “someone did it kind of before us,” crediting Spinal Tap.
For the performances, Metallica rocked “Wherever I May Roam” from Los Angeles’ Griffith Observatory during the broadcast. As a bonus performance on Kimmel’s YouTube channel, the band also played “Holier Than Thou.”
And if that’s not enough Metallica for you, there’s also an amusing clip of Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo unboxing the super deluxe 30th anniversary box set edition of “The Black Album.” Guillermo revealed that he was a metalhead back in the day, and while noticing that Metallica wore sunglasses on a few classic magazine covers, he brilliantly commented, “It was very sunny in the ’90s!”
Metallica’s appearance on Kimmel followed one the day before on The Howard Stern Show, where they performed with Miley Cyrus and received a compliment from Elton John that brought Hetfield to tears.
Watch all of Metallica’s segments and performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live below. Pick up the new super deluxe box set of “The Black Album” via the band’s merch store, and The Metallica Blacklist covers compilation via Metallica’s website or Amazon (and be nice when you leave a review!).
