Metallica forced to pay over $300k in damages as fans damage venue property

The venue staff was like, 'Okay, Metallica, here's those $300,000 worth of cushions that you have to pay for. And we are like 'WTF'?!!"

Los Angeles: American heavy metal band Metallica is currently on its ‘M72’ World Tour travelling across North America and Europe. In a recent incident, the band’s venue at Long Beach Arena in California led to them paying over $300,000 for damages caused by fans who damaged thousands of cushions.

Speaking to ‘Need A Friend’ podcast back in August 2, drummer Lars Ulrich spoke of the incident “Why are there over 16,000 seats in there? We’ve paid for about 15,000 of those 16,000 seats over the years because every time we were playing Long Beach Arena, people would just take the cushion, you know, play frisbee with it inside the arena.”

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Later talking about the damages on August 5 night, Ulrich said “This was an absolute mind f***. The very next day, the venue staff was like, ‘Okay, Metallica, here’s those $300,000 worth of cushions that you have to pay for. And we are like ‘WTF’?!!”

He went on to say that because of this incident, Metallica had to warn fans that they cannot damage venue property because then the band has to pay for the damages which is both a needless financial loss to them, and delays the ongoing M72 World Tour which will only upset more fans.

The thrash metal legends have currently taken their tour to New Jersey, following which they will head off to Texas and then straight to Europe to perform in Trafalgar Square in the UK.

The band recently celebrated the legacy of the late heavy metal guitarist Dimebag Darell from Pantera as they were joined by the band’s singer Phil Anselmo on stage where they gave their tribute to the guitarist.

The M72 World Tour, so titled due to their latest album ’72 Seasons’ which dropped this year will later head off to Latin America in countries such as Brazil, Peru and Chile following which they will head off to Africa, Asia and Oceana.