A Day In Rock: August 13th, 2013
On this day 11 years ago… Metallica performed in China for the first time when they played the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. Both concerts, the one on this day and a second the following day were sold out with fans coming from all over China.
“It is so rare for us to be able to say that we are visiting a country for the very first time, so this is an extra special announcement for us,” posted the band.
However, Metallica were asked to send the lyrics for a set of songs to the Chinese government for approval before giving permission to play in the country. “They went through all the lyrics and okayed which ones we could play, which ones we couldn’t play,” noted guitarist Kirk Hammett (pictured).
One of the songs nixed was “Master Of Puppets” which was determined to be “subversive.” But the song still got played… sort of.
“I played the riff for ‘Master Of Puppets’ and a couple of other songs that weren’t allowed to be played,” added Hammett. “I played just the music, so I kind of snuck it in there.”
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