Metallica at midlife: less alcohol, more tofu and a blockbuster tour

Instead of cases of beer and bottles of booze, one of heavy metal’s greatest bands is now fuelled by Peloton, tofu and a good night’s sleep.

Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica perform at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

When Metallica started touring in the 1980s, the San Francisco heavy-metal band built a massive following, sold millions of records and more than earned its nickname: Alcoholica.

Forty years later, Metallica is still on the road, playing to some of its biggest audiences of its career and grossing upward of $10 million a night. But they’re exercising temperance now: Instead of cases of beer and bottles of booze, the band is fueled by Peloton, tofu and a good night’s sleep.

“The clichés about rock ‘n’ roll and Jack Daniel’s and shenanigans and burning the candle at three ends.... that’s all well and good,” says drummer and co-founder Lars Ulrich in an interview. “But I can tell you that having a clear mind and a clear view and feeling strong and healthy, you can still give the drums probably more of a beating and you can kind of go up and let loose and push it as much as you ever have before.” In a summer marked by musical megatours from Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, no other act is doing it like Metallica. The band is supporting its latest album, “72 Seasons,” with two-night stands in stadiums, bringing completely different set lists and opening acts to their Friday and Sunday night shows in each city. They’re also offering fans the chance to buy two-day tickets.

Metallica.

For Metallica die-hards, it’s a chance to see the band like they’ve never experienced them before. For the band, whose members are now in their 50s and 60s, it’s a way to tour in a way that’s both creatively fulfilling and sustainable, a formula that has helped the band stay together, on the road and making music for more than four decades.

“Ultimately, more than anything, you want to try to stay sane and healthy,” Ulrich said. “That’s the number one thing.” At the first stop on the North American leg of the tour earlier this month at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Metallica played in the round to more than 80,000 fans a night. The band said 75% of ticket buyers attended both shows. Pollstar reported that ticket sales grossed more than $20 million, while Beyoncé’s 100,000-plus, two-night stand at MetLife the weekend before fetched more than $33 million.

After the band closed Sunday night’s set with “Enter Sandman,” some 150 Metallica crew members and more than 150 local hires packed the show’s 588 speakers, 650 lights, 24 LED screens, more than 35 miles of fiber-optic cables, dozens of guitars and tons of steel into dozens of semi-trucks. After stops in Montreal and Arlington, Texas, the tour is in the Los Angeles area this weekend to play SoFi Stadium.

What Ulrich, 59, lead vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield, 60, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, 60, and bassist Robert Trujillo, 58, are doing in 2023 was unheard of when Metallica formed in 1981. Mick Jagger was in his 30s, Chuck Berry was in his 50s and there were no 60-year-old rockers who had been filling stadiums for 40 years -- the genre wasn’t even that old.

“Look at the Beatles,” Ulrich said. “They lasted, what, six years, maybe seven? That’s how long it takes between each one of our albums.” The infrastructure supporting the concert business has grown up along with Metallica. Dan Braun, 65, Metallica’s creative director and production designer, who has worked with the band since 1994, says that when he got into the business, athletic facilities weren’t very accommodating to rock ‘n’ roll. Now, he says, many of the venues are built so that the enormous cranes that are essential to build the productions as big as Metallica’s can get to the 50-yard line.

“Along the way,” Braun said, “the buildings have figured out that this is nothing but a huge business.” But members of the band say Metallica’s tour is not organized to maximize short-term earnings. Sure, the band could be playing more shows in more cities over a shorter period, but Ulrich says that over the last 20 years, Metallica has designed their tours to give priority to its members’ health and personal lives. This summer, that means playing weekends. On past tours, it meant scheduling weeks off during international tours so band members could be home more often to see their kids grow up.

“I think ultimately having a happy band and a healthy band who can go home, see their kids and do what they need to do without every conversation being about the economics of it will succeed and probably be healthier and happier in the long run,” Ulrich said.

Despite the lifestyle changes band members have made, the music hasn’t changed.

To stay healthy, the band is touring with personal trainers and chefs who prepare organic meals. Ulrich says he’s “chained to a Peloton.” Hetfield likes to swim. Hammett is into yoga. Trujillo, who joined the band in 2003 after working with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne and Suicidal Tendencies, prepared for the tour by running drills on a field, surfing and doing body-weight workouts.

“Drinking and partying every night,” Trujillo said in an interview, “is not an option at a certain point in your life when you’re doing this.” Trujillo says that while there isn’t a band policy against drinking -- “We’re all big boys” -- there is an expectation that each member of the band does whatever he needs to do to show up strong every night.

“I’ve seen them fighting to get to stage. I’ve seen them sad to get to stage. I’ve seen them in moments of joy. I’ve seen them in moments of severe depression,” Braun says. “I’ve seen ‘em sick to a point where we’ve had to have buckets and garbage cans on stage so that they could throw up. But what I’ve never seen ‘em do is phone it in, because when they hit that stage, it’s on.”

WSJ