Over the last three years, there have been many moments that have been so surreal that you think about what it would be like to tell yourself 10 years ago that such a thing was happening. As far as most surreal metal moment – it had to be last night at the White House when President Donald Trump was introduced while Metallica's most famous song "Enter Sandman" was playing.
The reason for the metal blaring was because Trump presented retired Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an award given to people of cultural significance.
The reason Metallica was playing was because Rivera would famously be referred to as the "Sandman" and come out of the bullpen while Metallica's "Enter Sandman" was blasting in Yankee Stadium. Without further ado, here is a clip from CSPAN (!!) of Metallica blasting in the White House:
As MetalSucks is quick to point out, Rivera himself is not really a Metallica fan and had no say in the music being picked. He told MLB.com a few years ago:
“I never said that I didn’t like it, but I didn’t care about the song. I didn’t pick the song. I don’t pay attention to the music. When I go in there, I’m going to business. I have a job to do, that’s it.”
In 2017, Metallica declared they are not a political band. Drummer Lars Ulrich said he realizes the band's fans stand on either side of the political spectrum and they do not want to alienate their fans. And yet, both Lars and guitarist Kirk Hammett have made their feelings on Trump very clear recently.
Kirk Hammett went off on a tweet-storm shortly after Trump was inaugurated comparing Trump's "America First" speech to 1940s Germany, lashing out at Trump's anti-climate change stance and closing the tweetstorm by writing wrote "defend Democracy from those who want to crush it!"
Meanwhile, Lars Ulrich was asked during the band's Mexico City shows about Trump's proposed border wall and Lars was clearly against it saying ""I don't think the world needs any walls. I think we need to bring people together." and previously joked that he would move to Denmark if Trump was elected.
Frontman James Hetfield was less forthcoming with his opinion on Trump. When interviewed by Chilean newspaper La Tercera in 2017, he said "My opinion stays with me. I'm a singer and guitar player in a rock band," he continued. "I hate politics. I don't wanna talk about politics. It's not important to me. What's important to me is connecting people with music. Politics, religion… things that sep… they separate people. They make people…
"I love talking about it and my thoughts, but I think it gets in the way of people getting to understand all of you."
Hetfield added: "I have no idea. I could probably sit down and like everyone on the planet, if you get to talk with them and understand them.
"But, yeah, politics, we try to stay away from that 'cause it polarizes people. If I sit here and say that I hate Trump or I love Trump, someone will think, 'Oh, I don't like his music anymore.' It's silly. So I like to keep it about music."
