Yesterday, Metalsucks ran a great article about Metallica that yet again makes me want to throw up. Apparently the most successful metal band can no longer live off of royalties alone anymore. Welcome to the 21st century! I almost feel like starting a slow clap.
Kirk Hammett recently told Rolling Stone:
“The cycles of taking two years off don’t exist anymore. We were able to do that because we had record royalties coming in consistently. Now you put out an album, and you have a windfall maybe once or twice but not the way it used to be — a check every three months.”
I am not sure if this was taken out of context or if this is just a small piece of a larger picture but the fact that Kirk said it in an interview as if it is news makes me really question just how out of touch these guys are with today's music industry.
Metallica cries when they can't afford to take two years off to relax while most every other metal band lives out of a van, sleeps on a floor and has a four dollar daily budget to feed themselves while on tour. Boo hoo Metallica.
I am sure plenty of trolls will complain and tell me to leave Metallica alone, that they earned it and weren't always filthy rich but tell me, honestly, can you picture Lars Ulrich in an Econoline van stuffing his face on dollar menu cheeseburgers after not showering for two full weeks?
Maybe Metallica should go ask the 30,000 employees who are about to lose their jobs over at HP how they feel. I am sure Stan the IT guy can just fall back on those multi-million dollar tours that he has in his back pocket to feed his family.
Go out, tour and earn the money of your fans… what a foreign concept.
