Last week, Esquire magazine released a controversial article where they interviewed the Navy SEAL responsible for shooting Osama Bin Laden. During the conversation, the shooter revealed that he used Metallica's music to soften people up during interrogations, until the band asked the military to stop. Read the full controversial statement here.
Metallica released a new statement today, denying they ever made any such request.
In a new post on their official website, titled "Clearing The Air," Metallica wrote:
There has been a lot of talk recently about us asking the military not to use our music to "soften people up before interrogation". We NEVER commented to the military either way on this matter. Any statements that have been made otherwise are not correct.
This is in line with previous soundbites the band has given regarding the matter. In a 2008 German interview, Metallica frontman James Hetfield stated:
"Part of me is proud is because they chose Metallica… And then part of me is kind of bummed about it that people worry about us being attached to some political statement because of that."
Blabbermouth also points out that Lars Ulrich echoed Hetfield's setiments when appearing on the Rachel Maddow show (Maddow is a huge Metallcia fan), with Lars saying the band did not "advocate or condone" the use of it's music and that there are far more extreme songs that could be used:
"If there are people that are dumb enough to use Metallica to interrogate prisoners, you're forgetting about all the music that's to the left of us. I can name, you know, 30 Norwegian death metal bands that would make Metallica sound like Simon and Garfunkel. "
So to conclude, both Metallica and Demon Hunter have released statements negating statements made by Osama's shooter. It makes you wonder how much more of that Esquire story is inaccurate.
