The frontman of Metallica has no problem with being told by the Chinese government that his band can’t play certain songs on tour.
James Hetfield said he bowed to instructions from Communist Party officials to remove certain songs from his playlist to be “respectful”.
Chinese censors demanded to be sent a copy of the entire Metallica discography before their first mainland China show in 2013.
They then decided certain songs – including Master of Puppets and One – could not be played. Metallica has kept them updated since, sending them lyrics for their latest album Hardwired… To Self-Destruct before their 2017 shows.
Censors decided they were also not allowed to feature the lead single, called Hardwired, because of supposed subversive and vulgar content.
You may think having your set-list dictated to you by an authoritarian one-party state would sit uneasily with such titans of the music industry – but apparently not.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Hetfield said he was fine with the rules, and suggested that maybe if they keep playing nice the rules will be relaxed:
Why shouldn’t you respect their culture when you’re there as a guest and you’ve been invited to play? We want to be respectful, and just because we do things differently, it doesn’t mean it should be forced upon [others]. But hopefully we’ll keep coming back and they’ll realise we’re not a threat politically and we have no agenda except to cross boundaries with music and let people enjoy the songs. We’re not trying to bring a secret message to anybody.
The interview was given in January, but only emerged in the Western media this week.
Metallica used to be more bullish about Chinese efforts to censor them.
In an interview with the Howard Stern Show in 2013 – transcribed here by Blabbermouth – Hetfield said the censorship regime was “scary” and “doesn’t work”.
Guitarist Kirk Hammett even said that he tried to get round the rules by playing the opening bars of the banned songs, but stopping before any lyrics began.
However, in 2017 Metallica seems to have given up trying to push the boundaries, and are content to do what the Chinese authorities say.