Metallica Festival Cancelations Explained

K. Wiggins | 02-28-2020

Photo by antiMusic's Rob Grabowski

Metallica made news earlier this week when they canceled their appearances at the Sonic Temple and Louder Than Life festivals, and now the promoter has shared more details behind the decision.

Frontman James Hetfield shared in the cancelation announcement that the band was forced to pull out of the appearances because of "critical recovery events on those weekends that cannot be moved."

Gary Spivack, the executive vice president and talent buyer for the festivals promoter Danny Wimmer, spoke with Ultimate Guitar about why the metal giants canceled.

Spivack told the site,"Well, we got the call from Metallica's management team, Q Prime, who are, the best managers in the business, hands down, and said that James has Sobriety Weekends that are requirement weekend that are throughout the calendar year, and unfortunately, a couple of those weekends fell on our festivals.

Although Metallica will still be at Welcome To Rockville, Epicenter and Aftershock in 2020 with us, we did lose them for Sonic Temple and Louder Than Life. So, then it was, how do you even contemplate filling the shoes of the biggest band in our world?

"Well, you do it by finding two of the biggest bands in our world. So, we got Red Hot Chili Peppers, with John Frusciante, which will be one of only four shows they'll be doing in 2020, and of course, Grammy Award-winning artist Tool."