During an appearance on Sweet Potato Pod With Todd Royce, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH bassist Chris Kael shared a memorable “fanboy moment” involving one of his musical heroes, METALLICA frontman James Hetfield. Kael reflected on the experience, saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I am a huge METALLICA fan. We are out on tour with METALLICA, doing shows with them and then doing dates in between those shows. But I’ve had the chance to interact with the guys from METALLICA. And people will say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.’ Fuck that. METALLICA is awesome. Those dudes are great.
“To see them, haven’t done it for — what? — 40 years, I think, at this point, and to still be as actively involved in the fan experience as those guys are, it’s amazing,” he continued. “It gives hope for me down the road and lessons to be learned to stay humble, to stay involved and be on top of everything. Don’t let other people do stuff for you. I’m very hardcore punk rock DIY. They are as well. Hands in everything that they do. Very oversight. And I love seeing that.
“There was one day I was in catering with my tech, and [METALLICA frontman] James Hetfield walked in,” Chris added. “He was on his phone talking to somebody. And I see him put [the phone] down. He goes, ‘Hold on a second.’ He said, ‘Hey, Kael. You doing good? Having a good time? Is there anything that you need?’ All that other stuff. And then he’s, like, ‘Okay, I’ll talk to you in a minute.’ He got back on his phone. I looked at my tech. I was, like, ‘Did James Hetfield just get off the phone to say hi to me?’
“So I’m still very much aware of how wonderful this whole experience is, to be able to rub elbows with people I grew up admiring, people who are the reason that I play music. We opened up for KISS. I got Gene Simmons tattooed on my shin. Just to be able to be on those same stages, playing those same shows — yeah, it’s crazy.”
This past April, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH guitarist Zoltan Bathory spoke to Audacy Check In about what it’s been like for him and his bandmates to support METALLICA on a massive stadium tour in 2023 and 2024. He said: “That’s great. Eighty, ninety thousand people in a stadium, that’s massive. And it’s one of those things where, obviously, we have a big fanbase that overlaps. So, METALLICA is such a huge band; they had four decades to gain that fanbase, so you’re gonna have three generations of people in there. And it’s such a big band now that — and in some ways they’re growing, believe it or not, METALLICA, still; it’s crazy. And so it’s such a big band that even if you’re not necessarily into metal, you’ve gotta come; you have to come and see. And so that means there are gonna be a lot of people in that arena that, hearing a band named FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, they’re probably not gonna give us a chance because they have no idea what that would be. So that means that we are playing to a substantial amount of people who never heard of [us] before. And I can tell that we’re turning them, I can tell, especially after the show. You can definitely see it, because we have, obviously, statistics and online we can measure that. After every show, there’s a jump in visitors and a jump in downloads and a jump in statistics, so I know that we’re hitting a massive amount of people with that.”
Kael and Bathory’s comments highlight the surreal and gratifying experiences that come with touring alongside METALLICA, a band that has inspired them and continues to influence new generations of fans.
