Zoltán Báthory Admits Metallica Wouldn’t Open for Five Finger Death Punch
In a recent interview with Rock Antenne, Zoltán Báthory of Five Finger Death Punch discussed his band’s aspirations and their relationship with Metallica. When asked about the possibility of Metallica opening for them in the future, Báthory candidly replied:
“No. I would say this: Definitely there is something in our minds like ‘Okay, one day this is gonna be our stadium that we headline, one day this is gonna be our festival that we headline, and you’ll already be headlining arenas around the world.’ We’re headlining giant festivals, but when it comes to stadiums, that’s a whole different story. We play some stadiums on our own, especially in America, where we can sell out a stadium, but being a consistent stadium headliner is the next step. Yeah, that comes to my mind like, ‘Man, one day, probably not in the far future, we’ll be the band that plays in stadiums.’”
While confident about Five Finger Death Punch’s future as headliners in larger venues, Báthory acknowledges that Metallica would never open for another band:
“Now, as for Metallica, a big opener, no that doesn’t come to my mind. There’s no way in this universe that Metallica would open for anyone. They don’t need to, they don’t want to. It’s the biggest band in the world.”
Báthory’s Experience Touring with Metallica
Five Finger Death Punch began their journey as an opening act for Metallica on the ‘M72’ tour last August, performing at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Originally, Five Finger Death Punch planned to join Metallica for several European shows in the spring of 2023. However, they had to withdraw from these gigs to allow their singer, Ivan Moody, time to recover from hernia surgery. The band later rejoined the tour and continues to perform with Metallica.
In an April interview with Audacy Check In, Zoltán discussed the impact of touring with Metallica:
“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. 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.”
He also highlighted how touring with Metallica boosted Five Finger Death Punch’s exposure:
“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 reaching a massive amount of people with that.”
