Overview
- Roger Waters told the Katie Halper Show on Thursday that James Hetfield is a “prick,” questioned his intelligence and called his musicianship “appalling” in a broad denunciation of Hetfield’s recent onstage comments.
- Hetfield told the Las Vegas Sphere audience on Saturday that Metallica is “not here… to influence you with their bulls—” and framed the band’s agenda as “love, energy and heavy music,” a line that sparked media attention.
- Media outlets say Metallica has not publicly responded to Waters’s attack and the band was approached for comment as their Las Vegas Sphere residency continues with another show scheduled for Thursday night.
- The exchange has revived a wider split in the music world over onstage politics, coming after Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour for pro‑Palestinian remarks and reflecting Hetfield’s past statement that he “hates politics” and Metallica’s preference to keep shows nonpolitical while doing charity work through its All Within My Hands foundation.
- Waters is long known for outspoken support of Palestinian causes and for controversial statements about Israel that led BMG to cut ties in 2024, so his attack on Hetfield ties current friction to a history of public political fights in the music industry.