Seeing somebody fall down real good is one of the funniest things imaginable… as long as you know that the victim isn’t seriously hurt, of course. That’s why we can say now that it was all good fun when Metallica’s James Hetfield bit it pretty hard during last night’s performance at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome.
Following in the (mis)steps of Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, U2’s The Edge, and many others over the years, Hetfield lost track of where he was while performing on Monday night, and as seen in fan-shot footage, he turned around and stepped in a shallow hole on the stage, mostly breaking his fall with his arm.
In Hetfield’s defense, though, it appears in the clip below that the lowered part of the stage shifted while Hetfield was faced away from it, so it looks like he had the chair pulled out from under him. As Rolling Stone notes, the four openings on the stage allow tables of percussion to be lifted onto the stage from below, so they’re not just booby traps… although they certainly served that purpose in this case.
Feel free to laugh about it now, because Hetfield took the fall in stride and addressed the audience, “Is everybody OK? Yes, I’m OK. My ego, not so much. But we’re fine. Hurt my feelings a little bit.”
Watch a couple videos of the spill above.
