Metallica Saved By the Stones

8 months ago 01st Mar 10:15

Rockers Metallica were saved from splitting up - by the Rolling Stones.

The Enter Sandman hitmakers were in limbo following the release of their St Anger album in 2003.

Drummer Lars Ulrich admits the band's future was "pretty bleak" and he was preparing himself for "something different" when frontman James Hetfield took months off to fight his addiction to alcohol.

The big turn around was when the Rolling Stones called usin the summer of 2005 and asked if we would play with them in San FranciscoMetallica's Lars Ulrich

But it was the chance of performing on the same bill as the Stones thatsaved Metallica from meltdown.

Ulrich says, "The big turn around was when the Rolling Stones called usin the summer of 2005 and asked if we would play with them in San Francisco. We hadn't done anything since the St Anger tour ended seven or eightmonths earlier. We showed up at HQ four or five days before the gig. None of us had seen each other for quite a while.

"There was no film crew, no producer, no psychiatrist, no minders, no babysitters, none of that shit.

It was just us four guys and we started playing music and rehearsing.

And it was so effortless and low key without all the c**p.

"We didn't have to sit down and talk about how we were feeling and all of that horses**t. That set the tone for the next three years and it's been great".