No one will ever know how far back this goes, but when Metallica’s tickets for S&M2 night one went on sale, it left many fans angry due to being beaten by bots. This surpasses being a disgruntled fan not obtaining a ticket due to it selling out. Despite responding to this scam by opening a second night of the show, it remains difficult to understand why the band couldn’t make an official statement. Additionally, looking over everything that’s happened between now and then, it’s safe to assume the band members themselves had nothing to do with this. At least, we hope they didn’t. According to Pollstar, Metallica are the biggest all-time touring band. They’ve also grossed over $70 Million from 13 shows on their summer 2019 tour.
Back in July, Billboard issued a report based on audio of a secretly recorded phone call from February 2017, which was made just days before the band announced their WorldWired North American stadium tour. The phone call was between Live Nation president of U.S concerts Bob Roux and event promoter Vaughn Millette, who had been tasked by an associate of the band to sell 88,000 tickets directly to resale sites. The two were figuring out a gameplan to assure the resales wouldn’t look suspicious from Metallica’s fans. Live Nation officials allegedly worked with Metallica’s longtime associate Tony DiCioccio to obtain the tickets to then resell them on the secondary market and splitting the profits. Following this elaborate report, a congressman called out on the Metallica/Live Nation ticket scam, and the band has yet to respond to any of these accusations ever since. It was only recently when the U.S Justice Department threatened legal action against Live Nation, which resulted in a settlement instead.
