We’re taking this at (obscured) face value, since it came from the 4chan-like image site 9gag, but allegedly, the guy with the mask on in the picture is Metallica’s James Hetfield, who went incognito to watch Mastodon from the crowd during the Rock in Lisboa festival Portugal about a month or so ago. This could pretty much be anyone in a mask, however. Obviously, Metallica isn’t confirming whether or not this is Hetfield, but if you agree with this eyewitness account given, there’s a chance that it might actually have been him.
So, during Mastodon at Rock in Rio, into the snake pit comes a guy fully dressed in metallica apparel, hoodie over the head, gloves in hands (with that heat!) and a mask. I was “ok, seen weirder stuff” and continue to rock on. But a friend of mine (the blonde girl on the picture below) grabbed me and said: ” That’s James!” And it really was him. Made some eye contact with him a few times, it really were his blue eyes. Also, the way he was rocking out, full of his manerisms (is this how you spell it?).
To add everything up, there was an security guy (not from the venue’s security) at the entrance of the pit, ALWAYS looking at him. To top it off, Jeff came in and snapped a few pictures of him. James was right behind me.
Most of the people in the pit didn’t noticed it, but the ones around him did. Nobody made a fuss about it, we let the man rock out, but we KNEW, and he knew we we’re on to him. In fact, he elbowed this friend of mine twice in a row, despite the fact she was not too close to him. Elbowed her once, she didn’t care, elbowed her twice, she looks back and he’s all relaxed, just watching the show… 😉 He wanted us to notice him.
A few songs later, he walks out and a venue security grabs him; the other security guy that came with him talked with him. We couldn’t hear of course, but we later went to the venue security and asked him “Hey, was that James?” and his reply? “Yeah, he was in Metallica.”
If that was really him, it’s cool to see that Hetfield went to enough lengths to disguise himself and actually take in a show the way the fans do, not just from sidestage. If not, then hey, we all got trolled by 9gag.
[via Metal Sucks]
