Though he’s not quitting his day job, Metallica frontman James Hetfield has a new gig: Narrating the History Channel’s upcoming series The Hunt, which chronicles a trek to Kodiak, Alaska, to kill brown bears.
That news is not going over well with fans of the Glastonbury festival, which Metallica will headline this year alongside Arcade Fire, Kasabian, Jack White, and the Black Keys. Someone started a Facebook page called “Remove Metallica from Glastonbury Festival for their support of Bear Hunting,” with the obvious intent of getting the metal legends banned from the bill. The page, which went up on May 25, features this description: “Metallica’s lead singer James Hetfield is a big game hunter and promoter. This is incompatible with Glastonbury Festivals ideals.”
Hetfield is, indeed, an avid hunter and member of the NRA.
“I love my guns. I love that my dad handed them down to me, and I’m taking care of them,” he said in an interview for the Orion Festival’s magazine. “Some of the gun laws definitely don’t make any sense, but also the Second Amendment is very important to me. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth. Both sides are operating on a fear base. As an NRA member, I don’t think we need to be afraid that if we compromise on some things, [they] are going to change so much. I don’t want to make it easier for someone to have an assault weapon, but I also want to be able to protect my family.”
As of now, the Facebook page has nearly 11,000 likes, with the administrator asking supporters to contact the History Channel about removing the program. Others have wondered about Metallica’s addition to the Glastonbury lineup, simply because they’re either not fans or they question if the quartet fits in with the event’s vibe.
“I’m not sure it adds up,” Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner, who is a fan of the band, told Time Out London. “I know we’d buzz off it, but fundamentally could you have Metallica in the hippy [sic] nucleus?” Glasgow’s Mogwai took a more negative tack, calling Metallica “shite” and saying drummer Lars Ulrich is “unbelievably bad” in an interview with Gigwise. Mick Jagger, meanwhile, said, “They’re going to be great.”
Glastonbury runs from June 25 to 29.
