Metallica pay thousands of dollars to replace tribute band’s stolen equipment
An incredible gesture from the band!
In the hours after their show at Portland Rock Hard PDX on Saturday night (22nd April), Metallica tribute band Blistered Earth had their instruments, equipment and trailer stolen.
Breaking the devastating news with their Facebook followers, the band, who solely play classic ‘tallica songs ranging from 1983's ‘Kill Em' All’ to 1991's ‘Metallica’, said they awoke after staying at the Chestnut Tree Inn to find everything gone.
Such was the uniqueness and sentimental value of his kit, drummer Shawn Murphy even offered to pay the thieves for them back “no questions asked.”
After hearing of Blistered Earth’s plight a representative from Metallica HQ got in touch with them earlier this week and James, Lars, Robert and Kirk offered to pay to replace the equipment.
A flabbergasted Blistered Earth wrote on Facebook: “Sometimes when bad things happen it really brings out the best in people. Thanx to the attention you guys helped bring to the matter of our stolen gear & KATU and KOIN in Portland airing the story, James & the rest of the guys in Metallica ( thanx guys) have seen fit to replace our equipment. Thank you guys!!”
Explaining how it came about, drummer Shawn Murphy told M.I.R.P Magazine: “I got a call from a lady from Metallica HQ who said she was trying to contact me to verify who I was. Then from there they got me in touch with Metallica’s manager who asked me to send him a gear list. And so I did, and it just kind of went from there.
"It's pretty awesome that they would do that. I guess it was actually James (Hetfield) that saw the story on the web site for KATU (Portland TV channel).
“I don't how familiar you are with Metallica, or how closely you have followed their career, but it is fairly well documented that they had all of their gear stolen way back in the day, back when they didn't have money to replace their gear. So, they have a first-hand knowledge of how sh**** this feels. But, again, I never thought it would come to this."