Rolling Stone Australia — July 2017

¥IN 1988, METALLICAreleased their

pivotal album...AndJusticeforAll

andwentfromthrash-metalren-

egades to mainstream stars. But

when their manager suggested an

arenatourtosupporttheLP,the

band wasn’t convinced. “I was like,

‘Seriously?’” drummer Lars Ulrich

recalls.“WeknewwecoulddoL.A.,

NewYork,SanFrancisco,butthe

Americanheartlanddidn’tseemlike

agreatidea.Nobandasextremeas

ours had ever done a full arena tour.

So we used Indianapolis as a yard-

stick. If we were cool there, we were

cool almost anywhere. When the

ticketswentonsaleinIndianapolis,

weendedupdoing13,000or14,000,

whichin1988wasaninsanevictory.”

On the Damaged Justice Tour,

Metallica learned just how many

authenticity-starved headbangers

were really out there. The band got

thefirsttasteofitstransformative

powerinthesummerof1988when

itwasbookedontotheMonstersof

Rock Tour, opening for Van Halen

and Scorpions. At the L.A. Colise-

um,fansrespondedtoMetallica’sset

by flinging their folding chairs at the

stagetocreateafootball-field-size

moshpit.“Itwasbonkers,”saysbass-

ist Jason Newsted, who had recently

joined the band, replacing the late

CliffBurton.“Forakidcomingoff

afarmandjumpingintomyfavou-

riteband,itwasverydreamy.Ididn’t

sleep. Every day was another dream

coming true.” He also got a lesson in

how to conduct himself on the road.

“I’dwalkonthecrewbusofabigband

andthere’sapileofblowonthetable

in the front lounge,” Newsted recalls.

“I look over there at my heroes, all

redandswollen,andI’mlike,‘Guess

what I’m not gonna do? That!’” The

kickoff of the Damaged Justice Tour

coincidedwiththesuccessofMetal-

lica’santi-war-themedvideofortheir

new single, “One”, which quickly be-

cameanMTVhit.Atthepeakof

bloated hair metal, Metallica were

playingjaggedseven-to-nine-min-

ute-long thrash odysseys. But the

crowdsattheirshowskeptgrowing.

“The kids know that at the end of the

day there’s something very real and

honest about what we do,” Ulrich told

Rolling Stonein 1989. “You can’t

take that away from us.” KORY GROW

METALLICA

1988-89 DAMAGED JUSTICE TOUR

70 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com July, 2017

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