James Hetfield calls woman who scared away cougar with Metallica song

James Hetfield has caught up with one of his dedicated fans, giving a call to the woman who made headlines for scaring away a cougar by blasting Metallica.

You might recall last week how Vancouver Island woman Dee Gallant made headlines after scaring off a cougar by playing a cut from Metallica classic, The Black Album.

“Initially I wasn’t that scared,” Gallant explained. “I remember thinking, ‘Cool, that’s a cougar,’ and then it was, ‘Why is it still there?’ before turning into, ‘Oh my God, it’s coming toward me, I need to make it stop.’”

Reacting as any of us would, Gallant grabbed her phone and chucked on Metallica’s ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ as a means to scare the creature. “I thought it was the noisiest thing on my phone that would probably scare it, that was also the message I wanted to convey to the cougar.”

After the story made the rounds online, it managed to catch the attention of Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammet, eventually resulting in a band representative reaching out to Gallant to reveal someone would soon contact her.

As CTV Reports, that “someone” ended up being frontman James Hetfield, who called up Dee Gallant to discuss the wild incident.

“I was a little bit lost for words,” Gallant explained. “It’s surreal how quickly it happened and how far it’s gone. The fact that he’s so down to earth and such a great person, I’m very pleased to find that out first-hand.

“I can’t believe he knows my dog’s name,” she concluded. “If you had told the 18-year-old me that this would happen, I never would’ve believed it. I would’ve just fallen out of my skin with excitement.”

Following the call, Hetfield even sent Gallant a selfie, along with a note saying that he “thought you might like some confirmation that it was me” on the phone.

In related news, Metallica are set to return to Australian shores for the first time in six years later this year. Check out all the details below!