When bands perform in China, they are required to submit all their song lyrics to the Government, who then run a red-pen through the whole thing. Such was the case with Metallica’s 2017 tour of the country, which saw their usual two-plus hour set slashed to an hour, with ‘Master Of Puppets’, ‘One’, and ‘Hardwired’ among the songs they are forbidden to perform.
Despite this, James Hetfield more than understands the censorship. In an interview with South Morning China Post, he reasoned: “Why shouldn’t you respect their culture when you’re there as a guest and you’ve been invited to play?
“We want to be respectful, and just because we do things differently, it doesn’t mean it should be forced upon [others]. But hopefully we’ll keep coming back and they’ll realise we’re not a threat politically and we have no agenda except to cross boundaries with music and let people enjoy the songs.
“We’re not trying to bring a secret message to anybody.”
Of course, that’s exactly what political dissidents would say. Better start spinning Reload backwards to look for secret messages.
Check out Metallica’s ‘One’:
