METALLICA Frontman JAMES HETFIELD Talks Orion Music + More – "If It Would Have Broken Even We'd Still Be Doing It, But We Lost Millions Both Times"

The official Metallica fan club magazine So What! recently spoke with frontman James Hetfield, who discussed the Orion Music + More, which took place in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 2012 and in Detroit, Michigan in June 2013. According to Hetfield, the band lost millions of dollars with the project, making it unlikely Orion will be relaunched any time soon.

On the business side of Orion Music + More: “I’m so glad we did Orion. Those two we did were fun. We got some bands out there in front of people, our fans mainly, and that was the whole idea. If it would have broken even we’d still be doing it, but we lost millions both times. We can’t do that. At some point, business comes into play. Why would you keep doing something that’s damaging you and could prevent you moving forward? It was fun to do, we had a blast doing it, employed a lot of people and helped out both cities it was in. A lot of good came out of it, but we can’t do it again.”

On the negative effects of Orion’s diverse line-up: “Everyone’s different. Everyone knows they’re connected at the end of the day, but maybe sometimes you just think ‘Why can’t you just like what you like because you like it?’ Do I have to sit through ten other bands that I don’t like just to see the band I like? Maybe I don’t want to do that.’ It’s as simple as that. Trying to please all, all the time, has never worked. Never. And instead of all the fans of those bands coming into one place to join together, which was kind of the ‘new PC’ way to be, they actually canceled each other out instead. ‘My God, I don’t want to go hang out with a bunch of greasy metalheads, with lice, headbanging, and their bugs flying into my hair! I don’t want to share a toilet with that guy!’ Maybe it was that? I don’t know.”

On December 8, 2013 Metallica set a world record by becoming the first and only band in history to perform concerts on all seven continents in under a year, performing in a little dome at the Carlini Argentine Base in Antarctica. The band has checked in with the following update:

“Two years ago today we found ourselves playing a gig for a couple dozen friends, fans and penguins at Carlini Base in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It was truly the most unusual show of our career and an unforgetable journey. We’d like to share a 20-minute documentary that our friend Adam Dubin put together as an early Christmas present exclusively to our Fan Club members. Head on over to Metallica.com to download the clip for free here. Not a Fifth Member? Join now….

Metallica’s setlist on the day was as follows:

“Creeping Death” 
“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“Sad But True” 
“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” 
“Master of Puppets” 
“One” 
“Blackened” 
“Nothing Else Matters”
“Enter Sandman” 
“Seek & Destroy”