JAMES HETFIELD Doesn’t Think METALLICA Will Ever Be Invited To Play SUPER BOWL Halftime, Talks About Being On The Show Billions, And Details On The Night Before Concert

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield has told the Associated Press that he doesn’t mind the fact that his band will probably never get to play the Super Bowl.

“The [METALLICA] fan base is really wide, but as far as playing halftime for the Super Bowl, I have a feeling that ship has passed,” he said (see video below). “We’re not a variety show. We’re not pop. We’re not sparkly and all that kind of stuff that I think seems to be what is needed for that.”

While METALLICA may not be playing this year’s halftime show, they will headline CBS Radio‘s “The Night Before”, a one-of-a-kind concert experience the evening prior to Super Bowl 50 at AT&T Park in the band’s hometown of San Francisco, California. The concert will mark the band’s first performance of 2016.

“It’s great to be hosting the thing,” Hetfield said. “It would be nice if my team was in it; that’d be great. But having the city come alive with any kind of sport is great. The fact that we’re here getting to represent Bay Area music at ‘The Night Before’ is pretty exciting.”

METALLICA fans around the world will be able to tune in to a live webstream direct from “The Night Before”. The webcast will be a free 1080p FullHD stream live from AT&T Park, available on mobile and desktop devices at webcast.livemetallica.com, delivered by Nugs.net. METALLICA will take the stage at approximately 8:30 p.m. PST. Fans can watch the show live for free and preorder professionally mixed audio recordings of the show as downloads and collectible CDs.

METALLICA will be joined at the event by CAGE THE ELEPHANT, who will also perform.

METALLICA has played at AT&T Park the last three years by hosting the annual “Metallica Night” at San Francisco Giants games. Last year, the band expanded that tradition, bringing “Metallica Night” into the South Bay for a San Jose Sharks hockey game.

METALLICA has been working on a new album, but there is no word if any new music will be aired at the performance.

The last METALLICA album, “Death Magnetic”, came out in 2008.

METALLICA is featured in the February 7 episode of Showtime‘s new financial drama “Billions”. The band appears in one backstage scene and is seen performing in the show, which was shot on location in Quebec at one of the band’s tour dates last September.

According to Billboard.com, Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who created the series with Andrew Ross Sorkin, are life-long METALLICA fans and the two, who also serve as the show’s executive producers, wrote the episode with METALLICA in mind.

In the show, successful hedge fund billionaire Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (played by Damian Lewis) takes his buddies on his private jet to see METALLICA in concert in Quebec.

“We had heard stories about hedge funders taking their old friends on private planes to see their favorite band and it felt like METALLICA just represented something great for guys of this age because it’s a band that appeals to blue-collar listeners, but the band also appeals to the smartest, most highly educated people,” Koppelman told Billboard.com. “It’s a great cross section and they’re authentic, so it makes sense ‘Axe’ would love them.”

Asked if they already knew the band, Koppelman said: “When I was 22, I went to work at Elektra and Michael Alago, who had signed METALLICA, had just left. I got assigned to be their A&R guy, which was a huge thrill. I just pinch hit for a year. I got to be backstage with them and at soundcheck. I’ve been friends with [METALLICA‘s managers] Cliff [Burnstein] and Peter [Mensch] since 1989.”

When it was METALLICA‘s turn to film their scene, “The band couldn’t have been more generous with their time,” Levien said. “They have a warm-up room where they practice and lock in together as a band before they play. They allowed us to have [Axe] have access to that so it seems like he’s in the inner circle and, by extension, our crew was in there. That scene was shot maybe 40 minutes before they went on stage.”

Koppelman and Levien previously wrote “Ocean’s Thirteen”, “Rounders” and the ESPN poker drama “Tilt”.

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich has told RollingStone.com that the band will debut a new stage production during their February 6 headlining performance at CBS Radio‘s “The Night Before”, at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. “It’s big,” he said. “I mean it’s really big. I haven’t seen it yet, but I got sent the first pictures last night, and it’s very vivid. It’ll light up the sky.”

Asked what fans can expect from the show’s setlist, Ulrich said: “If I told you that we were going to play all the deep, obscure tracks from ‘Load’ and ‘ReLoad’, you know I’d be lying to you. I don’t want to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm, but we’re leaning a little bit towards the classics. We do so many different configurations of set lists for if we’re playing theaters, somebody’s basement, arenas, and recently at our last couple of indoor shows, we went very deep. Last summer, we played ‘The Unforgiven II’, which we’d never played live before, and we had tracks like ‘Disposable Heroes’ and ‘Metal Militia’ and ‘King Nothing’ after a long absence. But I will go out on a limb here and say we will lean on the classics. There will be a significant portion of those, whatever they may be.”

METALLICA will be joined at the event by CAGE THE ELEPHANT, who will also perform.

METALLICA has been working on a new album, but there is no word if any new music will be aired at the performance.

Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett confirmed last November that the band was in the process of recording new material, saying, “At this point, we’re still just doing basic backing tracks. James [Hetfield, guitar/vocals] is doing his guitar stuff, and I am just kind of waiting patiently to go in there and do all of my guitar stuff.”

The last METALLICA album, “Death Magnetic”, came out in 2008.

METALLICA invited three hundred of their friends and fan club members down to AT&T Park in San Francisco Friday night (February 5) for a “soundcheck party” while testing out the stage and dialing in their sounds for tonight’s headlining performance at CBS Radio‘s “The Night Before”. Several video clips shot at the event can be seen below.

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told RollingStone.com that the band will debut a new stage production during tonight’s show. “It’s big,” he said. “I mean it’s really big. I haven’t seen it yet, but I got sent the first pictures last night, and it’s very vivid. It’ll light up the sky.”