In 1995, Metallica were on top of the world, still riding high on the smash success of the Black Album. That summer, they were working on their follow-up, Load, and played an "Escape From the Studio" gig at Donington in the U.K. in front of some 35,000 fans, headlining a lineup they handpicked featuring Slayer, White Zombie, Skid Row, Machine Head, Corrosion of Conformity, Slash's Snakepit and more. James Hetfield rocked an awesome mullet and gave no fucks, leading the band in a hilarious series of impressions of the opening acts.
"I hope you like the fucking bill we kinda put together here," Hetfield says in video of the momentous show, before launching into a dead-on imitation of COC. "You like Machine Head?" he snarls as his bandmates play the iconic riff to "Smoke on the Water." "Not the album!" Hetfield chides. He soon kicks into snappy impressions of Axl Rose, Tom Araya and Sebastian Bach, to much laughter from the massive crowd. "Now you're stuck with the fucking Metallica boys right now," he concludes. Exactly no one is bummed, especially with the band this lively and loose. Flashback above.
