WATCH: Metallica’s Grammy Awards duet with Lady Gaga hit by technical issues

Metallica joined forces with Lady Gaga at The Grammy Awards last night (12th February) performing their thunderous ‘Hardwired… To Self Destruct’ track ‘Moth Into Flame’.

Published 13th Feb 2017

Having turned up together on the red carpet earlier in the evening, wearing a Metallica t-shirt Gaga emerged on stage at The Staples Centre in Los Angeles via a staged mosh-pit before joining the metal giants on their pyro-strewn stage.

What was clearly meant to be a duet from the offset, however, was hit by technical issues as James Hetfield’s microphone wasn’t working.

With Gaga taking charge of the performance on lead vocals, James was forced to share her microphone before his own mic was fixed midway through.

Typically high-octane, Gaga crowd surfed and bounded around the stage with endless energy before the performance ended somewhat aptly with James kicking over his mic stand.

You can watch footage of the performance here:


Understandably, Papa Het was not a happy bunny at the end of the performance, chucking his guitar off-stage in anger.


Metallica were nominated in the Best Rock Song category for Hardwired but lost out to the late-great David Bowie's Blackstar.

Earlier in the night, Gaga shared a picture on Instagram of an apparent new tattoo over her entire back, which she captioned ‘The Moth & Metallica’ in homage to the track she was singing.

Before finding fame, Lady Gaga fronted a Led Zeppelin covers band and cites Iron Maiden with changing her life.

Explaining why she would rather be the new Maiden than Madonna she told the CR Fashion Book in 2015: “They’re one of the greatest rock bands in history, in my opinion.

“Some people really don’t know the importance of metal and the scope of it. Those guys were filling stadiums, and they still are. And it’s because of the culture of the music, the poetry that’s so powerful, that whenever the fans come together, they unite in the essence of what Iron Maiden is all about. I always used to say to people, when they would say, ‘Oh, she’s the next Madonna.’ No, I’m the next Iron Maiden.”

> The Moth & Metallica ?------->??#ink #tattoo #MothIntoFlame #MetalliGa #metal #grammys @metallica > > A photo posted by xoxo, Joanne (@ladygaga) on Feb 12, 2017 at 2:51pm PST