An online petition has been launched calling for Bay Area thrash metallers TESTAMENT to open for METALLICA at their upcoming U.S. festival appearances next year.
Petition creator Jeff Roberts wrote the following in the petition description:
This petition is to convince James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo and Lars Ulrich to let TESTAMENT open for METALLICA on at least one of the festival dates. The diehard METALLICA fans will get a blast and those who are new to old school metal will be exposed by a band that was to be “the next big thing” over 30 years ago.
Given the fact that the members of METALLICA and TESTAMENT are fans of each other’s works – even pictures of James, Lars or Kirk hanging out with at least one of the members of Testament exist on the internet – now’s the time that METALLICA should give TESTAMENT a chance to open for them, especially by recapitalizing their legacy into the public conscience. TESTAMENT cites METALLICA as one of their biggest influences and even Chuck Billy said at one point that he would love his band to do a “Big X”-type show involving METALLICA.
As noted in the petition, the five festivals that METALLICA will be performing at next year are Epicenter in Charlotte, North Carolina (May 1-3), Welcome To Rockville in Daytona, Florida (May 8-10), Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival in Columbus, Ohio (May 15-17), Louder Than Life in Louisville, Kentucky (September 18-20) and Aftershock in Sacramento, California (October 9-11).
Roberts also noted METALLICA as the only one of “Big Four” that has never shared the stage with TESTAMENT, citing the “obvious reasons” being that “the members of METALLICA were concerned that they would be upstaged by TESTAMENT, or that TESTAMENT has always declined to play with them”, despite the fact that both bands are friends and fans of each other’s work.
