By Rami Abou-Sabe
Metallica and Lady Gaga wowed audiences with a searing rendition of “Moth Into the Flame” at the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Initially planned as a Hetfield-Gaga duet, singer James Hetfield could not be heard for the first half of the performance.
RELATED: Metallica On Lady Gaga: ‘Quintessential Fifth Member Of This Band’
The GRAMMYs are no stranger to technical difficulties. Adele famously had pitch issues at the 2016 broadcast. This year’s flub left Hetfield livid, kicking the microphone stand to the stage at the end of the performance.
Ken Ehrlich, longtime producer for the awards show has issued an apology. “These kinds of things are horrible when they happen,” Ehrlich told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “That’s one of the risks of live television.”
Metallica has stated publicly that they believe the microphone was not hooked up to the main soundboard, but Ehrlich refutes that claim. “My guys’ theory was that one of the extras [on stage] accidentally kicked out the cable that went to the mic.”
Ehrlich went on to call the mishap “awful,” and referenced his own painful reaction watching the plagued performance.
“Obviously, we apologize to the band,” Ehrlich said in the end.
The best news to come out of this whole thing is that Gaga/Metallica was not a one-off. We can expect to see more from the unlikely pairing soon.