METALLICA Bassist: 'We'll Be Getting Over To Asia A Lot More Than Once Every Ten Years Now'

METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo spoke to U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine about the band's first-ever appearance in China, which saw the group playing two sold-out shows at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai on August 13 and August 14.

"It's such a great opportunity and it's also a great challenge, because a lot of these places probably wouldn't have been able to handle a show like this in the past," Trujillo said.

"The last time METALLICA tried to play in Indonesia, there was a riot and there were a lot of problems. It's the infrastructure in these places that needs to be much more solid. But we didn't have those problems in Asia this time around, so it's getting better and better. The fans really embraced the moment. There was a lot of magic in there and we felt that, big time. We feed off that, so I'm happy to say that we'll be getting over to Asia a lot more than once every ten years now. The doors are opening and the fans are there."

The members of METALLICA revealed to Howard Stern on September 23 that the Chinese government had to approve all of their songs before they were allowed to play in the country. The band discussed dealing with the censorship and their decision not to cancel the concerts after being told not to perform "Master Of Puppets".

Guitarist Kirk Hammett explained, "We had to give them a whole set of songs and they went through all the lyrics and okayed which ones we could play, which ones we couldn't play. They see a lyric like 'Master Of Puppets' being so subversive that they're not allowing us to play it. It's kind of scary." Frontman James Hetfield chimed in, "And that just brings more attention to it, of course. That doesn't work."

Drummer Lars Ulrich went on to describe the vibe at the shows saying, "There were 40,000 kids over those two nights that were, I mean, they were really responding to what we were doing. It was insane." Hetfield added, "Whatever rules they set down, the fans were there to have fun. We got our foot in the door. We were able to go and play in China. That was the key."

METALLICA's first concert in China sold out faster than any Western act that has played in the country before.

The band also explained that concert-goers were aware of the songs that were banned from the set list because it was published on government web sites.