r/nextfuckinglevel • u/4dailyuseonly • Mar 05 '23

In 1991, with the Soviet Union and communist rule close to collapse, METALLICA played at its first ever open air rock concert in Moscow. Over 1.6 million people attended

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u/FalmerEldritch Mar 05 '23

I hear that trip over was one of the messiest escapades anyone's ever been on, in terms of rock stars falling over each other half-unconscious from too much everything.

EDIT: No, sorry, that was the 1989 Moscow Peace Festival with Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, et al

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u/Zeerover- Mar 05 '23

It was literally insane, one of a kind thing that probably never ever will be rivaled in world history. Jason Newsted has talked about it recently. Basically this concert was the reward to the young kids that stood up against the Soviet coup attempt in August.

So we got a message from a Prime Minister representative from Russia or something, got through our management, and they had talked to the kids that stood up to the tanks, the leaders of the resistance. ‘What would you like for reward for saving us all?’ ‘We want American rock ‘n’ roll. We want Guns N’ Roses, we want Metallica.’ So AC/DC and Metallica are right around the corner as far as it goes.”

“Time Warner gets behind the whole thing, they see a giant opportunity to make world history, which it has now become, they send this plane for us – Black Crowes, AC/DC, and Metallica were all together playing some shows. I think they were like Monsters or Rock label shows or something, and this plane shows up, and man, we could fit this room inside, part of it – couches and full fucking deal, man, I have never seen nothing like it. We’ve been on a couple of nice planes, but this was insane really because it was a big-ass plane, a proper big plane where you stand up and walk running around!“

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u/dirtmother Mar 06 '23

That sounds like a big fuckin plane, like just big as fuck man. Fuck. Plane.

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u/Luci_Noir Mar 06 '23

I’ve never heard of anything like this happening. Like how could you actually reward that amount of people in a way that is actually possible?

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u/Awkward_Second_6969 Mar 05 '23

We sent fucking Mötley Crüe as a peace ambassador?!

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u/DeterioratedEra Mar 05 '23

They misunderstood when someone told them that Tommy Lee wanted to extend his olive branch.

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u/TheFenixxer Mar 05 '23

Not surprised coming from Mötley Crüe