LOS ANGELES (Variety/Limp Bizkitt Fans Website) - Back in 1999,
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich confessed to feeling "a tremendous amount of hatred toward Limp Bizkit."
Now Metallica is hitting the road with Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park for the second Summer Sanitarium tour, which will hit at least 18 U.S. markets this year, beginning July 4.
All three bands will play headline-length sets. Tickets for most of the shows will be going on sale Feb. 22. Mudvayne and the Deftones will be the opening acts.
"We want to play stadiums in the summer, and we need more than just Metallica to fill the seats," Metallica singer-guitarist James Hetfield said.
Filling out the bill are "bands who are available, coming out with records and who want to do this type of show. The whole reason (behind Metallica) is to play live, and I think that's a common thread among all the bands."
There appears to be little in common between Metallica and Limp Bizkit. Ulrich and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst took opposing views in the Napster debate - Ulrich opposed the song-swapping site, Durst took Napster's sponsorship money.
In a 1999 interview with Metallica's "So What!" fan club magazine, Ulrich said: "All I gotta think of is Fred Durst's red baseball cap and I get very hostile."
He also described Limp Bizkit as "a Motley Crue for the '90s" and claimed that Durst was "so f---ing contrived and I hate people who are contrived."
A Metallica spokesman said the rift was "ancient history," and the band has much respect for the acts on the bill.
The ink is not yet dry on some contracts so routing has not been finalized. It is expected that the tour will begin in a Midwestern city - Minneapolis or St. Louis are the likely starters -- and then go from the East Coast to the West.
The three acts will be touring in support of new albums. Metallica's "St. Anger," its first studio disc in five years, will hit stores June 10; Limp Bizkit's "Lessismore" is slated for May; and Linkin Park, whose "Hybrid Nation" was the biggest seller of 2001, has "Meteora" on the March 25 release slate.
"St. Anger" is Metallica's first album without bassist Jason Newsted, who replaced the late Cliff Burton in 1986. Metallica producer Bob Rock plays bass on the new album but won't be touring with the band. Hetfield, Ulrich and guitarist Kirk Hammett continue to interview and jam with potential replacements; there are eight bassists the band members will be meeting with soon.
Metallica's inaugural Summer Sanitarium tour, in 2000, featured Korn, Kid Rock and System of a Down and was one of the year's biggest grossers. The San Francisco band, now in its 22nd year of existence, has been a mainstay of multigroup shows, having toured separately with Van Halen and Guns N' Roses and headlining 1996's Lollapalooza tour.
"I think we're a little more comfortable this time out, but we won't be resting on our laurels," Hetfield said.
