In an interview with KCAL 96.7, Volbeat guitarist Rob Caggiano looked back on his tenure in Anthrax.
When asked about BIG 4 tour, he said:
“The first Big Four show was in Poland, and Metallica guys did something really cool”
“They basically got everyone together the night before at this crazy, fancy restaurant. It was just for all the band members to just hang out…
“Back in the day when the Big Four… I was young, I was a huge fan of that stuff, but I guess this rivalry and all that stuff that went on for years, the Metallica guys just squashed it all, made it cool for everyone, and I think it really, really worked.
“From that day on, everyone was super cool, and everyone was hugging each other every day, it was great, really great.”
Earlier this year, Megadeth bassist David Ellefson said about the secret dinner Metallica hosted ahead of the Big 4 trek:
“You know what was special about that? Usually, you do these tours and you come in and it’s the production meets and then the bands say ‘hey’ in the hallways from time to time. And it’s kind of the last show, you’re, like, ‘Hey, could we say ‘hey’ to the headliner real quick?’
“And it happens at the very end. And you go, ‘Wow! You guys are really cool. We should have hung out more on this tour.’ And then it’s over.
“Metallica did it the opposite. They did it on the very first night. Let’s break bread. Let’s hang out. Let’s get this sort of established from the beginning, so that every time we saw each other when we showed up on-site at these big festivals, man, it was just true brotherhood.”