Metallica have finally confirmed their presence in all the North American festivals slated to happen in 2020.

They will be headlining:

Epicenter in Charlotte, NC (May 1-3),

Welcome To Rockville in Daytona Beach, FL (May 8-10),

Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival in Columbus, OH (May 15-17),

Louder Than Life in Louisville, KN (September 18-20),

Aftershock in Sacramento, CA (October 9-11).

Here’s the statement from the band:

“As far as the setlist is concerned, these shows are seven, eight months away, and the ones in the fall are almost a year away. I really don’t think that much about the setlist that much in advance. We like to go deep, and, obviously, anybody who knows us knows that we like to dust off things that we haven’t played for a while.

“As I’ve circled through this in my Danish brain a couple of times, the one thing I haven’t quite figured out is – our production manager, Dan Braun, refers to them as the ‘toe-tapping favorites.’

“So there’s, obviously a few toe-tapping favorites, quote-unquote, and so I have to figure out how to split them up and what to do about those, and then the rest of it will come together.

“It will be fun, it will be challenging, but we thrive on this sh*t. And anytime we get a chance to do anything outside of the norm, Metallica are four very happy guys. We kind of thrive on sometimes chaotic energy.

“And this will come together. I don’t wanna freak anybody out here, especially Danny [Wimmer], but it may not come together until about 24 hours before the first show, but it will definitely come together.”

During the recording of St. Anger in 2001, James went into rehab to address his alcohol usage. He rejoined the band after almost 8 months in rehab and four months recovering with his family. Since then James is clean and sober and was planning to remain so, all of which is featured in Some Kind of Monster. Sadly James couldn’t control it after 18 years. Currently, Metallica have canceled/postponed all the upcoming tours. There are rumors that Metallica will be headlining Download Festival Australia early next year. We don’t have a confirmation yet but once we have more details, we will share soon. We hope James fights it hard and come back sober and clean.