Washington-based Metallica tribute band Blistered Earth ran into some trouble on the road last Saturday (April 23), when their tour van was robbed in Portland. Thankfully, Metallica themselves have stepped up and helped the band replace all of the stolen gear.
Blistered Earth published a complete list of all the stolen gear on Facebook earlier this week, detailing the guitars, drums, amps, pedals and other equipment that went missing, in the hopes of tracking it down and getting it back. Late Wednesday night (April 26), things took a fortuitous turn, when James Hetfield and his bandmates reached out and offered to replace all of the stolen goods.
The guys in Metallica apparently heard about the incident after the story was picked up and spread by local news stations, and a representative for the band subsequently got in touch with Blistered Earth to sort out the details of the generous gift.
Blistered Earth have since shared a message thanking their supporters and local news outlets for spreading the story — and, of course, making their gratitude to Metallica known.
Read the band's message below.
Blistered Earth's drummer, Shawn Murphy, has since spoken to M.I.R.P. Magazine about the incident, as well.
"It's pretty awesome that they would do that," he said. "I guess it was actually James that saw the story on the website for KATU. I don't how familiar you are with Metallica, or how closely you have followed their career, but it is fairly well documented that they had all of their gear stolen way back in the day, back when they didn't have money to replace their gear. So, they have a first hand knowledge of how shitty this feels. But, again, I never thought it would come to this!"
Blistered Earth published a complete list of all the stolen gear on Facebook earlier this week, detailing the guitars, drums, amps, pedals and other equipment that went missing, in the hopes of tracking it down and getting it back. Late Wednesday night (April 26), things took a fortuitous turn, when James Hetfield and his bandmates reached out and offered to replace all of the stolen goods.
The guys in Metallica apparently heard about the incident after the story was picked up and spread by local news stations, and a representative for the band subsequently got in touch with Blistered Earth to sort out the details of the generous gift.
Blistered Earth have since shared a message thanking their supporters and local news outlets for spreading the story — and, of course, making their gratitude to Metallica known.
Read the band's message below.
Blistered Earth's drummer, Shawn Murphy, has since spoken to M.I.R.P. Magazine about the incident, as well.
"It's pretty awesome that they would do that," he said. "I guess it was actually James that saw the story on the website for KATU. I don't how familiar you are with Metallica, or how closely you have followed their career, but it is fairly well documented that they had all of their gear stolen way back in the day, back when they didn't have money to replace their gear. So, they have a first hand knowledge of how shitty this feels. But, again, I never thought it would come to this!"
