Metallica‘s long-running partnership with their hometown baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, continued on Tuesday night (May 25) when guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett ripped through the National Anthem during a home game.
Vocalist Hetfield even through in a few notes from the band’s iconic “Master of Puppets” at the end of the performance, smiling as he and Hammett wore Giants jerseys and played “City Connect” guitars through CC amps as part of the MLB’s year-old series that has shaken up uniform designs to help express the personality of each team’s home town.
In Metallica’s case that meant instruments with a giant “G” on them as well as an image of the Golden Gate bridge across the guitar’s front, a pattern repeated on the amps. On game day, the band announced that fans could donate to their All Within My Hands charity for a chance to win signed versions of the James Hetfield Signature Series ESP Snakebyte Guitar or the Kirk Hammett Signature Series ESP KH-2 Guitar used during the National Anthem performance before the Giants-New York Mets game at Oracle Park.
Both guitars were signed by all four members of the band — which also includes drummer Lars Ulrich and bassist Robert Trujillo — and feature the custom graphics added for the home game. Metallica has partnered with the Giants for band-themed nights since 2013, during which members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band have done everything from throw out ceremonial first pitches to announcing the starting lineup and performing the Anthem 8 times.
All funds raised by the guitar sweepstakes will go to the World Central Kitchen‘s #ChefsForUkraine fund; the sweepstakes ends on June 30 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Watch Hetfield and Hammett’s performance below.
.@Metallica played tonight’s national anthem with City Connect guitars and equipment pic.twitter.com/a6lAkV0Db2
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 25, 2022
Always good to see our friends @Metallica 🤘 pic.twitter.com/tlCbziQl2i
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 25, 2022
