James Hetfield is a stand-up guy who has no issue apologizing for past wrongs. A great example is an apology he offered up to Kip Winger.
Winger recently appeared on the Appetite for Distortion podcast and recalled getting a call from the Metallica frontman a few years ago. Hetfield called Winger to apologize for the “Nothing Else Matters” video. In the video, Lars Ulrich is seen throwing darts at a picture of Winger.
Winger said Ulrich, himself, has never apologized to him. However, he said of his phone call with Hetfield, “James was really cool … And he was very sincere and it wasn’t like he just called to apologize and then blow me off. He’s actually texted me a few times, we text every now and then.”
The dart moment has resurfaced in 2023 thanks to former Winger guitarist Reb Beach. The guitarist touched on it in a January appearance on the In the Trenches podcast. Beach was asked whether the ridicule the band faced via Beavis & Butt-Head factored into the group disbanding. He said it did. Beach added that after Stuart was introduced on the show wearing a Winger shirt, “In the weeks that followed, we had to cancel the tour because people wouldn’t be caught dead buying a ticket to a Winger show.”
Beach further noted, “Metallica didn’t help with showing in their biggest video they throw darts at a poster of Kip Winger. They would show it at their live show, and my friend who went to see them said the entire arena laughed at that part of the video where Lars throws darts at Kip.”
