Metallica Dominates Late Night For 5 Day Residency On Craig Ferguson’s ‘Late Late Show’

Metallica will be the band in residence all week on Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show.

Craig Ferguson wanted to leave the Late Late Show with a bang… a very, very loud bang. What better way to do that in his final few months on the program than to bring in the loudest band in the world for a week in residence?

The band in residence thing has been a staple of late night talk shows for some time. David Letterman had the Foo Fighters for a week-long stint, Conan O’Brien has had The White Stripes in residence more than once, and next week, U2 was set to be the band in residence on Fallon’s Tonight Show. However, lead singer Bono injured his arm in a bike accident.

Metallica, however, showed up in full force last night on the Late Late Show. Host Craig Ferguson kicked off the show by interviewing Metallica’s frontman and drummer, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich respectively.

Ferguson recalled Metallica’s career up to now in his monologue.

“For Metallica, it’s 9 studio albums, 4 live albums, 5 E.P.s, 26 music videos, 37 singles and one huge favor to a low-budget, late night train wreck. It’s very interesting to look at the studio audience and to see the people that are here to see this show, and the people that are here to see Metallica. ‘Cause the Metallica people are like, ‘What the hell is this?’ And the people that are here to see this show are like, ‘Who are these hairy young people?'”

After insulting both Justin Bieber fans (“Metal fans are called ‘headbangers’ and Justin Bieber fans are called… ‘idiots,'”) and Taylor Swift fans, Ferguson introduced Metallica’s Hetfield and Ulrich.

When Ferguson was introducing the metal duo, James stuck his hand out in “metal horns” fashion, bringing the Late Late Show crowd to their feet with cheers and applause. After they came out, James made his way over to Secretariat, Ferguson’s on-set pantomime horse, and stuck two carrots in his nose. Metallica’s riff master then made his way over to the ‘robotic skeleton’ sidekick announcer Geoff Peterson and gave him a high five.

The interview with the two bandmates of thirty-plus years was laid back and friendly. During the interview, Ferguson showed off Metallica’s Blu-ray re-release of the band’s documentary film, Some Kind of Monster. According to Rolling Stone, the film chronicles Jason Newsted’s departure, the downward spiral of Lars and James’ relationship, and Hetfield leaving the band for rehab. Ferguson commented, “It’s Blu-ray, so now we can see your shame in hi-def!”

Metallica rounded out the show with a blistering edition of “Hit the Lights” from their debut album, Kill ’em All.

Metallica will be appearing on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson all week long according to the New York Daily News.

Here’s the show in its entirety, followed by some fan reactions from Twitter.

@Metallica killed it on the #LateLateShow Literally! A bad ass version of Hit the Lights. Best metal band in the Biz-I-Ness!

— Frankie Kazarian (@FrankieKazarian) November 18, 2014

Metallica performing #HitTheLights on #CraigFerguson very cool…Lars..needs a head shave..@jonnydenny http://t.co/h6y2UIcRp0

— Nancy Burgess (@NunziaInsanity) November 18, 2014