Metallica bassist on fans throwing things on stage at concerts and bands retaliating in the past: “That was the way it was back then”

Fans throwing things on stage at concerts, particularly harmful objects like cell phones, has been a growing cause of concern for a wide range of musical artists at concerts in 2023. Entertainers from Adele to Charlie Puth to Drake to Taylor Swift have all voiced their understandable indignation at the problem. Pop singer Bebe Rexha, who was struck by a cell phone during a concert in June, had to be rushed off stage to a hospital and receive three stitches.

Metallica bassist Robbie Trujillo however, suggests that the problem was even more rampant in the 80s and 90s, and that the repercussions were more severe for fans as a result in turn.

“They chucked a bottle and it went over the bass amp and I had been kind of hunkered down practicing, getting ready,” Trujillo told Detroit rock station WRIF’s Meltdown, speaking about a time with his former band Suicidal Tendencies where he was warming up on stage and struck by a bottle in the head by an impatient fan. “That bottle hit me in the head. And, of course, I just kind of saw red and I went out to the front of the stage. My face was bleeding.”

Trujillo pointed out that he was ready to retaliate immediately but a tour manager was able to mollify his anger when reminding him that he was due to go onstage in a few minutes. Despite this, Trujillo’s bandmates and tourmates from the band Anthrax retaliated for him, as they “started socking people up — that good old fashioned sock-up.”

Trujillo admitted that retaliation for fans throwing things on stage at concerts would go down differently today, but the 80s and 90s were a different time.

“Look, that was the way it was back then,” he added. “I don’t condone violence or anything, but back at that time and probably even before that, that’s kind of what happened at hardcore shows and in thrash shows, punk shows, metal. There was a bit of edge, and a lot of people would start stuff. You’d have to finish it. And you look back on it as kind of, like, ‘Yeah, I guess it was fun.'”

Former Metallica member and Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine shares a wildly different view of fans throwing things on stage at concerts.

“If people don’t like you, they’re gonna throw s—,” Mustaine told Swedish website SVT. “Maybe it’s graduated from rotten tomatoes to dildos; I don’t know.”

Mustaine continued, “But if you’re giving them a great show, they’re not gonna do that – they’re not gonna do that. So don’t get up there acting like a spoiled f—- brat and telling them not to throw stuff.”

Mustaine added, tongue-in-cheekily, “I don’t have to worry about it. Plus my eyesight is that bad, I probably won’t see anything flying through the air until it’s too late.”

Do you think fans throwing things on stage at concerts is a growing problem or that it was worse back in the 80s and 90s like Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo said? Should the problem be to simply put on a better show like Dave Mustaine said or will there always be asinine individuals at concerts that will ruin them for everyone else? Let us know in the comments.