When Metallica’s self-titled “Black Album” came out in 1991, if you squinted at the cover art, you might see both the band’s label and a jumping coiled snake like the one on the Gadsden flag. The band riffed on that concept on their trip for the album, opening the location in front of the phase and calling it the “Snake Pit,” an enclosure for an elite group of fans and VIPs. And even after Metallica put out other albums, they continued utilizing the Snake Pit at performances.
In a brand-new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, drummer Lars Ulrich exposes that the concept for the intimate gold circle really came from the restaurant business.
“One of our managers back in New York in the late Eighties/early Nineties [had] the idea that when you would go to a restaurant that the best seat in the restaurant was actually not in the house — [it] was in the kitchen,” he says, as they walk an empty arena in Amsterdam prior to a performance. “So in insane, cool dining establishments, if you might in some way enter the cooking area and consume in the cooking area, you remained in there where all the action was.
“So the idea that came out of that for that Snake Pit on the Black Album tour was basically to be in the middle of the stage,” he continues. “So we had a stage that was shaped like a diamond, and there were 30, 40 spots in the middle of that stage. Radio contest winners, friends, family, a few crazy metalheads from around the audience would end up in that snake pit, and they would be onstage with us. And then it morphed. Basically, for, I guess, 30 years now, the Snake Pit has been an integral part of at least a Metallica indoor show. And then in the stadiums when we’ve been playing outside, it’s been sort of this extension of the stage. You’ve seen it, but they’ve never been, like, crazy big. There’s been room for a couple of hundred here, a couple hundred there, whatever.”
Ulrich informs Lowe that the existing version holds 900 to 1,200 individuals depending upon the guidelines of the regional fire marshal.
Metallica are presently exploring Europe in assistance of their recent 72 Seasons album. They’ll start a North American leg of the trip in August. The band’s complete interview with Lowe airs on Apple Music 1 on Thursday at apple.co/_Zane.
