Metallica Hint at U.S. Stadium Tour in Summer 2017

Lars Ulrich hinted earlier this fall that Metallica were “going to start pretty much full-on touring in January,” and “there will definitely be some pretty extensive touring in America.” Latin American Metallica fans just got treated to a slew of shows, while London, Paris, three dates in Asia and one in Denmark are currently on the docket for early 2017. Nothing in America yet, though.

Now bassist Robert Trujillo has hinted that the band would be touring American stadiums next summer in a recent interview with long-running Boston hard rock and metal radio station WAAF:

WAAF: True or false? There’s a lot of rumors about a big outdoor stadium tour in America next summer. Is it happening or not, Robert?

Trujillo: I hope it’s happening! We have an album, it’s coming out, it’s great, I love it. I think it’s sonically… for me, I think it’s the best sounding Metallica album ever. And we want to play all these songs. We love these songs and we love what we’ve done and want to share it with our friends all over the U.S. and all over the world, so I would say yes.

Not QUITE a confirmation, but close. And when coupled with Ulrich’s farewell address to the crowd at the band’s intimate Webster Hall show in NYC in September — where he said the band would be playing “a large outdoor venue across the river in 2017” — well, two dots make a line.

And the moment feels right for a Metallica stadium tour. They played U.S. arenas on the Death Magnetic album cycle but not, to my knowledge, stadiums (but correct me if I’m wrong), and with Guns N’ Roses hitting the stadium circuit in 2016 it only seems right and just that Metallica would do the same next summer. There’s nothing quite like a big outdoor rock show to put an exclamation point on anyone’s summer.

More as we get it.

Here’s a baby headbanging to Metallica, because why not:

[via Loudwire]