Congressman Bill Pascrell Uses Metallica Song Titles While Arguing for Tougher Ticket Price Regulations

Fans were understandably pissed about a recent Billboard report which alleged that a close representative of the Metallica camp conspired with Live Nation to put tickets to the band’s WorldWired North American stadium tour on resale sites such as StubHub without giving fans a chance to buy them through primary ticketing sites (e.g., Ticketmaster) at face value. It’s unclear if Metallica were or were not aware that such actions were being taken on their behalf, but regardless, the fact that someone they employ would do rubbed fans the wrong way (to put it mildly).

Which brings us to New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell. Pascrell has been pushing the so-called “Boss Act” — named after NJ hometown hero and Bruce Springsteen — which The PRP reports “hopes to further regulate the U.S. primary and secondary ticket markets and the shady practices that continue to frustrate fans.”

After the scandalous Metallica news broke, Pascrell, a Democrat, testified before the Energy and Commerce Committee about the Boss Act, and during that testimony, he casually dropped some Metallica song titles into his statement.

Clever? Not exactly (and Pascrell isn’t what you’d call an “electrifying” public speaker). But Pascrell’s cause is a worthy one — I doubt anyone reading this has not, at some point, felt totally screwed by the way exorbitantly priced tickets show up on StubHub at the same time normally priced tickets are meant to be go on sale. The fact that the bands might be in on this scam is infuriating.

Watch Pascrell’s testimony below: