10 Rock Stars That Almost Died On The Road

All of the excesses that went into Metallica's joint tour with Guns N Roses could easily warrant a list of its own. Even though it might have been a trip seeing two of the biggest bands at the time together on one bill, the indulgence that comes with being on the road is always rough for any band, let alone one that actually has Axl Rose at the front. When they ducked into Montreal though, James Hetfield was the one in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The show started off well enough with Metallica running through some of their classics off the Black Album, before slowing things down with the song Fade to Black. After going through the intro, Hetfield started to get a little bit confused about where his mic stand was, walking forward and back before realizing that he was standing above a canister that was supposed to shoot out a huge chemical flame into the air. By the time he came to, it was too late, with the fire completely engulfing him, melting all the strings off his guitar and leaving half of his body burnt to a crisp.

Though that particular show had to be cancelled for the rest of the night, James wasn't looking to let his fans down for long, getting one of the guitar techs to play rhythm guitar for him and getting back in action only a few weeks later with the bandages still on his hands. You can take away his guitar, and you can even light his ass on fire, but nothing gets in between the relationship between a metal god and his fans.