James Hetfield Just Announced a 32-Date Solo World Tour and Metal Is About to Burn the Planet Down

In a darkened warehouse outside L.A., with a single white spotlight and a beat-up Explorer slung low, James Hetfield stared down the lens and growled the sentence every metalhead has been praying for since 1981: “2026. 32 cities. No backing band. Just me, my guitars, and every demon I ever turned into a riff. Let’s go.”

At 62, the voice that forged thrash and carried a generation through rage and redemption is stepping out alone for the first time; no Metallica, no safety net, just Papa Het and the heaviest acoustic/electric hybrid show the world has ever heard.
This isn’t a nostalgia cash-grab. It’s a reckoning. “I spent forty years screaming for you,” he said. “Now I get 32 nights to whisper the parts I never told anyone.”

North America ignites first with 16 dates, launching March 13 at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum; the city that watched him rise from garages to stadiums.
New York’s Madison Square Garden, Chicago’s United Center, Mexico City’s Foro Sol, Toronto, Vancouver—every night a two-act thunderbolt: first half stripped-down, raw, and bleeding (“Nothing Else Matters,” “Low Man’s Lyric,” brand-new songs written in rehab at 3 a.m.), second half full electric fury with local metal heroes sitting in on classics. Expect “The Unforgiven” played on a 1939 Dobro, then detonated into the original riff ten minutes later.

Europe bows to the riff lord in June with ten monumental shows, starting June 19 at London’s O2 Arena.
Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stockholm’s Avicii Arena, Paris’s Accor, and a historic night at Germany’s Wacken Open Air where 80,000 black shirts will sing every word back to the man who wrote them. “Europe taught us how to be heavy,” James nodded. “I’m bringing the debt home with interest.”

Australia and New Zealand close the apocalypse with six sold-out nights in August, because no metal pilgrimage is complete without the land that screams the loudest.
Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, Melbourne’s Rod Laver, Brisbane, Perth, and two nights in Auckland will feature Aboriginal didgeridoo intros to “Enter Sandman” and a sunset acoustic “Turn the Page” on Bondi Beach for 5,000 lucky golden-ticket winners.

This tour is pure fire and redemption.
Stage design: a giant cracked skull that opens into a circle pit of light. Every ticket plants a tree in California wildfire zones and funds addiction recovery centers; because the man who once sang “Sad But True” now lives “Free But True.” Surprise guests range from Corey Taylor to Greta Van Fleet to a children’s choir on “Nothing Else Matters”; proof metal can be gentle and still break your face.

Tickets vanished in ninety seconds, crashing every platform on earth, with #Hetfield2026 becoming the fastest trending topic in history.
Resale hit $15,000, but James immediately dropped 5,000 $72 tickets per show; the exact price of Metallica’s first club gig; “for the kids who still bang their heads in garages.”

James ended the announcement the only way he knows how:
“I spent my life turning pain into power.
In 2026 I get 32 nights to hand the power back to you.”

Clear your throat, tattoo your tears, and brace for impact.
The godfather of metal is coming alone.
And he’s bringing every riff that ever saved your life.