Coven Worldwide, the official Mercyful Fate and King Diamond website, has released a backstage report from the gig at Metallica’s 30th anniversary bash. As previously reported by ZT, The King was joined by Michael Denner, Hank Shermann and Timi Hansen playing a medley of Mercyful Fate songs with Metallica. See Ole Bang’s report below:
“Hello again.
Like said last week, more news is soon to come, however not right now, but I have received a couple of mails asking me to post a few notes about the “Metallica event”…. so here a short run down of what was going on.
It actually started a while ago, when Lars Ulrich approached the original MF members, to find out if able and willing to participate. It was all to be secret to keep in line with the surprise effect.
When that was sorted, we went to San Francisco; Timi, Michael, Hank & myself from Denmark, and King obviously from Dallas. It would be King’s first appearance since he joined Metallica on stage in Dallas, and his first since the by-pass. We were all anxious and excited about the event, and met up at the San Francisco hotel booked for us. Really nice to se the guys together again; a first time in 18 yrs.
The following morning ( Dec 7th ) we were taken to sound check, which was also kept under tight secrecy. . . . actually had to enter the Filmore through the kitchen of a Korean restaurant, and up the fire escape staircase. Sound check was a blast for me to watch. Michael & Hang were given each a Metallica flying V-guitar’s and a bass was ready for Timi. A few moments later the 8 guys on stage went through the medley already agreed on, spending quite some time on getting detail absolutely right. King and James went over who would sing which part and after some adjustments on the monitors it ended with a complete run-through of the medley. Altogether it was a very smooth sound check, with a really nice and friendly Metallica crew, whom we all owe a huge Thank You !
During sound check, both Livia and I got some photos of the action, some of which have already been posted on line. Metallica had their own photographers all over the place, so you’d surely seen the action by now.
The Filmore was set for a great evening, and we now realized who would be the other surprise guests of the evening. They turned up one by one for their sound check, and we spend some time checking out the ‘Metallica Museum’ with rare and unusual effects on display.
We then had an afternoon break and returned in the evening around 9pm.
The place was packed, and upstairs in the VIP area we had a chance to meet up with a lot of old friends in the business, whom we had not seen for years. One very important person in the Mercyful Fate history is Ron Quintana, who was partly responsible for spreading the word of the band, way back in the early 80’s.
Our label boss Brian Slagel was there, and we simply just ran into people we knew again and again.
King arrived in full make-up and made his way to a small dressing room, right by the stage, at the time when Lou Reed performed on stage. He might have gotten a small surprise when he got off stage, or maybe someone had warned him.
When Jason went on stage it was time for Mercyful Fate to be ready. Only a few seconds after he left stage, we heard Lars starting his story of the ‘good old days’ back in Copenhagen when recording their first albums. The next 10 minutes are documented on all the video footage much better than I can describe it ….. and after this there’s really not much to say.
It was an amazing experience and I believe there are loads of comments and stories about how it was to be in the audience.
The following morning we checked out and flew back home…… oh Yes, we did hang out for a while after the show, and Yes we did go to a place for after hours drinks . . . but that’s another (private) story.”
More “news” expected soon, a reunion perhaps? Fingers crossed!
