Lady Gaga and Metallica"s Grammys duet was plagued by technical problems Sunday night, but the unlikely collaboration still worked.
As well as it could have, at least, considering that James Hetfield"s microphone wasn"t working … not a small issue for a rock band.
For the first minute, Gaga effectively took over as lead singer while Hetfield sang "Moth Into Flame" lyrics into an ineffective mic.
Those who watched the 2017 Grammy Awards live on CBS knew what was going on, but you could barely tell watching the artists.
Handling it like … well, rock stars, they didn"t miss a beat.
Hetfield and Gaga shared ended up sharing her mic, adding a cool theatrical element to the performance, albeit an unplanned one.
With a mix of their heavy metal grit and her pop bombast, not to mention insane pyrotechnics and headbangers, they gave it their all.
Gaga even launched herself into the sellout audience for some crowd surfing at one point, a throwback to Metallica concerts of yore.
Even old school Metallica fans had to appreciate that …
As for how this collaboration ended up happening?
"I was at Bradley [Cooper"s] house with Lars [Ulrich, Metallica"s drummer] and we were just hanging out," Gaga said recently.
"He"s amazing. I went to see them live."
"I saw them recently and we were watching the show," she added, "those guys play better than they’ve played in their whole lives."
The performance capped a huge week for the pop icon; The Lady Gaga Super Bowl halftime show was widely praised as a success.
As for Metallica, the metal greats was nominated last night for Best Rock Song for "Hardwired," but lost to David Bowie"s "Blackstar."
Watch the tandem rock the Grammys below!
