14 DAY TRIAL // The other day, during a Metallica concert in Australia, a mishap occurred when guitarist Kirk Hammett kicked a beach ball into a little girl. The band has issued a statement explaining what really happened.
Video of the incident was posted online and it didn’t take more than a couple of hours for it to be blown out of proportion.
In it (you can also check it out below), Hammett can be seen strutting on the stage, kicking oversized black beach balls falling from above. A little girl is standing near the stage.
At one point, Hammett kicks one ball and it hits the girl straight in the face: she’s then seen flinging her arms up in the air and falling backwards.
Reports online first said that Hammed kicked the girl in the head (and not the ball, which hit her). Then, it was said that the girl was hit with such a force that she “tossed” back in the audience, and that she’d been severely injured.
None of that is true, the band says in a statement cited by the Toronto Sun. The whole thing as a fluke, but the girl has not been harmed in any way, though she may be a bit shaken.
"In the whacky world of rock’n’roll, sometimes stuff happens which looks even weirder than it really is! And with context being vital in these situations, we just wanted to address something which happened on the tour the other night regarding a large beach ball, a band member’s foot and a little girl,” the statement reads.
“That little lady... was thoroughly enjoying watching the beach balls drop from the rafters, Kirk was thoroughly enjoying kicking the beach balls off the stage and back into the crowd as has been done every night on the tour, and neither of them saw the other,” says the statement.
“The poor wee one happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She wasn’t hurt. She didn’t go ‘flying several feet into the audience.’ And Kirk and she remain good buddies,” it is further being said.
Moreover, a photo of Kirk and girl is also being supplied to the media to prove not only that the two remain friends but also that she doesn’t have any visible signs from the incident.
Below is the video of the mishap.