James Hetfield on Kardashians Selling Metallica Shirt: ‘Show Some Respect’
James Hetfield has spoken out on Keeping Up With the Kardashians stars Kendall and Kylie Jenner's misguided business venture last month where they superimposed their own faces over images some of the most iconic images in music - including one of Metallica's Kill 'Em All album - and put them on T-shirts with a selling price of $125.
"I guess what they were thinking is, 'We can do whatever we want,'" Hetfield tells Entertainment Tonight Canada. "To me, it's disrespectful. We've spent 36 years working hard, doing our best to keep a really close connection with people, make every note count, and someone just throws something up over something that we feel...not that it's sacred or anything, but show some respect."
The shirts, released under the Kendall + Kylie apparel line, were quickly pulled from the retail website after widespread criticism from those represented, including the estate of late rapper the Notorious B.I.G., who filed a cease and desist motion against the reality show sisters. Other artists misappropriated included The Doors, Pink Floyd and Ozzy Osbourne.
Ozzy's wife, Sharon Osbourne, fired off a tweet to the Jenners in the wake of the saga, saying, “Girls, you haven’t earned the right to put your face with musical icons. Stick to what you know…lip gloss.”
Following the backlash and removal of the T-shirts from their web store, Kendall + Kylie released a statement which apologized for their poor judgement.
“These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologize to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists,” it read. “We are huge fans of their music and it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in any way. The tee shirts have been pulled from retail and all images have been removed. We will use this as an opportunity to learn from these mistakes and again, we are very sorry.”
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