Deep Purple, Ghost and Motorhead Members to Help Honor Metallica
When Metallica are presented with the Polar Music Prize in Sweden next month, the ceremony will feature members of Deep Purple, Ghost and Motorhead.
The prize, created in 1989 by ABBA manager and co-writer Stig Anderson, will be presented to Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo by the king of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf.
“Receiving the Polar Music Prize is an incredible thing,” Ulrich said in February when the award was announced. “It puts us in very distinguished company. It’s a great validation of everything that Metallica has done over the last 35 years. At the same time, we feel like we’re in our prime with a lot of good years ahead of us.”
"I feel very honored to be in such great company with the others who have accepted the Polar Music Prize," frontman James Hetfield added. "As myself and as Metallica, I'm grateful to have this as part of our legacy, our history."
Members of Ghost and Candlemass will perform a Metallica song at the ceremony on June 14 at Stockholm’s Konserthuset. Ian Paice and Roger Glover of Deep Purple will read the citation, while former Motorhead and current Scorpions drummer Mikkey Dee will perform a piece written for the occasion along with Refused frontman Dennis Lyxzen. Metallica said they’d donate the $125,000 cash element of the prize to their All Within My Hands foundation.
It was also recently announced that the band grossed more than $2 million per show during its last run of European dates. Pollstar reported average ticket sales of $20,451 for each appearance, with an average price of $104.