What the pop papers say: Glasto clear way for Ted Nugent in 2015

As part of the preview to the Glastonbury festival (or rather its preview of its preview), this week's NME asks a ginger question about how James Hetfield, the bear-slaughtering bastard, is headlining.

Emily [Eavis] refuses to be drawn in.

"I don't really want to get involved with it, in terms of official comments," she says. "Every year we have people campaigning. Last year we had Tyler, The Creator; we had Beyonce anti-fur; we had Jay-Z and guns; we have this. We can't get involved in other people's politics, if we did that we'd rule out most bands in the world."

Glastonbury - which once advertised itself as "the CND festival", which raises funds for campaigning groups Greenpeace and Oxfam - can't "get involved in other people's politics".

Given this willingness to turn a blind eye to people's politics, you wonder if there's anyone Glastonbury would rule out. James Hetfield's NRA buddy Ted Nugent? Will Macht Und Ehre at last get their big chance on The John Peel Stage?

Obviously, Glastonbury has long since ceased to be about a group of people with shared values getting together, but this year feels different again. It's the first time they've ever gone "look, we don't care about what people think, and given we've already done a homophobe we're unlikely to worry about who we give a platform to in the future."

Glastonbury 2014: You might be able to hear the sound of slaughtered animals

Remember when Glastonbury was a lovely, earth-positive sort of place to be?

That's obviously long since become a memory, but they cling to supporting causes like Greenpeace as a memory of the good times.

But they will let anyone play these days - hence, the 2014 event is going to be headlined by Metallica. That means James Hetfield will be taking time off from working on a documentary about the not-quite-humans who get their kicks killing animals. Bears, in this case. Kodiak bears, the near cousins of the polar bears that Greenpeace are trying to keep alive.

Perhaps the Eavises just like the irony of that.

James Hetfield laid low by tummy ache

Metallica had to disappoint their Swedish fanbase (a group you'd assume has learned to live with disappointment) after James Hetfield was rushed to hospital with a belly ache.

The 16,000 fans who had trooped out to the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm were sent away:

"As you can clearly see, one of the members of Metallica isn't with us up here on stage tonight," Lars Ulrich told [the crowd]. "Unfortunately, I have to let you know that James has had a really, really bad day and he's on his way to the hospital right now."

As they headed back out to the car park, the crowd were able to console themselves that, at least, they hadn't had to sit through a Metallica concert.

James Hetfield gets overexcited, confused at being the voice of torture

Ten years ago, if someone told James Hetfield that Metallica songs were being played at loud volume as part of a process of torture, he'd have been instructing lawyers to ensure that he was getting his sixteen cents per play.

Today, though, Hetfield is "proud" that Metallica was the Gunatanamo torturer's tune of choice:

"Part of me is proud is because they chose METALLICA," Hetfield said about the reports that the band's song "Enter Sandman" was used during the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani — known as the 20th hijacker on Sept. 11 — and that listening to the track brought al-Qahtani to tears "because he thought he was hearing the sound of Satan." James added, "It's strong; it's music that's powerful. It represents something that they don't like — maybe freedom, aggression… I don't know… freedom of speech. And then part of me is kind of bummed about it that people worry about us being attached to some political statement because of that. We've got nothing to do with this and we're trying to be as apolitical as possible, 'cause I think politics and music, at least for us, don't mix. It separates people, [and] we wanna bring people together. So, so be it. I can't say 'Stop.' I can't say 'Do it.' It is just a thing — it's not good or bad."

Isn't possible that Al-Qahtani was sobbing not because he thought he was hearing the sound of Satan, but because he knew he was hearing a bloody Metallica track on an endless loop?

And how can Hetfield simper that he can't either condemn or condone the torture of people using his music as a tool? If the Wilson sisters from Heart have the guts to stand up and express a clear opinion about the use of their music, why can't Hetfield? And given that the first half of his quote you can almost hear the blood flowing southwards with macho delight, doesn't that make his pathetic refusal to take a stance even more embarrassing? Hetfield loves freedom of speech; it's just he's too afraid to actually use it.

Hetfield in possession of offensive beard

Life on the frontline of the war on terror: It's being reported by NME.com that James Hetfield was detained at Luton Airport for having a "Taliban-style" beard.

Although, actually, he was not given any explanation as to why he was stopped for questioning, and it's only his band mates who have decided it was because of the beard. What surprised us, though, is that Metallica were flying in through Luton in the first place. Truly, the Lorraine Chases of heavy metal.