Metallica's lawyers had reportedly issued a 41-page cease and desist letter to Canadian cover band Sandman after noticing that the tribute outfit's logo paid an uncanny resemblance to the band's own logo. After fans began criticizing the multi-million dollar metal band, Metallica have now issued an apologetic statement.
The backlash came after Sandman's frontman Joe Di Taranto spoke with Rolling Stone, stating that his band had "been using this logo for years with no problems at all." The small-town cover band, who had formed in 1994 and are named after Metallica's most popular song "Enter Sandman," had a whopping 400 "likes" on Facebook prior to the incident, with that number increasing to just over 2000 following the recent attention.
But now, Metallica are defending their once tarnished reputation (you know, from when they started that whole Napster thing) in their own statement, calling their lawyers "overzealous."
"Neither we nor our management were aware of until it surfaced online," Metallica said. "Lucky for us, the band was kind enough to post it for us to see, and it turns out that we have a very overzealous attorney who sent this letter without our knowledge."
They added, "Sandman should file the letter in the trash. Keep doing what you’re doing... we totally support you! And in the meantime, our attorney can be found at SFO catching a flight to go permanently ice fishing in Alaska."
