Metallica Asks U.S. Government to Stop Using Legendary Song

2025-07-14

Metal band Metallica.

Metal band Metallica has asked the U.S. government to stop the use of their famed song “Enter Sandman,” and the government has done so. – Author: Scarlett Hunter, Metallica photo via Tim Saccenti

Musicians and bands often send out copyright notices when their music is used without authorization, and Metallica is no exception. Metallica has some of the most legendary metal songs of all time, so it should come as no surprise that over the years, various organizations have used their music without consent and have been forced to take it down.

Now, we can add the U.S. government to that tally. Apparently, Metallica had a little beef with the Department of Defense, and the famed metal band won.

Metallica vs. the U.S. Government

As the story goes, a social media video toting the department’s drone abilities, which was set to the group’s legendary song “Enter Sandman,” was taken down from social media platform X after the department got a copyright notice from Metallica. In the end, the Department of Defense The DoD reportedly uploaded a new version of the clip, without the use of “Enter Sandman.”

“This afternoon, representatives from X reached out to DoD regarding a video posted to our social media page and asked that the video be removed due to a copyright issue with the song ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica,” a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement on Friday, July 11. “The video has been taken down, corrected, and re-uploaded to our page.”

So, it appears that someone high up in the U.S. government is enough a Metallica fan to want to use their music for professional purposes, but that’s not going to fly with Metallica.

According to Rolling Stone, Metallica says the use of the song was unauthorized, and the Department of Defense had to take it down after getting the copyright complaint from the band. Billboard also reached out to Metallica and the Department of Defense camp, but neither returned Billboard’s request for comment.

Metallica Song Taken Down

As Billboard describes in a feature published on Monday, July 14, “The two-minute video filmed in front of the Pentagon found Fox News host Hegseth boasting of the Trump administration’s removal of ‘bureaucratic red tape’ in the manufacturing of military drones as a buzzing quadcopter carrying a memo for him to sign hovered near his head. ‘Here’s the memo we’re signing today, delivered via drone,’ he said as he signed the piece of paper. The second version of the video has no soundtrack.”

Billboard also reports that the current administration “has faced backlash from musicians who objected to him playing their songs at his events, including Adele, Beyoncé, Celine Dion, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, the estate of Isaac Hayes — which sued trump for using the late soul singer’s ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ at rallies — as well as the White Stripes’ Jack White, Neil Young, Prince, R.E.M., Rihanna, the Rolling Stones and many more.” Of course, it goes both ways, and politicians on both sides, democrats and republicans, have had to back down from using music.

Newsweek adds that “a copyright strike is when a video or social media channel faces punishment for unauthorized use of published media—either visual or audio. Unauthorized use of a song, video or photos can result in such a strike.” They add that “Metallica famously initiated the landmark lawsuit against peer-to-peer file sharing company Napster in 2000, which led to further suits that ultimately caused the company’s initial collapse.”

Scarlett Hunter
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Posted by Scarlett Hunter | Metal, Music, Rock News

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