The webpages of several Danny Wimmer Presents music festivals have been “hacked” with a video message demanding that the anonymous party “get what they want” by October 10th at noon PST or the site owners will lose access to their pages. The Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival, and Louder Than Life, Aftershock and Welcome To Rockville festivals are currently displaying this message, whose date coincides with the time shown on the metallicaxx website, with the XX representing next year 2020.

Metallica frontman James Hetfield has recently entered rehab, which has caused the band to postpone several Australian and New Zealand tour dates. Hetfield has struggled with addiction for at least two decades, with the singer ultimately going to rehab in 2001. His stint in rehab was the subject of the documentary Some Kind of Monster, released in 2004.

“Fear was a big motivator in that for me,” Hetfield shared in a 2017 interview for Loudwire, regarding his initial recovery. “Losing my family, that was the thing that scared me so much, that was the bottom I hit, that my family is going to go away because of my behaviors that I brought home from the road. I got kicked out of my house by my wife, I was living on my own somewhere, I did not want that.”

Metallica is one of the most lucrative act in touring history, having sold over sold 22.1 million tickets and having grossed $1.4 billion on tour since 1982. Their brand is global as well, having performed across 48 countries and all seven continents, including Antarctica.

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado