Photo by Andrew Chin | Getty Images

Metallica, and especially frontman James Hetfield, rarely wade into the rocky waters of political commentary. But Hetfield did so in subtle fashion during the final show of the band’s summer North American tour on Wednesday night (August 16th).

Speaking to the stadium-sized crowd in Edmonton, Canada, Hetfield indirectly addressed current events, including the tragic occurrences in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend, by saying, “Before we go any further, we’ve gotta make something very clear. Metallica doesn’t give a s**t, all right? We don’t give a s**t about the differences, okay? We care about the similarities. So the fact that you’re here — we don’t care who you voted for, what you do or don’t eat, we don’t care what color your skin is, what you do for a job. We don’t care what you’ve done in the past. What we do care about is the fact that we’re all together here, celebrating life with music. So for me, you are Metallica family. All are welcome. Are you with us?”

Metallica livestreamed the concert for its North American fans, calling the just-completed tour “another memorable and special summer run for us seeing so many new faces along with lots of old friends as you welcomed us back for our first tour of North America in over eight years.”

Metallica has been on the road in support of its 10th studio album, Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.

The band will next begin a European tour on September 2nd in Copenhagen, Denmark.

READ: Ultimate Classic Rock has the full story CHECK IT OUT: Watch James make his statement (at 20:35) [[{“fid”:”527356″,”view_mode”:”wysiwyg”,”fields”:{“format”:”wysiwyg”,”alignment”:””,”media_title[und][0][value]”:””,”media_description[und][0][value]”:””,”media_description[und][0][format]”:”wysiwyg”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“1”:{“format”:”wysiwyg”,”alignment”:””,”media_title[und][0][value]”:””,”media_description[und][0][value]”:””,”media_description[und][0][format]”:”wysiwyg”}},”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“alt”:”Metallica Live from Edmonton, Canada 8/16/17″,”style”:”height: 518px; width: 690px;”,”class”:”media-element file-wysiwyg”,”data-delta”:”1″}}]]