Metallica Perform ‘One’ With Pianist Lang Lang

After being on the losing end of one of Grammy’s most notorious awards — Jethro Tull‘s 1989 win for Best Hard Rock / Metal Performance — Metallica returned to the stage at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards to rock the song that should have earned them an award a quarter century ago.

Along with classical pianist Lang Lang, the metal titans performed an epic version of ‘One,’ from 1988′s ‘. . . And Justice for All.’ As Jared Leto (who gave a brief tribute to the late Lou Reed beforehand) noted before presenting Metallica, the band played the song at the Grammys before . . . but never like this.

Lang’s piano fills gave the song a sense of majestic grandeur, but it was Metallica’s electric performance of the song that truly rocked the stage. Guitarist Kirk Hammett (sporting a Lou Reed T-shirt) shared lead-instrument space with Lang, whose mid-song breakdown gave this new version of ‘One’ an awesome spin.

It also served as the perfect setup to the song’s climatic ending, where the band’s collision of sound and vision stormed the Grammy stage. It didn’t quite make up for the 1989 loss, but it came pretty damn close.

http://youtu.be/oSM4t6seiQU