Aaron Beam Reflects on Red Fang’s 20th Anniversary

“That Metallica moment is the one that is the most standout.”

Red Fang‘s Aaron Beam joined Loudwire Nights on Tuesday (March 18) to celebrate the band’s 20th anniversary. As he thought about some of the most memorable moments in Red Fang’s two-decade career, he was quick to say being handpicked to play Metallica’s Orion Music + More Festival in 2012 was one of the biggest highlights.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“It was so early on [in our career],” Beam shared with host Chuck Armstrong.

“We all thought there was no chance that anybody in the actual band had ever heard of us.”

As he thought about the Orion festival, Beam said they realized that Metallica did in fact know who they were — something they learned moments before they were set to perform.

“Shortly before we’re supposed to go on, our tour manager came over and gathered us all up and he was kind of shaken,” he remembered.

“He was like, everybody’s got to meet behind the stage at this time because James [Hetfield] is coming over to say hi to you guys. I was like, there’s no way, you know, but that was the thing we’d all said ahead of time. The only way I’m going to believe that they actually handpicked us is if somebody comes over and says hi and introduces themselves, which is exactly what happened.”

Beam said it was a surreal moment and he started laughing as he recalled another moment involving Hetfield.

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“We heard afterward that he was actually standing side stage and watched us for the first couple of songs,” Beam said.

“We had basically not slept at all the night before. We had a super long drive and stayed in a really sketchy hotel outside of Atlantic City, so nobody could sleep. And so the first two songs, I was actually in the wrong key, I was tuned to drop D instead of E and I realized that partway through the song and then managed to only get up to E flat. The whole song I was playing half a set off and I basically realized that my career was over at that point.”

What Else Did Red Fang’s Aaron Beam Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• Why he enjoys looking back on his band’s 20-year career: “I feel like that’s just part of the gratitude for having experienced what I have, to be grateful for all of the experiences that I’ve had and not just ignore it and just move forward.”
• What he says has contributed to the long life of Red Fang: “The actual longevity, I think you have to attribute it to the support that we have gotten from the music listening community. All of the excitement of growing as a band and doing stuff that none of us had done, having played music for 10 or 15 years and essentially going nowhere to being in this band that for the first time ever, seems to be something people want to hear was a pretty big thrill.”
• What’s next for Red Fang: “We’re still in that sort of hibernation mode that led to part of why we’re putting out [Deep Cuts]. We’re going to probably meet up again at the end of the summer and just hash out what everybody’s feeling.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Aaron Beam joined Loudwire Nights on Tuesday, March 18; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.