A California judge quoted a Taylor Swift track while rejecting Metallica‘s lawsuit related to a handful of 2020 gig cancellations in South America.
The legendary metal band had sought out legal ruling after their insurance policy did not cover their losses after having to cancel six tour dates in 2020 due to COVID travel restrictions. Lloyd’s of London – the insurance company used by the band – stated that there was a clear exclusion in their contract for any losses accrued from “communicable diseases.”
A California appeals court rejected the band’s lawsuit – which demanded that the insurance company pay for more than $3 million in losses due to the COVID travel restrictions. Per Loudwire, the band had submitted that they suffered a $3,234,569 loss from the canceled shows.
Metallica argued that the case should’ve gone to trial to which Justice Maria Stratton quoted Swift’s lyrics from her song ‘All Too Well’ from her 2012 LP ‘Red’ and stated that it was “absurd to think that government closures were not the result of Covid-19.”
“To paraphrase Taylor Swift: ‘We were there. We remember it all too well,’” the justice wrote (Per Billboard). “There was no vaccine against Covid-19 in March 2020 and no drugs to treat it. Ventilators were in short supply. N-95 masks were all but non-existent. Patients were being treated in tents in hospital parking lots. The mortality rate of Covid-19 was unknown, but to give just one example of the potential fatality rate, by late March, 2020, New York City was using refrigerated trucks as temporary morgues. People were terrified.”
In other news, Metallica recently covered Elton John at the 2024 Gershwin Prize in Washington, D.C..
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The group opened the show with a rendition of ‘Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding’ from John’s 1973 double album ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’.