Live Music: Bonnaroo opens with Metallica, Chris Rock
June 14th, 2008, 6:29 pm by Jaime Galvan
By JAKE COYLE/The Associated Press
MANCHESTER, Tenn. - Bonnaroo began in earnest Friday with the rarest of double bills: Chris Rock followed by Metallica.
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett introduced Rock, and the comedian in turn introduced who he called “the baddest … band in the world.” Both acts were unlikely fare for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, which began in 2002 as primarily a jam band event.
But in recent years, Bonnaroo has broadened itself and brought more diverse fans to its 700-acre countryside site south of Nashville. Among the tens of thousands of festival-goers, Rock, Metallica and many other performers were very conscious of their entry into a tie-dyed world they seldom traffic in.
