Watch Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo cover Rush anthem Working Man in Canada

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Rob Trujillo have covered Rush classic Working Man during a concert in the prog legends’ native Canada.

The pair, who joined Metallica in 1983 and 2003 respectively, played the 1974 song in Edmonton, Alberta, on Sunday, August 25. Watch footage of the performance below.

Hammett and Trujillo’s cover is the latest in a series of ‘doodles’ they perform on tour. The guitarist and bassist started doing them during Metallica’s 2016-to-2019 Worldwired tour to honour local and legendary musicians for the stop they’re performing at. The pair have previously done When Doves Cry by Prince, Killers by Iron Maiden, Dancing Queen by Abba and more.

In a 2014 Guitar Center interview, Hammett described meeting Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson as the moment he felt he’d “made it” as a musician. “There was another time when I found myself thinking, ‘Holy shit, I’m living my high school fantasy,’ and that was when I had gone to see Rush and then after the show I was hanging out with Alex Lifeson,” Hammett remembered.

“We were just hanging out, drinking wine, talking about guitars and I thought, ‘Yeah – I really made it. I’m really here, right now, hanging out with Alex Lifeson backstage drinking wine.’ It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Metallica are currently touring North and Central America as part of their M72 world tour, promoting their 2023 album 72 Seasons. The tour features ‘no repeat weekends’, where the band play the same venue twice in the space of a weekend but never perform the same song twice. They’ll next play at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington, on August 30 and September 1, then Mexico City’s Foro Sol four times from September 20 to 29. See details below.

Rush formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1968 and played their last show together in 2015. Longtime drummer Neil Peart died of brain cancer in January 2020, aged 67.

Aug 30: Seattle Lumen Field, WA, USA
Sep 01: Seattle Lumen Field, WA, USA
Sep 20: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 22: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 27: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 29: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.