GRAMMY Producer KEN EHRLICH Apologizes To METALLICA For Technical Issues

The producer of the Grammy Awards has apologized to METALLICA for the technical mishap that left frontman James Hetfield without a working microphone for the band's Grammy performance with Lady Gaga.

The "Moth Into Flame" performance on Sunday night's (February 12) awards show was marred by the incident, which was reportedly caused by a stagehand accidentally unplugging Hetfield's mic.

That forced the guitarist/vocalist to share Gaga's mic for almost the rest of the song. A visibly Hetfield knocked down his mic stand at the end of the performance and threw his guitar offstage.

"These kinds of things are horrible when they happen," Ken Ehrlich told the Associated Press on Wednesday. "That's one of the risks of live television."

As to what transpired to cause the glitch, Ehrlich told the Associated Press: "My guys say that the mic cable was connected. My guys' theory was that ... one of the extras [on stage] accidentally kicked out the cable that went to the mic."

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich said on Tuesday night's (February 14) edition of "The Late Late Show With James Corden" that Hetfield was "livid" over the technical problems during the Grammy Awards telecast. Ulrich told host James Corden: "We get off stage, we get back there, and I haven't seen [Hetfield] like that in twenty years. I mean, he was livid. He's aged really well and he's a pretty chill guy, but the first five or ten minutes in that dressing room was not a lot of fun."

Ulrich added to Corden: "Like they say, the show must go on, and we fought through it… A lot of people said that at least it made for great television, which is really the point of doing the Grammys to begin with."

"Obviously, we apologize to the band," Ehrlich told the Associated Press, calling the incident "awful."

Prior to the Grammy performance, Ulrich told "Access Hollywood" that METALLICA was "psyched" to get "carte blanche" from Ehrlich to "go heavier and heavier each time" the band performs at the event. He said: "When we were done with our rehearsal [for the Grammy show], my manager came up and said, 'This may be the heaviest song that's ever been played at the Grammys ever' — even heavier than the last four of five times METALLICA were there."

Despite the problems with that performance, Ulrich told Rolling Stone earlier this week that Gaga was the "quintessential perfect fifth member of this band," adding that he would like to work with her again.