'90s Heavy Metal Band Reacts to Exciting Announcement

Metallica is giving credit where it’s due.

The American rock band shared that their tour accountant, Chris Risner, was awarded the Road Warrior of the Year award at the 37th Annual Pollstar Awards in Hollywood on Wednesday evening. Risner has worked with Metallica for almost 18 years and is working with them during their ongoing M72 World Tour.

A tour accountant’s job is to manage the entire financial operation of a concert tour, ensuring profitability by budgeting, tracking expenses and settling nightly show revenue with venue promoters.

In addition, Metallica won the Rock Tour of the Year award, which they acknowledged that “wouldn’t be the case without the #MetallicaFamily pouring into stadiums night after night.”

“It was a great honor to have Lars, on behalf of Metallica, present our Tour Accountant, Chris Risner, with the ‘Road Warrior of the Year’ award,” the band wrote as their Instagram caption. “In addition to everything you’d expect from someone in that role, Risner is also hugely instrumental in curating our Weekend Takeover Events and was the brains behind our #BleedingMe partnership with the American Red Cross. Congrats, Chris, on this well-deserved award!”

The Pollstar Awards are peer-voted honors recognizing excellence in the live entertainment industry, covering artists, tours, venues and industry professionals.

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Throughout the tour, Metallica has started a blood drive to support the American Red Cross, which has led to almost 40,000 units of blood donated. According to Pollstar, Risner heavily drove this idea after seeing a Red Cross commercial and pitched it to the band, which they loved. To encourage donations, fans had opportunities to win exclusive goodies like T-shirts and even a custom guitar.

“It was amazing to see so many folks that were giving for altruistic reasons, but also just so happy to wear their fandom of Metallica while identifying as a blood donor at the same time, it was super special,” says Darren Irby, a representative for the American Red Cross who partnered with Metallica. “One of the things we were really surprised by was that it was young people that were really motivated. They really leaned into wanting to do good and wanting to do that through Metallica.”

Created by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich in Los Angeles in 1981, Metallica has become one of the biggest heavy metal bands in the world. Since their formation, the group has released 11 studio albums, with their most recent being 72 Seasons in 2023. In addition, Metallica has won 11 Grammy Awards, with the title track of their latest album winning Best Metal Performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards. The current lineup includes Hetfield, Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo.

To support 72 Seasons, Metallica is currently on their M72 World Tour, which kicked off on April 27, 2023, in Amsterdam. They have had multiple legs in Europe and North America over the past three years, and the last leg will start on May 9 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. The world tour will officially conclude in London on July 5. Tickets can be found on Metallica’s official website.

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