13-year-old drummer joins Metallica onstage to play ‘Seek and Destroy’

On Tuesday night, Metallica played a blistering 18-song set in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at the Johan Cruyff Arena.

Before leaving the stage and returning for an encore, a young boy named Evan Adamson was invited onstage at the helm of Lars Ulrich‘s drum kit in celebration of his 13th birthday.

“Oh God, Lars shrunk!” joked frontman James Hetfield in a pro-shot video shared to Metallica’s social media accounts.

“They put Lars in the wash,” he continued. “I told ’em not to put him in the dryer. He shrunk… Oh, there you are,” he said as Ulrich approached the young drummer, whispering some tips into Adamson’s ears.

The avid musician counted the band in before the four-piece erupted into a powerful rendition of the 1983 track Seek & Destroy.

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The show was a continuation of Metallica’s ongoing European Worldwired tour in support of the band’s latest album, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (2016).

READ MORE: The Cult’s Ian Astbury talks Indigenous influence and the evolution of the band

In the wake of the show, Ulrich, 55, took to Instagram and shared a number of pictures from the moment.

“Boys and Girls,” he wrote, “say hey to Evan… you’re welcome to sit in anytime bruh!”

Following his own birthday celebrations, Adamson too took to Instagram, sharing his excitement and gratitude to the band.

“Well well well,” he wrote, “no words.”

“To play drums in front of 68,000 people with my heroes, my favourite band of all time, was just the best thing ever,” he continued. “And to top it all off, it was my birthday!”

READ MORE: Metallica announces 20th anniversary ‘Symphony and Metallica’ concert

The rest of the 13-year-old’s Instagram posts show that he’s no stranger to Metallica shows and is indeed a very dedicated fan.

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As of this writing, Metallica currently has no scheduled Canadian dates.

This September, however, the band will return home to San Francisco to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Grammy Award-winning live album, S&M (1999).

On Sept. 6 and 8, the Enter Sandman rockers will join forces with the San Francisco Symphony once more for an exclusive performance at a brand new arena-sized venue, the Chase Center.

Tour dates and additional information can be found on the official Metallica website.