Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers from the Season 4 finale of Stranger Things, “The Piggyback.”
In one of the most memorable scenes in the Season 4 finale of Stranger Things, the character of Eddie Munson grabs his guitar and shreds Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in order to summon demonic bats in a heroic effort to defeat the evil Vecna. It turns out that Tye Trujillo, son of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, plays the riff of the iconic Metallica tune that Eddie’s seen playing in the episode.
Robert Trujillo shared images of the scene on Instagram, along with the end credit that reads, “Additional Guitar Tracks by Tye Trujillo.” The Metallica bassist wrote, “**Spoiler Alert** That’s my boy! Proud of ya Tye! Stranger Things finale shredding it on ‘Master of Puppets’ and big thanks to @kirkhammett on helping! @tyetru @metallica @strangerthingstv #metallica #masterofpuppets #strangerthings #eddiemunson.”
The 17-year-old Tye, who’s an accomplished bassist, can obviously shred on guitar, as well, apparently getting some tips from Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett — as mentioned in Robert’s post.
Tye is already a seasoned musician, having already filled in on bass for Korn when he was just 12 years old. He was also a member of the short-lived band Suspect208 that featured the sons of Slash and Scott Weiland, and he’s currently a member of the band OTTTO.
According to Stranger Things music supervisor, Nora Felder, the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, insisted on “Master of Puppets” for the pivotal scene. “It was another one of those ‘it has to be this song,’ moments,” Felder told Variety. “This part of the story was anticipated to be a pivotal and especially hair-raising scene in which Eddie heroically stood tall for the fight of his life.”
She added, “I believe the Duffer Brothers felt that playing ‘Master of Puppets’ throughout the extended scene was the clear choice. No other song was discussed further, and we jumped in to clear it straight away.”
Meanwhile, Metallica themselves released a statement on Tuesday (July 5th) expressing their gratitude in having “Master of Puppets” play a major role in Stranger Things. The band posted the following on its Instagram page:
“The way The Duffer Brothers have incorporated music into Stranger Things has always been next level, so we were beyond psyched for them to not only include ‘Master of Puppets’ in the show but to have such a pivotal scene built around it. We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did we were totally blown away… it’s so extremely well done, so much so, that some folks were able to guess the song just by seeing a few seconds of Joseph Quinn’s hands in the trailer!! How crazy cool is that? It’s an incredible honor to be such a big part of Eddie’s journey and to once again be keeping company with all of the other amazing artists featured in the show.”
Metallica are wrapping up a European run with appearances at the Mad Cool Festival in Barcelona on Wednesday (July 6th) and the NOS Alive fest in Lisbon, Portugal (July 8th) on Friday. They’ll return to the States for thee shows this summer, including Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 28th, and headlining shows in Buffalo, New York, on August 11th and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 13th. Tickets are available here.
See the Instagram posts from Robert Trujillo and Metallica below.