Rolling Stone recently caught up with Metallica to discuss the songs that have made the setlist on the band's current WorldWired tour in support of their latest album, Hardwired... To Self Destruct. Following is an excerpt from the feature focusing on Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo talking about the set list the band played at its tour kickoff show in Baltimore this past May.

"Hardwired"

Metallica wrote this track, which bassist Robert Trujillo calls a "perfect song," last for Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct. "It's the realization that, 'I hope my kids have a safe place on this planet,' mostly as a parent but also as a human maturing," Hetfield says. "It's realizing that all of this stuff is out of my control, and yeah, maybe we're fucked. But it summed up in layman's terms a lot of what we're saying on the album, dealing with different parts of humanity – revenge, machinery, the line between convenience and laziness and losing yourself to technology. The lyrics are certainly an over-exaggeration, which we tend to do. Maybe it's about air quality, pollution, traffic, overcrowding, people's lack of respect combined into 'Where is man going?' The way things end up having to balance out is getting more and more extreme. And it's fun to say 'fuck.' Even singing it, it's just a powerful word."

"Master of Puppets"

"In 2014, we did a 'Metallica by Request' tour, and the interesting thing is every night of that whole tour – 30, 40 shows – 'Master of Puppets' was the highest vote-getter," Ulrich says. "We were very transparent about how we did it. People could see the numbers, and Master of Puppets was number one for every show. And then 'Fade,' 'Sandman' and 'One.'"

"Halo On Fire"

"My other favorite part of the set is the intro to 'Halo on Fire,'" Hetfield says. "It's just me out there and it's total freeform. I'm just making it up on the way out there. I like stuff like that." Hammett also likes seeing the way fans have taken to the song. "I had an idea that that might be a good live song 'cause it has a lot of instances for audience participation," he says. "There's a lot of things that are really accessible that the audience can latch on to, so when we started playing it, people just latched onto it like I expected them to, and it's a really fun to play to begin with."

"Enter Sandman"

"It's just kinda gotta be at the end," Hetfield says. "It's that song."

Go to this location for the complete rundown.

Upcoming Metallica North American tour dates in support of Hardwired… To Self-Destruct are listed below. Find the band’s complete live itinerary at this location.

July
14 - Quebec City, QC- Festival D'Ete
16 - Toronto, ON - Rogers Centre*^
19 - Montreal, QB - Parc Jean-Drapeau*^
29 - Los Angeles, CA - Rose Bowl*+

August
4 - Phoenix, AZ - University of Phoenix Stadium*+
6 - San Diego, CA - Petco Park*+
9 - Seattle, WA - Centurylink Field*+
11-13 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands
14 - Vancouver, BC - BC Place*+
16 - Edmonton, AB - Commonwealth Stadium*+

* With Avenged Sevenfold
^ With Volbeat
+ With Gojira