“Don’t Tread on Me” is the Metallica song from The Black Album that opens with an eight-bar phrase from Leonard Bernstein’s “America.”
“America” comes from Bernstein’s music for the stage musical West Side Story. Metallica uses the phrase instrumentally at the beginning of “Don’t Tread on Me,” creating a brief connection between a celebrated musical-theater melody and the band’s heavy-metal arrangement. The reference is an interpolation rather than a separate cover version of the full song.
The Metallica track also draws on American historical imagery. Its title is associated with the Gadsden flag, which shows a coiled rattlesnake and carries the words “Don’t Tread on Me.” The album cover includes a dark-gray snake image, reinforcing that visual connection.
The song’s lyrics reference Patrick Henry’s famous “liberty or death” phrase and the maxim “If you want peace, prepare for war.” It was issued as a promotional single in August 1991 but was not one of the album’s five commercial singles.