“Don't Tread on Me” begins with a melody interpolated from Leonard Bernstein's “America.”
Bernstein composed “America” for the musical West Side Story. Metallica incorporated its opening melody into the introduction of “Don't Tread on Me,” creating a brief connection between a famous Broadway composition and a heavy metal album track.
“Don't Tread on Me” appears as the seventh track on Metallica's 1991 album. Its title refers to the Gadsden flag and the phrase associated with that symbol, while the song's lyrics express a patriotic and defensive viewpoint.
The song was sent to rock radio shortly after the album's release but was not issued as a commercial single. That detail can make it less familiar than the album's five official singles. The interpolation is also sometimes described loosely as a sample, but the album documentation specifically identifies the opening as an interpolation of Bernstein's melody.