Rog, I wish I could say I did, but I don't catch the small news like that. Metallica just doesn't seem to merit enough space in our local newspaper, lol.
I found out because I had my digital cable on the Metal channel and they pop up these little factoids about the bands they're playing at the moment and this is the first time I saw anything about it (sorry about missing that minimock though, I'll go check it out)
[edit] I just went to look at that minimock... They might as well have gotten Hitler