"Don't Tread on Me" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica from their self-titled fifth album.

The instrumental introduction uses an eight-bar phrase from "America", a popular song from the musical West Side Story.

"[3] The main guitar riff has been sampled on the song "Surface Patterns" by Canadian industrial band Front Line Assembly, from their 1994 album Millennium.

[7] In 2019, Dee Gallant of Duncan, British Columbia, Canada, was walking her dog on a logging road near the town when she realized a cougar was approaching them.

After shouting did not make it go away, she selected "Don't Tread on Me" as the loudest song on her cellphone, and when she played it, the cougar left.

[8][9] The following week, after news of the event had spread, she received a friendly phone call from lead singer James Hetfield.