'You can't go wrong with raw human emotion: fears, questions, the unknown, authority, childhood issues...all of those things that everyone has.' - James Hetfield, lead singerMetallica was formed in Downey, California in
1981 by drummer and former tennis prodigy
Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist
James Hetfield from Downey, California, who met after each had separately placed classified advertisements in the American publication The Recycler. Bassist
Ron McGovney, also from Downey, was an original member, and the band used a few transient guitar players, such as Brad Parker and Jeff Warner, in the course of settling on a four-person lineup. Metallica got its name when drummer Lars Ulrich was helping San Francisco-area met
al promoter Ron Quintana pick out a name for a new magazine to promote metal and the
New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands. Quintana came up with a suggestion "Metallica," but Lars quickly suggested another and decided to use that name for the band he and James Hetfield had just started.
Photo: Metallica circa 1999, Kirk, James, Jason, LarsDesperate for a full-time lead guitarist, Ulrich posted an ad in the local newspapers.
Dave Mustaine from Huntington Beach, California, a guitarist from the band
Panic responded, and upon arrival started a sound check. Ulrich and Hetfield were so impressed with Mustaine's equipment that they asked him to join before hearing him play. A few months later the band recorded a full demo, No Life Till Leather, which quickly drew attention on the underground tape trading circuit. By this point bassist
Cliff Burton from Castro Valley, California had also joined Metallica, lured from his band Trauma in exchange for the other members of Metallica relocating to the San Francisco area. Metallica then travelled to New York in 1983 at the urging of local promoters Jon and Marsha Zazula, and after a few gigs the band signed with the Zazulas' brand new label, Megaforce Records. Megaforce released Metallica's first two albums. Shortly after arriving in New York, Mustaine was fired due to various disruptive, unproductive behaviours all related to alcoholism and other addictions.
Kirk Hammett was drafted from
Exodus to replace him.
Mustaine would go on to create the
thrash metal band
Megadeth. Metallica's first album,
Kill 'Em All, and a year later, the next album,
Ride the Lightning. Perhaps the most significant feature of Ride the Lightning was the inclusion of "
Fade to Black",- which was written when all their stuff was stolen- a slower, more interior song that mused on the thoughts of someone contemplating suicide. On
September 27, 1986, during a European leg of shows, bassist
Cliff Burton was killed in
Ljungby,
Sweden when Metallica's tour bus slid on icy roads and rolled down a cliff. Burton was thrown out of the window, and the bus fell on top of him, killing him. Three weeks after Burton's funeral,
Jason Newsted, formerly of
Flotsam and Jetsam joined the band on October 28, 1986. With Newsted, the band finished the Damage, Inc. tour in the early months of 1987 before recording
The $5.98 EP: Garage Days
Re-Revisited in July that year.
Photo: ...Justice tour 1988/89
On
March 7,
1999, Metallica were inducted into
San Francisco Walk of Fame. The mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, proclaimed the day "Official Metallica Day" in San Francisco. A month later, on
April 21-
22,
1999, Metallica recorded two performances with the
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, then-conducted by
Michael Kamen.
In
2000, Metallica discovered that a demo of their song "I Disappear" had been floating across the
Napster file-sharing network. The band immediately set out to sue Napster and, in the process, asked that 300,000 Napster users found to be trading Metallica songs be banned from the network. In
2001, Metallica and Napster agreed to an out-of-court settlement which led to many Napster user accounts being locked out. The band did not take action to sue any individuals for copyright infringement. Nevertheless, the controversy created a public relations nightmare. Throughout the controversy, many websites hosted Flash cartoons parodying Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield as selfish and stupid rock stars, completely out of touch with their fans. The most popular of these was
Napster Bad!, by Camp Chaos, which spawned an entire series. (Go on try the link... its funny!)What followed was a huge fan backlash t
hat thinned out the fanbase. Mötley Crüe provided their voices for a Flash that simultaneously supported Napster (and file-sharing in general) and shamed Metallica's supposed greed.
Photo: The Black Album tour (1990-91)Before they went into the studio to record their next album in
2001,
Jason Newsted left the band, ostensibly due to
"the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love." However, subsequent interviews with Newsted and the remaining members revealed that Newsted's desire to release and tour with his
Echobrain side-project – and Hetfield's intense resistance to such an idea – was the primary cause of Newsted's departure (James' key logic being that someone in Metallica releasing something outside of Metallica would somehow weaken the band.) This began a low-point in recent Metallica history, as Hetfield soon entered rehab due to "alcoholism and other addictions" in July 2001. For nearly a year, Metallica ceased to function in any meaningful way. Ulrich and Hammett, for the first time, seriously considered the possibility that Metallica might be finished. Upon Hetfield's return, though, the band slowly and cautiously continued as an incomplete 3-piece throughout the writing and recording of their next album. Longtime producer Bob Rock handled bass duties for the sessions. Metallica eventually found a new member in early 2003, bassi
st
Rob Trujillo (ex-
Suicidal Tendencies), who was then playing with
Ozzy Osbourne's band. In an interesting turn of events, Jason Newsted, who had joined
Canadian heavy metal band
Voivod, filled Rob's shoes by playing bass for Ozzy during the
Ozzfest 2003 tour (which Voivod also supported).
On May 6, 2003, Metallica, with new bassist Trujillo, played their first show with the new lineup at mtvICON: Metallica, a 90-minute tribute show dedicated to the band. Along with several renditions of older songs performed by various bands (
Sum 41 performed a medley of Metallica songs including "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "Enter Sandman" and "Master of Puppets";
Staind performed "Nothing Else Matters";
Avril Lavigne performed "Fuel";
Snoop Dogg performed "Sad But True";
Korn performed "One"; and
Limp Bizkit performed "Welcome Home: Sanitarium)", the show had several clips of interviews with the band broadcasting the past history of the band (Newsted provided commentary on certain aspects) and a performance by Metallica to close. Metallica's performanc
e was a montage of songs as well, loosely chronicling their history; beginning with "Hit the Lights", and continuing with "Enter Sandman", "Blackened", "Creeping Death" and "Battery." After a brief speech, the band ended with the debut of "Frantic".
Photo: Rear view of the ...Justice t-shirt 1988For me personally, I caught them twice in concert, the fisrt was during the ..Justice Tour in Manchester Apollo (8 Oct 1988 - see the tour t-shirt photo) and the 2nd time during the Black Album tour, this time in Wembley Arena London, head banging with my suite on, well the concert is on a weekday, after office hours.
Metallica Discography according to Year, Title, US Sales
1983 Kill 'Em All 3 million
1984 Ride the Lightning 5 million
1986 Master of Puppets 6 million
1987 Garage Days Re-Revisited (EP) 1 million
1988 ...And Justice for All 8 million
1991 Metallica 14 million (Usually called The Black Album)
1993 Live Shit: Binge & Purge Elektra
1996 Load 5 million
1997 ReLoad 3 million
1998 Garage Inc. 5 million - A collection of covers, including all tracks from Garage Days Re-revisited
1999 S&M 5 million - A collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony (Symphony & Metallica)
2003 St. Anger 3 million
2004 Some Kind of Monster (EP)
mostly taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallica
