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Introduction
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From the moment they formed in 1981, Metallica have embodied all things metal ...
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The Early Days
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The band remembers its beginnings, when the object of the game was to seek and destroy ...
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The Bassists
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After Cliff Burton's death, Jason Newsted joins, only to be tortured for years and years before finally giving up ...
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Alcoholica
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The group speaks candidly about James Hetfield's life-changing stint in rehab ...
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The Music
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Metallica talk about the songwriting process, and share memories of recording Master of Puppets, the Black Album, St. Anger and more ...
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Photo Galleries
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Metallica: 20 Years Of Photos, Tickets, Posters
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Avril, Snoop, Sum 41, More On "mtvICON: Metallica" Black Carpet
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Metallica Icon Main
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Browse Bands by Name
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Or enter a band name below to search:
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 Bands Main
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Lars Ulrich: In the fall of 1981, after coming back from a trip in
England, I wanted to put a band together. There was a classified ads
newspaper called The Recycler, and I put an ad in there saying
something like, "Heavy metal drummer looking for other musicians to form a
band with. Influences: Tygers of Pan Tang, Angel Witch, Saxon." And most
people would call up and be like, "I'm into heavy metal but I've never heard
of any of those bands. But I like Journey and I like REO Speedwagon. Does
that work?" One of the guys that called up was a guy named Hugh Tanner. And I
remember very clearly, he came down with his rhythm-guitar player, this James
Hetfield guy, who basically spent the whole afternoon not saying one f---ing
word. I mean, I'd never met anyone that shy in my life. We had a bit of a jam
and nothing much materialized out of that. My ability on the drums at that
time was basically zero. And I think they were secretly laughing at me. But
there was something about this guy Hetfield. The way he played, his aura, his
vibe.
So I called up Hetfield and I said, "Look, my friend's putting this [heavy metal compilation] record together. Do you want to take another shot at it?" And he came down and we started hanging out pretty much every day. And I started subjecting him to
every single New Wave of British Heavy Metal thing from Praying Mantis to
Black Axe to Silverwing to all the rest of the bands. And he was sitting
there saying, "Well what about Ted Nugent and Aerosmith?" I'm like, "Dude."
And then we basically wrote a song together — "Hit the Lights."
James Hetfield: One of the biggest things about hooking up with Lars
was that he had lots of music I never heard. He was Danish. He had European
stuff. Little singles and things that I had never heard of. The hardest stuff
I had heard was Kiss, Aerosmith, just some of the punk stuff. Ramones, Sex
Pistols. AC/DC, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden. But then when he
brought in some of the more underground stuff, I was blown away. It was like
Lars is this rich kid who's got this record collection, it's like he's got a
record store at his house. He had everything. And I would spend weeks at his
house just taping stuff.
I moved high schools and it was so hard to link up with other people. When I
hooked up with Lars, I still didn't really trust anyone. But at least we
enjoyed the same kind of music. Music was it. That was my best friend. And I
met other people with the same feeling. Music took them to a place of safety.
To a place of expression. It allowed them to get some of their own real stuff
out. But back in L.A. we wanted to get gigs. We wanted to tour. And I know
back then all we wanted to do was not have a job. I wanted to be a rock and
roll dude. And we wanted to seek out all the poseurs. "Poseur" was a
big word back then. If you were a poseur you thought you were metal but you
weren't.
So we get this gig. The first gig ever. The crew at sound check steal a keg
from the place. And they call us up and say, "Well, you're canceled." And we
said, "Oh, we'll bring the keg back, hold on!" It was our first run-in with
what you were supposed to do and not do in the music business. And for the
better of the band, we won't drink all that keg right now. But yeah,
basically seek and destroy. Drink, smash stuff up, feel good.
Ulrich: Initially [for our fans] it wasn't just about identifying
with the songs. It was also identifying with what the band represented. We
were the antithesis to what most of the bigger bands were doing at that time.
In '83, '84, '85, the music scene in America was still dominated by the major
labels. We were the big f--- you alternative to Loverboy and Journey and REO
Speedwagon. At that time we were pretty f---ing vocal about it, too.
We made sure that everybody understood that we were the anti-Mötley Crüe.
Hetfield: It was all about armies and war. It was like, we are
Metallica. We're riding into town. The "Four Horsemen" are riding into town
to rape and pillage and leave town. Conquering the world with our metal. But
that's how we felt. We're 17, 18, 19. We're not just some B.S. hair band from
L.A. We got stuff to say and listen to us. Or else we'll play louder and
faster. And that's what we did.
We were four guys sleeping in the same room. Sometimes in the same bed
because we couldn't afford anything more. We didn't care. We're fighting over
one towel. You're on tour. That's my pillow. Someone slept without. And you
had to fight for what you got. That for me was our family vibe. At the
beginning, it was just all for one, one for all. Kill. Kill 'em all.
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Photo: Elektra
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