Lars Ulrich, born on December 26, 1963 in Gentofte, Denmark, wasn't ever the most likely prospect to start what would become one of the biggest and best metal bands on Earth, much less when he was only five years old. But this son of tennis pro Torben Ulrich (while being groomed to be the next best tennis star) at this young impressionable age was taken with his parents to a Rolling Stones concert in July of 1969, and at the age of nine, accompanied his father to a Deep Purple concert, care of some tickets given to his father by friends. That band made quite an impression on him, and by the age of 14, he had gotten his grandmother to buy him his very first drumset. The family soon moved to Newport Beach, California in August of 1980, and when he got there, Lars was appalled at the fact that neither the metal music nor his leather-clad heroes such as Diamond Head, whom he had come to know and love in Europe, had yet caught on in the States.
Meanwhile, one James Alan Hetfield, attending Downey East Middle School, had befriended a fellow metalhead (and future Metallica drum technician), Dave Marrs. James' father was a trucking company owner and his mother, who had died of cancer when James was only 16, was an opera singer, having passed her vocal talents on to James. After she died, James had to move to La Brea to live with his brother-in-law. But before the move, he had formed a band called Obsession with schoolmates Jim Arnold, Rich Veloz, and Ron Veloz. A much shyer and less confident James did not sing in his first band - Jim played guitar, Rich played drums, and his brother Ron played bass, with the soon-to-be-nicknamed "angriest kid in the world", James, playing guitar as well. There was no singer, and after James' move to La Brea, Obsession fizzled.
In 1980, James bought the second guitar he ever owned - the famous white Flying V. At $200, it was well worth the money he had earned as a sticker factory worker and a janitor, as it became the most recognized of his guitars and gave him many years of metal pleasure.
At Brea High, James met a kid he only remembers as Troy, who played guitar. Soon after, drummer Jim Mulligan was added and the band was christened Phantom Lord. Hugh Tanner soon replaced the somewhat-wimpy Troy as axeman, and James finally sang. Their bassists never stayed for very long until after graduation when James met up with an old friend, Ron McGovney, when he moved back to Downey. "Ron's mom owned four houses stacked behind each other. So there was a vacant house I got to live in. There were no expenses, except maybe buying my own food. I was pretty lucky," explains James. McGovney soon took on the task of being their first permanent bassist and the band name was changed to Leather Charm.
Lars, now 16, had become friends with one Brian Slagel, Sears employee and future founder of Metal Blade Records.
Hugh Tanner arranged what would be an event that was insignificant at the time but would forever alter the course of history. By April, Leather Charm was without a drummer, and Hugh arranged for James and him to meet up with a kid who had put an ad in The Recycler magazine - one Lars Ulrich - in Irvine, California. Nothing became of this first meeting, due to the fact that Lars simply "...wasn't that good back then," according to James.
After that encounter Lars, who had now become a full-blown metal maniac, followed Diamond Head around on tour in England when he was 18 in the summer of 1981. He had befriended singer Sean Harris and consequently, Harris invited Lars to stay at his parents' house in Stourbridge for the remainder of the tour.
Slagel eventually quit the dead-end Sears job and went to work for Oz Records. He started a metal magazine called New Heavy Metal Revue. He then expanded and founded Metal Blade Records.
Lars then used his gift of the gab to bluff his way into a deal with Slagel (who was itching to get bands together for his L.A. metal bands compilation CD entitled Metal Massacre) to record a song and possibly jumpstart his future career as a drummer. But he needed a band. So Lars called James again, and after James found out that he had the chance to write a song, be on a record, and get some publicity, he told Lars to come to Ron McGovney's house, the band's practice home in the El Cerrito neighborhood. The song, written in James' Leather Charm days and almost a total Diamond Head ripoff, was titled "Hit The Lights."
But what to name themselves? Lars and a magazine editor friend of his named Ron Quintana, who had been hoping to start a heavy metal magazine, were sitting around one day, pondering what to name it. The names were finally narrowed down to Metal Mania and Metallica. Lars liked the Metallica idea so much that he convinced Quintana to use Metal Mania so he could use Metallica for his band's name. (Earlier Lars and the boys had debated less appetizing band names. In addition to the almost unpalatable Red Vette: "What were the other ones? Oh yeah, Ripshifta with a T-A, not a T-E-R. It was either that or Blitzer. The other one that wouldn't quite have made it was Thunderfuck," says James Hetfield. Let's be thankful for Quintana's suggestion.)
The song was still a bit of a problem. "Hit The Lights" needed a lead guitar solo and Metallica needed a lead guitarist. Dave Mustaine, ex-Panic guitarist, was looking for a new band. He called Lars and convinced him to give him the gig.
But a last-minute decision had Lars frantically calling a friend of his, Lloyd Grant, to do the other lead that he and James felt was essential. So they drove to Lloyd's house, mixed the solo in on one take, and headed for the studio where Slagel was waiting to add it to Metal Massacre.
"I remember we had this four-track recorder. It had tracks for drums, bass, guitar, and vocals. Because there were no vocals in certain parts of the song, we could punch a lead in on the vocal track. I remember we wanted to get another solo on, so we stopped by Lloyd's house and hooked up some little fuckin' amp and just ripped through a solo. It was the first take. We went into the studio, and that solo ended up on the record. It's a fuckin' great solo, man!" -James Hetfield
Metallica's first show ever was on March 14, 1982, in Anaheim, California at Radio City.
On March 28 they opened up at the Whisky-A-Go-Go on British metal band Saxon's "Denim And Leather" tour. After that show received a substandard response from the audience, Metallica decided it was time to try and play with another guitarist for their next show on April 23 at The Concert Factory in Costa Mesa.
"It was really funny. The rhythm gutarist [Brad Parker, who went by the pseudonym of Damian Phillips and after appearing with Metallica only once, went on to join a band called Odin] hadn't played in a while, and was freaking out when the club announcer called us on stage. He goes running onto the stage, rarin' to go, and we're up there tying our shoes and shit, still tuning our guitars." -James Hetfield
Saxon's drummer at the time was a guy named Pete Gill. That was to be his last tour with Saxon, because in 1983 he joined another band that had quite possibly the biggest effect (or close to it) on Metallica. That's right, Motörhead. He played on the albums No Remorse (1984), and Orgasmatron (1986).
Up until this point, James hadn't been very comfortable with playing while singing when Metallica were playing live at clubs and such, but he finally assumed his dual role at their gig at Lars' high school, Backbay High, on May 25, 1982. The set included "Hit The Lights," "Blitzkrieg," "Killing Time," "The Prince," "The Mechanix" (whose perverted lyrics eventually evolved into the apocalyptic "The Four Horsemen"), "Let It Loose," "Jump In The Fire," "Motorbreath," "Am I Evil?" and "Metal Militia." Lars wrote down after the show, in his less-than-perfect spelling and punctuation, "Crowd: 200 --> 40 Pay: 0 Remarks: Absolutely a day to forget!! Played like shit went down like shit and sounded like shit. Really awfull"
Metal Massacre was finally released on June 14, and along with Metallica (misspelled on the sleeve as "Mettallica" with Ron McGovney as "Ron McGouney"), and it included Steeler, Bitch, Malice, Ratt, Avatar, Cirith Ungol, Demon Flight, and Pandemonium.
"They say that if they'd never had the opportunity to be on that album, they might not have been a band," boasts Brian Slagel of the album that was meant to (and did) jumpstart their career. "At the time, they were completely against everything that was going on in L.A. They would have had nowhere to play. All of a sudden, Metal Massacre gave them an incentive to appear on record and be a 'real band,' so to speak."
Metallica needed to present recorded material to get another certain live gig, so they recorded a demo, later known as Power Metal. There's no official title for this demo, but the name of Power Metal stuck, coming from some early business cards that were printed up for Metallica.
They re-recorded four tracks: "Hit The Lights," "Mechanix," "Jump In The Fire," and "Motorbreath" in April of 1982. This new version of "Hit The Lights" appeared on the second pressing of Metal Massacre.
They played as a five-piece band for the first time on May 28, 1982, with Jeff Warner on vocals. (He didn't last long - Metallica thought he didn't look cool enough so they quickly did away with him.)
A guy named Mike was hired as an emergency replacement for about a week, but was soon kicked out with nothing more than a mediocre story to tell his grandkids.
On July 7, 1982 the demo No Life 'Til Leather was recorded, featuring Mike's replacement - a fiery-haired, sharply talented, and unfortunately, spotlight-hungry - Dave Mustaine. No Life 'Til Leather was never officially released, but copies were made and spread like crazy. It included "Hit The Lights," "Mechanix," "Motorbreath," "Seek And Destroy," "Metal Militia," "Jump In The Fire," and "Phantom Lord."
For a while, James had thought about having another person do vocals so he could concentrate on his guitar playing. One person he seriously considered was John Bush, of Armored Saint and Anthrax fame. This idea didn't go over very well with the rest of Metallica, so it was put on the back burner for the time being.
In August of 1982 Brian Slagel told them about an outstanding bassist named Cliff Burton from the San Francisco-based band Trauma. Metallica saw him play at the Whisky-A-Go-Go and knew at once they had to have this genius for their band, who played the bass like it was a lead guitar. Cliff wasn't particularly interested but said he would join if they moved to San Francisco because he hated Los Angeles.
"I could just see them [James and Lars] go, 'Oh my God! Look at that guy!' The thing that struck them most was that while you see lead guitar playing, here was a guy playing lead bass! They thought that was great." -Dave Marrs, Metallica's drum tech
On September 18, 1982 Brian Slagel got Metallica a gig in the Bay Area. The setlist included "Hit The Lights," "The Mechanix," Phantom Lord," "Jump In The Fire," "Motorbreath," "No Remorse," "Seek And Destroy," "Metal Militia," Am I Evil?" and "The Prince." The Bay Area crowd fell in love with Metallica and the kids headbanged along with 'em on stage. They had to follow up this first show with numerous other gigs there, and Metallica soon had a large and loyal group of followers they nicknamed "The Bay Area 'Bangers".
"The L.A. audiences thought Metallica were a punk band, although even the punk bands weren't as fast as this." -Brian Slagel
On November 29, 1982 Metallica played their first headlining gig ever at The Old Waldorf in San Francisco, with a band called Exodus. Among Exodus' members was one Kirk Lee Hammett on guitar, a former 5-year student of guitar genius Joe Satriani, who had also taught former Van Halen member David Lee Roth and guitarist Steve Vai. Born in the California neighborhood of El Sobrante, Kirk started guitar when he was 15 years old with money he had earned working at a local Burger King saved up to buy his first black Gibson Flying V. He bought it used in 1979 for $150 - it was a 1974-75 model and has now joined the retired ranks of James' white Flying V.
This was the first time Metallica met Kirk. It was also Dave Mustaine's first show with Metallica. The show was recorded and is now known as the Live Metal Up Your Ass demo.
On November 30, 1982 Metallica's gig at Mabuhay Gardens was officially Ron McGovney's last show with them. They felt that Ron wasn't pulling his own weight in the band and that he wasn't taking it seriously. James had told a friend on the phone that he and the rest of the band were deciding to tell Ron that they wanted to get Cliff in the band. Ron’s girlfriend at the time found out and told Ron - he quit and made it that much easier for the rest of Metallica. December 28 of 1982 was Metallica's first jam session with Cliff Burton.
"...we came up here and played with Cliff, who just blew the doors off of anyone we've ever played with. He's the new Steve Harris of metal." -Dave Mustaine
In 1983 John and Marsha Zazula, record shop owners on the east coast, invited Metallica to record a demo. Metallica jumped at this opportunity, and got in a van and drove 3,000 miles across the country to record Metal Up Your Ass. The Zazulas also tried to get them a legitimate record contract. That failed, so Metallica's lovingly nicknamed 'Johnny Z' just founded his own record label, Megaforce Records, and signed Metallica as his first band.
While making their first album, Metallica were living at the Zazulas' house and they inevitably raided the Zazulas’ liquor cabinet. They bottomed out the last of the vodka while Johnny Z and Marsha were out of the house - and found a bottle of champagne. Not knowing that it was from the Zazulas’ wedding, they drank it too. When the Zazulas returned, they were infuriated! Metallica were kicked out of their house and ended up living in the Music Building in Queens, which was nothing more than a former furniture warehouse. Anthrax was living there as well - the 2 metal bands soon formed a friendship that has lasted to this day and spawned some great shows with the 2 bands as well.
On March 5, 1983, Cliff Burton played his first gig with Metallica at The Stone in San Francisco.
"When I started, I decided to devote my life to it and not get sidetracked by all the other bullshit life has to offer." -Cliff Burton
That same month Metallica went to New York to play some gigs that Zazula had gotten them. During this trip Dave Mustaine's drinking problems put a lot of stress on him and his fellow band members, and the long-standing rivalry for the spotlight between Dave and James only augmented the problem. On April 1, Metallica called Kirk Hammett and asked him to audition. He thought someone was playing an April Fool's trick on him, but answered yes anyway. Kirk realized they were serious when they called him back the next day.
The morning after supporting Venom at a show in Vandenburg, they asked Dave to leave. His last gig with them was at L'Amours in Brooklyn, New York on April 9, 1983. At that time, Kirk was already on his way over to audition.
Mustaine left, but he was not to disappear. He went on to start his own band, Megadeth, who have had considerable success to this day.
"At the audition the guys kept smiling at each other. I was like, 'Do they think this is funny? Or are they perpetually happy people?'" -Kirk Hammett, 1983
Kirk's first gig with Metallica was in New Jersey on April 16, 1983.
May of that same year saw Metallica going into Music America studios in Rochester, New York to record their first album, Kill 'Em All, originally found on the Megaforce Records label. Kill 'Em All was originally intended to be titled Metal Up Your Ass, and its cover would have featured a hand holding a huge knife coming up out of a toilet, but the record distributors didn't quite take a shine to that rude title or the album's creative cover artwork, so Metallica changed it to its current title in anger at the distributors themselves. And as if to electrocute them as well, James designed the now-famous lightning-bolt Metallica logo.
Kill 'Em All was then released. June 27 of 1983 saw Metallica starting a two-month tour with Raven that ended on September 3, 1983. The tour was entitled "Kill 'Em All For One" because Raven's latest album at the time was entitled All For One.
In October through December of 1983 Metallica was writing new material for their next album. They were also headlining 3 shows on November 25-27 with Armored Saint in Palo Alto, Berkeley, and San Francisco. They then headed to Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Jersey. This tour was when Kirk’s friend John Marshall became his roadie.
On January 14, 1984 in Boston, Metallica’s equipment was stolen. And we’re not talking just a few picks and sticks here. Their whole Ryder truck full of guitars and amps was stolen. They were cold, poor, and now their most prized possessions had been stolen. This was right before their first European tour. This event is supposedly what inspired the song "Fade To Black" from the next album, Ride The Lightning.
Metallica visited Europe for the first time in February of 1984. They went on the "Seven Dates Of Hell" tour supporting Venom (of whom James is a huge fan - his favorite album of theirs is Welcome To Hell, hence the tour title) which started in Zurich, Switzerland and covered Italy, Germany, France, and Belgium, and finished with the Aardschok Festival in Zwolle, Holland on February 11. Aardschok is Dutch for "earthquake" - and the title of a metal magazine as well. During this tour, the British label Music for Nations released the Jump In The Fire EP on February 20 to promote the tour, and in the States the Garage Days Revisited EP was released.
The summer of 1984 was blown apart by Ride The Lightning, released on June 27th on Megaforce Records. The French printing of the CD case cover was mistakenly printed green. It starts out with acoustic guitar and sounds a lot like your mom and dad's classical music CDs. But it soon rips into the usual Metalli-fury that fans are used to. "The Call Of Ktulu," the album’s masterpiece instrumental, was originally slated to be titled "When Hell Freezes Over" and was co-written by Dave Mustaine before he left Metallica. While the album didn't make the U.S. charts, it made those in the U.K. at #87. The first single from Ride The Lightning, "Creeping Death," had covers of Diamond Head’s "Am I Evil?" and Blitzkrieg’s "Blitzkrieg" as B-sides.
While recording Ride The Lightning, James again considered hiring a vocalist to take his place as frontman. But this time Metallica actually approached John Bush about the matter - and he turned them down.
That year, Metallica played at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. There were a lot of record company bigshots there - and among those were people from Q-Prime. Metallica knew that it would be best if they went with bigger management, because John Zazula was a small independent businessman and Metallica was obviously getting too big for him to handle, and he supported their decision. Q-Prime got Metallica a deal with Elektra Records, who they've been with to this day.
On June 26, 1985 James broke his wrist in a skateboarding accident. The next show in Adamsville was canceled, and for the rest of the tour James sang with his arm in a sling while John Marshall, Kirk's guitar roadie and then-member of the band Metal Church, stood in for him on guitar.
On August 17, 1985 Metallica performed for the first time on the famous "Monsters Of Rock" festival tour at the Castle of Donington in Donington, England. This was where they acquired their legendary nickname: A fan had worn a homemade t-shirt that featured the cover of Kill 'Em All altered slightly with the sledgehammer-covered-in-spilt-blood artwork changed to a vodka bottle spilling its contents, the band's name changed to Alcohollica, and the album's name changed to Drink 'Em All. Soon after, Metallica had a photo shoot with them and a giant bottle of vodka featuring the name Alcohollica on the label.
Metallica were placed amongst some of the finest examples of 80's bands: ZZ Top, Ratt, Bon Jovi, Marillon, and Magnum at the 'Fest. James distinguished Metallica from the rest of them: "If you came here to see Spandex, eye makeup, and the words 'oh baby' in every fuckin' song, this ain't the fuckin' band!"
Between September and December of 1985, Metallica was in Copenhagen, Denmark at Sweet Silence studios recording their third album, entitled Master Of Puppets, whose title track was Cliff's favorite Metallica song. It was released in March of 1986 and hit #29 on the U.S. charts, and #4 in the U.K. The "Ultimate Sin" tour with Ozzy Osbourne started on the 27th of March, being their last tour as a supporting band. In September of that year, while the Ozzy tour was coming to a close, Metallica took a few nights off from Ozzy and went around Europe headlining for a few nights. But Metallica's tour supporting the Master Of Puppets album was cut short by a bus accident in Sweden.
Saturday, September 27th, 1986: Metallica's 2 tour buses were on a deserted road near Ljungby, Sweden, en route from Stockholm to Copenhagen. It was about 6:15 in the morning, and suddenly one of the buses swerved on a curve in the road and skidded about 60 feet until it came to rest in a ditch. Most of the people on the bus got out with only minor injuries, including James, Lars, Kirk, and guitar tech John Marshall. Drum technician Flemming Larsen and roadie Aiden Mullen were pinned under the bus for nearly three hours and roadie Bobby Schneider dislocated his arm. But Cliff Burton never came out. He had been thrown out the window and the bus landed on top of him. A crane was brought to try and lift the bus, but it slipped and the bus fell a second time, and this is what is believed to have killed Cliff. Mick Hughes, Metallica's sound technician, said he didn't even know if Cliff was actually dead at this point. He was only 24 years old.
"...I've never told anyone this, by the way. But um, our manager said, 'Well, why don't we just draw cards?' So we shuffled the cards, said, 'highest card gets first choice of bunks,' so, y'know, I reach for a card, and I pick two of hearts. Cliff reaches for a card - he gets ace of spades. James gets a card, Lars gets a card. So Cliff has first choice of bunks. So he says, 'I want your bunk, Kirk,' and I go, 'Fine, fine,' y'know. So he gets my bunk, I end up with a bunk in the front of the bus, which was like, not as good. And that night the accident happened and it was a horrible thing because Cliff was in my former bunk. What happened that night was, the driver supposedly hit a patch of ice and the bus skidded. It shattered the windows, and Cliff got thrown out of the bus and the bus landed on top of him. And when it actually happened I got thrown out of my bunk and knocked unconscious for like 3 or 4 seconds. And when I got - when I came to, I heard everyone screaming, but I didn't hear Cliff. And I instantly knew something was wrong because I didn't hear him. And I got out of the top of the bus...and I turned around and there was Cliff and I just said, 'Oh my god,' and I walked away and I just - I was in absolute shock. And uh, I was delirious - I was in shock - I was hysterical. Everyone was screaming and crying." -Kirk Hammett [There was no mention of ice on the road in the official police report - it had, in fact, reported the air temperature to be 37 degrees.]
"I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I freaked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for other people. I just went, 'Don't fucking do that!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I don't know if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore." -James Hetfield
"I wasn't too angry in the beginning. I was obviously grieving, but the anger started setting in when I realized that it's not new that people in rock 'n' roll die, but usually it's self-inflicted in terms of excessive drinking or drug abuse. He had nothing to do with it. It's so useless. Completely useless." -Lars Ulrich, January 1987
"He was a great and very special talent...Cliff's solos were absolutely brilliant...There was a huge shadow there. I'd always looked up to him so much." -Jason Newsted
"In Denmark while recording Master Of Puppets, we hung out a lot. We'd go out and play poker for 8 hours straight after being up for 24 hours. We'd find a seafood restaurant that was open, eat raw oysters and drink beer, scream at the natives while we were drunk...that's some of my best memories of him...To this day, I think about him every day." -Kirk Hammett
"I remember this guy lit my couch on fire a couple of times." -James Hetfield
"When I first joined the band, I remember thinking how weird Cliff was. I had actually seen Cliff before in a band called Easy Street...Cliff's amp blew up during that show, so he just sat in front of his amp and headbanged." -Kirk Hammett
"He was a wild, hippie-ish, acid-taking, bell bottom-wearing guy. He meant business, and you couldn't fuck around with him. I wanted to get that respect he had. We gave him shit about his bell bottoms every day. He didn't care. 'This is what I wear. Fuck you.' He loved music. He was really intellectual but very to-the-point. He taught me a lot about attitude." -James Hetfield
"...the major rager on the four string motherfucker..." -Dave Mustaine
Born Clifford Lee Burton in 1962 on February 10 at 9:38 p.m. to two hippies named Jan and Ray Burton, he grew up to become one of the greatest bass players to ever walk the earth. The fans loved Cliff. His huge grin, wild, whipping hair, and infamous Misfits-t-shirt-and-bell-bottom outfits were sorely missed, and impossible to replace.
"I don't think I ever saw music move Cliff the way the Misfits did. When Cliff drove to the pier, he would play the Misfits. He would headbang and drum on his steering wheel, to the point of breaking the wheel. There was pieces of it to drive with. He had it all duct-taped together. Whenever Cliff played his Misfits tapes, he just went wild. Just like fuckin' yelling, screaming, spitting, and headbanging. The Misfits were a great moment in his life. I think he enjoyed the Misfits more than anything else, period." -Dave DiDonato, Cliff's friend
"Cliff had a way of commandeering the tape player in any vehicle." -Kirk Hammett
"...He just seemed to always know his path, and his reason for being here..." -Audrey Kimball, Cliff's friend
On September 29, 1986 James, Lars, and Kirk returned to the U.S., horrified and saddened by this terrible loss.
Cliff's funeral and cremation were held on October 7, 1986, in his hometown of Castro Valley at his home, the Maxwell Ranch.
"We [several people and family] stood in a large circle with Cliff's ashes in the center. Each of us walked into the center and took a handful of him and said what we had to say...Then he was cast onto the earth, in a place he loved very much." -Dave DiDonato
