Metallica History

February 10, 1962: Birth of Cliff Burton, bassist for Metallica's first three albums.

November 18, 1962: Birth of Kirk Hammett, Metallica’s lead guitar, in San Francisco, California.

March 4, 1963: Birth of Jason Newsted, Cliff Burton’s replacement, in Battle Creek, Michigan.

August 3, 1963: James Hetfield, Metallica’s vocalist and band co-founder, is born in Los Angeles, California.

December 26, 1963: Birth of Lars Ulrich, drummer and band co-founder, in Copenhagen, Denmark. He lives there until the late '70s, when his family moves to Newport Beach, near Los Angeles.

1973: Lars, aged 9, goes to his first concert, a Deep Purple gig in Copenhagen. Inspired by the music, he starts collecting Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy albums. He goes on to discover the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) and other bands such as Iron Maiden and Saxon, all of which influenced him.

Late 1976: Lars is given his first drum kit by his Grandparents.

1980: Aged 17, Lars visits Britain to see a Diamond Head concert. Returning to LA, he decides to form his own NWOBHM band.

Early 1981: Trying to find musicians, Lars puts an ad in a paper called The Recycler. Coincidentally James Hetfield also had an ad in the same paper, and they get together jamming. They decide to form a band. Metallica got its name when San Francisco-area metal promoter Ron Quintana asked Lars to help choose a name for his new magazine. Quintana came up with a list that included Metallica, but Lars suggested Metal Mania, keeping Metallica for the band he and Hetfield had just formed.

Late 1981: Metallica contributes the song “Hit the Lights” to a compilation LP called Metal Massacre 1, featuring metal bands from LA. The band then included Lars on drums, James playing rhythm, bass and vocals, and Lloyd Grant on lead.

January 1982: Dave Mustaine, a friend of James, joins the band on lead guitar. Ron McGovney, another friend, also joins to play bass.

March 1982: Metallica is the opening act for Saxon at the Whiskey A Go Go in LA. The show, including covers of Savage, Diamond Head and Sweet Savage, was a resounding success.

April 1982: Metallica record a 4-song demo featuring "Hit The Lights", "The Mechanix," "Jump In The Fire" and "Motorbreath."

May 1982: Metallica opens as a 5 piece band at The Concert Factory in LA, with James only singing, and Jeff Warner on rhythm. But the line-up didn’t work out and Jeff, who wanted to play lead, left the band which then returned to the previous line-up.

July 1982: The band records "No Life 'Til Leather", featuring the songs from their first demo plus "Metal Militia," "Seek And Destroy," and "Phantom Lord".

August 1982: Lars and James first see Cliff Burton and his band Trauma, playing at the Whiskey A Go Go, They are so impressed that they want Cliff to join Metallica. He at first refuses, then later on agrees, but on condition that Metallica relocates to San Francisco.

September 1982: Metallica establish a strong following in San Francisco by playing at the Keystone, with the other bands on the Metal Massacre 1 compilation. Soon afterwards they are playing all over San Francisco.

October 1982: Metallica support the band Laaz Rockit in San Fransico.

November 11, 1982: Metallica support Y&T at the Woodstock festival in LA.

November 29, 1982: Metallica headline in the Bay Area. The supporting act was Exodus featuring the 20-year old Kirk Hammett.

November 30, 1982: Metallica play their last concert with Ron at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco.

December 1982: James, Lars and Dave move to San Francisco, moving in at 3132 Carlson Boulevard, the home of soundman Mark Whitaker.

January 1983: The band is invited to do some gigs on the East Coast by Johny "Z" Zazula, a record store owner/concert promoter from New Jersey.

February 15, 1983: Metallica complete their move to San Francisco.

Late February, 1983: Metallica, now with Cliff Burton, record a two track demo featuring the songs "No Remorse" and "Whiplash."

March 5, 1983: Metallica play their first gig with Cliff at the Stone in San Francisco.

Late March, 1983: The band, along with Mark Whitaker, make the 3,000 mile trip to the East Coast. On the way over Dave has many arguments with the others, mainly over his drinking habits.

April 1983: In New York, James and Lars decide to remove Dave from the band. Following a series of shows with Vandenberg and The Rods on the East Coast, Dave gets sent home via Greyhound bus, and Kirk Hammett of Exodus is flown in as a replacement.

May 1983: Metallica records "Kill Em All" in the Barrett Alley Studios in Rochester, New York.

July 1983: "Kill Em All" is released on Megaforce Records in the US, and Music For Nations and Roadrunner in Europe.

July 27-September 3, 1983: the band start their first tour along with Raven (who shared the same label). The tour began in New Brunswick and finished with a sell-out show at the Stone in San Francisco.

December 1983: The band begins working on their second album in New Jersey. The songs assembled include "Fade To Black", "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "Trapped Under Ice." On weekends, they play a series of headlining shows along with Anthrax. However, after the last show, most of their gear gets stolen.

Early February 1984: Metallica embark on the Seven Dates Of Hell tour supporting Venom. The highlight of the tour is at the Aardschok festival in Zwolle, Holland, where they played in front of 5,000 fans.

Late February 1984: Metallica goes to Copenhagen, where they stay in Merciful Fate's rehearsal rooms and work on tracks for the next album. The band works with producer Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios in the same building to begin recording the LP

March 1984: The band takes a break from recording and visit England, where Music For Nations has organised a tour as support to The Rods. However, as soon as the band arrive in the UK, they learn that the tour had been cancelled due to poor advance ticket sales. Un-able to get back into Sweet Silence Studios to complete work on the LP, they play two sold-out shows at the Marquee club in London on March 14 and 27.

June 1984: Metallica finish work on Ride The Lightning and play four shows with Twisted Sister.

August 1984: The band play a showcase gig in New York, featuring Anthrax (openers) and Raven (headlining). Attending the show are Cliff Burnstein of Q-Prime Management, and Michael Alago of Elektra Records, both of whom went away impressed by the band. Metallica soon becomes managed by Q-Prime, as well as a recording artist for Elektra. Initially issued through the Megaforce label, Ride The Lightning is eventually re-released through Elektra.

November 18-December 20, 1984: Metallica start their first major European tour, with Tank supporting, in Paris, France, and ending at the Lyceum in London. An average of 1,300 fans attend each show.

Early 1985: The first three months of the year are spent in gigs co-heading with W.A.S.P., with Ammored Saint supporting, to promote Ride the Lightning.

August 1985: The band play in front of 70,000 at the Castle Donnington festival in England. A week latter they perform before 90,000 in Oakland, California at the Days On The Green festival.

September 14, 1985: Metallica play a new song, "Disposable Heroes", at the Metal Hammer festival in Germany.

December 27, 1985: They finish work on Master Of Puppets and return to San Francisco

New Year's Eve 1985: Metallica plays the Civic Centre in San Francisco, alongside Megadeth, Metal Church and Exodus.

January 1986: Master Of Puppets is mixed in LA followed by a press tour of Europe prganised by Lars. Meainwhile, back at home James and Cliff form a new band called Spastic Children, featuring Fred Cotton on vocals, Jack McDaniel on guitar, Cliff on Bass, and James on drums.

March 1986: Release of Master Of Puppets, followed by the band touring the US, supporting Ozzy.

June 26, 1986: James breaks a wrist whilst skateboarding. For the rest of the tour, James can only sing so Kirk's roadie, John Marshall, takes over rhythm guitar.

September 10, 1986: Metallica headline at the Hammersmith Odeon in London UK, with Anthrax supporting.

September 27, 1986: Cliff Burton is tragically killed in a bus crash on the way to Copenhagen.

October 1986: The rest of the band return to America shocked at the tragedy of Cliff’s death. They start auditioning new bassists. Jason Newsted of Flotsam & Jetsam is given the job.

November 8, 1986: Metallica plays their first gig with Newsted at the LA Country Club.

November 9-14, 1986: The band start touring Canada and East Coast USA, with Metal Church supporting.

January-February, 1987: Metallica and Metal Church tour Europe, playing in Eastern Europe for the first time.

August 1987: Metallica warm up for the European Monsters Of Rock festival at London's 100 club. They ho on to do 3 gigs in Europe: Donnington, Nürnberg and Pfordsheim. They then release Garage Days Re-Revisited.

December 1987: The band releases a video titled "Cliff Em All" a tribute to Cliff Burton, including a collection of
bootleg and amateur recordings made during 1982-86. Within 2 months it goes gold, then platinum. By the end of 1988 the Metallica video becomes the year's top-selling music home video.

January 1988: The band begin recording their fourth album, And Justice For All.

May 1988: The recording of And Justice For All is completed and mixing begins. Then commences preparations for a 2 month tour as part of the US Monsters Of Rock series. The tour commences on May 27 in East Troy, Wisconsin.

July 1988: Master Of Puppets goes platinum

September 5, 1988: And Justice For All is released

September 11, 1988: The band play a sold-out gig in Budapest, Hungary, promoting the new album.

November 15, 1988: Another US tour begins, starting in Toledo, Ohio, with Queensryche opening.

December 6, 1988: In LA, Metallica film their first-ever video, titled "One" ,the day before beginning their two-night appearance at the Long Beach Arena.

February 5, 1989: Metallica's show at the Reunion Arena in Dallas is broadcast nationally via the Z-Rock radio network.

February 22, 1989: "One" is shown on national TV as part of the Grammy Awards, where the band was nominated in the Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Group. Jethro Tull were to win.

October 8, 1989: Metallica ends their Damaged Justice tour in Sao Paulo, Brazil

January 1990: The band record the Queen song "Stone Cold Crazy", which becomes part of a compilation LP celebrating Elektra Records' 40-year Anniversary.

May 1990: Metallica play several European festivals alongside Warrior Soul and Dio, make a couple impromptu appearances at London's Hippodrome and a secret gig at The Marquee (but using the name Vertigo).

June 1990: The band plays some stadium shows with Aerosmith and Warrant in New York state and Canada.

July-September, 1990: Work begins on the 5th album.

Early October 1990: The band go into One On One Studios in LA with producer Bob Rock to begin recording 12 songs for their next album.

October 1990 - July 1991: Work continues on the album so as to get it sounding just right. The LP is remixed 3 times.

August 12, 1991: Release of "The Black Album". In the first week, it sells over 600,000 units in the US alone, debuting at #1 on the Billboard Pop Chart, and remaining there for a month.

1991-1993: Following the success of "The Black Album", the band plays more than 300 shows in 37 countries.

February 1991: Metallica wins a Grammy for "Best Heavy Metal Performance" for their rendition of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy", on Elektra's Rubaiyat compilation.

Summer 1992: Metallica tours with Guns N Roses

Summer 1994: The next tour: Shit in the Sheds.

October 1994: James and Lars begin work on Load.

February 15, 1995: Metallica plays for KNAC-FM, as part of the station’s last day on the radio.

February 1995: Metallica and Bob Rock enter The Plant studio in Sausalito, California to begin recording Load. They produce sufficient material to fill a double album, so they decide to release Load as a 70-minute CD and wait another year to release the second CD.

December 14, 1995: Metallica honour Lemmy from Motorhead at his birthday bash at the Whisky. They play under the name "The Lemmys," and perform a set of Motorhead covers, in Lemmy garb.

June 4, 1996: Load is released.

June 1996: The Metallapalooza tour begins with Metallica and Soundgarden headlining, and other band including the Ramones and Rancid in support.

Summer/Fall 1996: Metallica Tours Europe

November 13, 1996: Metallica recorded 3 live songs for the TV program "Later With Jools Holland," on the British channel BBC2. Among the songs were "Wasting My Hate," "Mama Said," and "King Nothing." They played the songs live. It was broadcast on November 16th.

November 18, 1996: The single Mama Said is released world wide.

November 18 & 19, 1996: Metallica play Helsinki, Finland, with Apocalyptica opening.

January 17, 1997: King Nothing premiers on MTV.

January 26, 1997: Lars is married to his long time girlfriend, Skylar. He had previously announced that they weren’t going to marry so that the ceremony wouldn’t be interrupted.

January 27, 1997: Metallica perform King Nothing on the AMA and win best metal/hard rock album.

August 22-24, 1997: Metallica take a break from recording to play 3 festivals in Europe. First, the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt, Belgium. Day two at the Blindman's Ball Festival, Stuttgart, Germany. Day three at the Reading Festival, UK.

October 6, 1997: To promote ReLoad, Metallica decided to hold a free concert, but they couldn’t decide on a venue. They decided to give their fans some details and a free-phone number to call in to make suggestions. An incredible 120,000 Metallica fans called in.

October 20/21, 1997: The band shoot the "Memory remains" video at Van Nuys Airport, LA. It cost them about $400.000.The video features the group in a huge revolving, and equally expensive, box. The video premiered the following month on MTV's Mattrock.

October 26, 1997: The final day for the fans to call in to suggest a place for the free concert. The band end up playing in the CoreStates Arena parking lot in Philadelphia.

November 7, 1997: The southern Philadelphians that didn't want the concert to take place go to court to try to stop the free show, but to no avail.

November 11, 1997: Metallica's free concert, called the "Million Decibel March," was a great. They opened up with Jaymz playing the famous ESPN Sportscenter music on his guitar. a local newspaper called the Philadelphia Inquirer said this about the show: "It was part burlesque show, part rugbymatch, and hearing-loss loud. The band was profane on stage and charming before the show. Police pronounced the fans better behaved than a Philadelphia Eagles crowd. And neighbours who feared the worst from the self-styled Loudest Band in the World complained more about the sound from the news choppers circling overhead."

November 12, 1997: The single Memory Remains is released in America.

November 13, 1997: The band play a free show at London's premier night spot, Ministry Of Sound, to promote Re-Load.

December 6, 1997: Metallica perform live on Saturday Night Live.

March 1998: The tour promoting Reload starts in Asia. The tour also includes Australia.

March 1998: The live film is completed, 52 minutes of which is released for launch parties world-wide.

June 23 1998: Rehearsals begin for the forthcoming "Poor re-touring me 98" tour. It starts the following day in West Palm Beach, Florida, and ends the 13th September in San Diego, California.

August 15, 1998: Lars becomes a father as Skylar gives birth to a baby boy, Myles Ulrich, at 4:15 am in New York City.

September 14, 1998: The day after their last show in San Diego, the band record the new songs on their "Garage Inc." CD.

October 18, 1998: Metallica play a 45 minute gig at the Playboy party at the Playboy Mansion, LA.

October 21, 1998: The band go into Raleigh Studios, LA, to record the video for their version of Bob Seger's Turn The Page, for coming Garage Inc. album. The clip is directed by Swedish director Jonas Akerlund (who also filmed Madonna's Ray of Light video and Prodigy´s Smack my Bitch).

November, 1998: Metallica file a lawsuit against online store Amazon.com over the bootleg album entitled "Bay Area Thrashers: The Early Days."

November 19/20, 1998: Metallica hold gigs to promote the release of Garage Inc: The Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, followed by the State Theatre, Detroit, MI.

January 1999: Metallica file suit against Victoria's Secret and Victoria's Secret Catalogue, citing trademark infringement, false designation of origin, unfair competition, and dilution of brand.
The following is from the lawsuit: "Victoria's Secret manufactures and sells lip pencils bearing the mark Metallica. The packaging for Victoria's Secret's Metallica lip pencils also bear the mark Metallica.

January 25, 1999: Whiskey in the Jar video and singles are released. The single is part of a 3 CD set where parts 2 and 3 are limited to 10,000 copies.

February 24, 1999: The 41st annual Grammy Awards are announced. Metallica’s "Better Than You" wins the Best Metal category.

March 16, 1999: The Recording Industry Association of America give Diamond awards to AC/DC, The Eagles and Metallica. The Diamond award goes to single titles that sell 10 million or more copies, and Metallica are awarded it for the Black album. This is the first time the Diamond Award is bestowed by the RIAA, and only the top names in the music industry would be able to earn it.
March 20, 1999: Kirk Hammett plays with Swarm, a band formed by several of his friends

April 11, 1999: Metallica start their world tour in Honolulu. They also do two gigs at the Berkeley Community Theatre in San Francisco which later end up on the S&M album. A few dates in South America follow before they go to Europe, ending the tour in Lisbon, Portugal.

April 21-22, 1999: Metallica perform together with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen, the 10 songs later know as S&M.

April 30, 1999: Pantera frontman Phil "Animal" Anselmo join Metallica on stage in Mexico City. The quintet perform Creeping Death before 50,000.

May 23, 1999: At the Dynamo Open Air show, Metallica invite on stage Evan, Billy and Danny from Biohazard, Scott and Ian from Anthrax, and Anthony from Merauder to sing the "die die die", a part of Creeping Death.

June 14, 1999: The Die Die Die My Darling single is released with live tracks recorded at the Roseland Ballroom in New York in November 1998. On the 19th the single is released in Australia, and it is also included as a bonus on an enhanced CD-ROM with video clips from "Turn The Page" and "Whiskey In The Jar".

July 22-25, 1999: Metallica play Woodstock, as they did in 1994.

September, 1999: Power. The HotWeels Turbo racing game is released for the Nintendo64 and Playstation games computers with Metallica’s "Fuel" in the soundtrack on the Playstation edition.

November 19/23, 1999: In conjunction with the new release S&M, Metallica play two live symphony concerts, one in Madison Square Gardens, New York with the New York Symphony orchestra, and the other in Germany with Babelsberger Film Orchester. A short tour follows.

November 23, 1999: The 2CD live album S&M is released in the US. At the same time are also released several Metallica videos on DVD.

December 31, 1999: Metallica, along with Silverdome and Ted Nugent, usher in the new millennium together with a New Year's Eve show in Pontiac, Michigan.

February 23, 2000: The band are awarded another Grammy Award, this time for Garage Inc's Whiskey In The Jar, for Best Hard Rock Performance. This is Metallica's fifth Grammy.

March 20, 2000: The single "No Leaf Clover" is released. 3 different versions are released. Fans can also watch a 45 minute CD-ROM documentary on the band’s symphonic collaboration.

April 13, 2000: In the Last Day Saloon in San Francisco, 11 year old Rueben Moss fronts with 14 year old Evan Moss on drums and backing vocals. Jason sits in on 6 of their songs from their first CD "North Side of the Tree."

April 13, 2000: Metallica, together with E/M Ventures and Creeping Death Music, files suit against Napster and several schools, charging them with copyright infringement, unlawful use of digital audio interface devices and violations of the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act.

April 2000: The radio play for the soundtrack song "I Disappear" for the movie "Mission impossible II" is released within a short time. The song is also available on the net in MP3.

May 2, 2000: The band hold an online chat session with their fans to explain why they brought the Napster case. Prior to this, they make an official statement saying (edited)
" Metallica is suing Napster because we felt that someone had to address this important artistic issue, and we have always been known for taking a leadership role in the fight for artist¹s rights. We were the first band to sue our record company, Time Warner, for the right to control our future. Rather than allowing the record company ­ or any other corporation ­ to own our recordings and compositions, we chose to fight for (and eventually win) control of our music.This issue is no different. Why is it all of a sudden okay to get music for free? Why should music be free, when it costs artists money to record and produce it?"

May 18, 2000: James’ son, Castor Virgil Hetfield, is born at 3:23 PM.

June 1, 2000: Motorhead play at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco. Just before the last song, James Hetfield goes on stage, grabs a guitar and says "These are the godfathers of heavy metal". He then jams with them on Overkill.

June 3, 2000: Metallica perform at the year 2000 MTV Movie Awards, at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. They play "I Disappear" from the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack.

June 26, 2000: The new single "I disappear" is released. It’s also the soundtrack for "Mission impossible 2" and the first track Metallica are to write for a movie. Originally they were requested to play the main theme, but they declined, opting for this did song instead. The album is released on 7th July.

June 23, 2000: Start of a short US tour, beginning in Memorial Stadium, Seattle.

July 7, 2000: The band play in Atlanta without James, since he’s in hospital with slipped discs.

August 2, 2000: The first of 6 "make-up-shows", the band were unable to play full sets when James was injured.

September 6, 2000: Metallica, together with Dr.Dre, contact several universities and asked them to ban "Napster" on their computers.

November 5, 2000: Kirk Hammett among other stars and musicians join forces in a protest march in San Francisco against the increase rental prices for rehearsal studios. All the new internet companies had increased the demand for office premises, so many bands and artists were removed to make way.

November 30, 2000: Metallica are invited to perform at the "VH1 music awards". But instead of playing before the celebrities inside, they play in the parking lot outside for 200 fans and fan club members. The band also win the prize for "Best stage spectacle".

January 17, 2001: Metallica announce that, after 14 years, Jason will leave the band for personal reasons.

February 1, 2001: Recording of the "Who wants to be a millionaire" TV program features Lars in an all-star episode of the game show where each celebrity picks a charity to donate the money to, being guaranteed $32,000 even if they don’t win. Lars goes out on the $64,000 question, but still won the $32,000 which he donates to a hospital for the homeless in San Francisco.

February 11, 2001: MacFarlane Toys shows the Metallica action figures for the first time at the Manhattan's Toy Fair. The models are based on the band during And Justice For All.

June 4, 2002: James, Lars, Kirk, and Metallica's producer for the last few albums, Bob Rock, put on a show in Kimo's in San Francisco. They perform under the name Spun and play several Ramones songs: Commando, Today Your Love Tomorrow The World, 53rd and 3rd, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue. After the tribute songs, the band go into Hit the Lights, Leper Messiah, For Whom The Bell Tolls, and then a new number. The band then play I Disappear, ending with Die, Die My Darling.

August 3, 2002: Metallica launches the ITS website to inform fans on the new album recording process.

January 19, 2003: Metallica make a surprise appearance at the Raiders vs. Bucaneers game playing on a flatbed truck.

February 25, 2003: After three months of auditions, the band announces that Robert Trujillo will replace Jason Newsted as bassist.

June 5, 2003: The 8th Studio Album, St. Anger, is released worldwide after a rushed release originally set for June 10.

August 7, 2003: St. Anger goes double platinum, shipping more than 2 million copies in the US.

September 2003: Metallica portrays Led Zeppelin in the 70th anniversary issue of Esquire Magazine.

November 4, 2003: Madly In Anger With The World tour begins, promoting the St. Anger album.

Jan 26, 2004: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster documentary is presented at the Sundance Film Festival. The film chronicles the lives of the members of the band from the time they started working on their most recent album, St. Anger, to the first show of the 2003 tour. It includes dramatic scenes of the group in therapy, confronting former members Dave Mustaine and Jason Newsted, and dealing with the demands of a newly clean and sober James Hetfield.




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