Metalica Zone

James Hetfield is one of the founding members – and front man – of the world’s leading heavy metal band Metallica.

Hetfield was brought up in southern California in a devout Christian Scientist household. His parents remained devoted to the doctrines of this religion throughout their lives – even when Hetfield’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. Hetfield has said that his anger over his mother’s death has fuelled a lot of the anti-religious sentiment one finds in Metallica’s lyrics.

Hetfield and his pal Lars Ulrich formed Metallica itself in the early 1980s. Hetfield initially did not want to sing; he only planned to play guitar in the new band. After many line up changes and much experimentation, he eventually settled in to becoming the metal band’s front man.

James Hetfield is known for having had an ongoing feud with Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine over the years. Mustaine was originally employed as Metallica’s lead guitarist, but was quickly thrown out of the band after a drunken physical confrontation with Hetfield. It was alleged that the band members could not deal with Mustaine’s erratic behavior, which was tied to his drug and alcohol abuse.

James Hetfield himself acknowledged his problems with alcohol and depression over the years, entering rehab shortly before the band was set to begin recording their 2005 album St. Anger. The making of this album was documented in the filmSome Kind of Monster.

In the year 1992, Hetfield suffered second and third degree burns from a pyrotechnics display gone wrong at a Metallica and Guns n’ Roses concert. As a result, he was unable to play guitar for the rest of the tour, but managed to continue singing.

In Lars Ulrich is the drummer and co-founder of the world famous heavy metal band Metallica. He was born in Denmark to an upper middle class household, and eventually relocated to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue training, as he was a tennis prodigy. His interests quickly shifted to music, however, and his father bought him a drum kit at the age of thirteen. Ulrich credits his interest in music to his father, who took him to a Deep Purple concert at the age of nine.

It was in the year 1981 that Ulrich first met James Hetfield, with whom he would start Metallica that same year. The pair managed to recruit lead guitarist Dave Mustaine via a newspaper advertisement. Mustaine’s tenure in the band was destined to be a short one, however; he was soon kicked out of Metallica for his erratic behavior and substance abuse problems. Mustaine later “retaliated” by forming the band Megadeth, allegedly with the intent of competing with Metallica. In the film Some Kind of Monster,which documents the making of Metallica’s album St. Anger,Ulrich meets and speak with Mustaine face to face for the first time after several years of not speaking to one another

In the year 2000, Ulrich was the subject of fierce criticism when he objected to the fact that file sharing software such as Napster made Metallica’s entire back catalogue available to users for free. Ulrich testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and became the subject of intense hatred among fans and music lovers around the world.

The band Metallica was formed on October 15 1981 by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Starting at the very beginning on February 10 1962 Cliff Burton was born. On November 18 of the same year Kirk Hammett was born. On March 4 1963 Jason Newstead was born. On August 3 James Hetfield was born and on December 26 Lars Ulrich was born. These are the main members in the band Metallica.

It was 1977 when Jason Newstead formed his first band Diamond with Kevin Kendrick, Todd Smiedendorf and Tom Depoy in Niles, Michigan U.S.A. it was also in this year that the Newstead family relocated to Kalamazoo, Michigan. In the September of this year James Hetfield started his first year at Downey high school and befriended Ron Mcgovney who would latter become the first bassist in Metallica.

In 1978 James Hetfield joined his first band Obsession with Jim Arnold, Rich and Ron Veloz. 1979 was the year when James's mother passed away and this led to the family relocating to L.A California.

James formed a band called Phantom Lord in 1980 - 1981 with Jim Mulligan and Hugh Tanner. It was also in this year that James first got together with Lars Ulrich. This happened after replying to an advert in local paper the Recycler where Lars was advertising to find like minded musicians. This lead to the infamous falling cymbal and bad playing experiences. James felt that he couldn't play with Lars at his current skill level.

Ron Mcgovney joined Phantom Lord which renamed to Leather Charm but the band fell apart when the drummer and guitarist left. It was in this year that Lars persuaded friend Brian Slagel to include a band he could get together to have a slot on a heavy metal compilation LP that he was producing. Lars approached James with the idea of forming a band but this time with the offer of getting a song onto a record which would become the "Metal Massacre L.P".

The band METALLICA is formed on October 15 1981.

On October 31 Jason Newstead and Tom Hamlin relocate to Phoenix Arizona from Kalamazoo, MI.

1982 was the year in which Metallica really took off by the end of the year they would have played their first headlining gig, changed their bass player, recorded four demo tapes and had their first appearance on an official record (Metal Massacre).

The first demo that Metallica produced was recorded in January of 1982 it was a one track demo of Hit the Lights Lloyd Grant overdubbed the guitar solo. In March the band recorded their second demo it was a three track demo one original song, the second version of hit the lights and 2 cover songs killing Time / Let It Loose. The band recorded this demo so that they could get the opening slot with Saxon at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in California.

It was on March 14 that Metallica played there first gig at radio city Anaheim in California. The demo that the band recorded proved to be worthwhile as they got the slot opening for Saxon and played there on March 28.

In April Metallica recorded their third demo tape untitled but later to be called "The Power Metal Demos" this demo tape was four original songs the 3rd version of Hit The Lights, The Mechanix, Jump In The Fire and Motorbreath.

Metallica's only appearance as a 5 piece happened on April 23 with Damien Phillips (aka Jeff Warner). James did not want to have to sing and play guitar so the band were looking for a vocalist. James Hetfield played his first gig on rhythm guitar on May 25 at Lars High school at Back Bay Costa Mesa California. It was at this point that Dave Mustaine joined the band he came to replace Lloyd Grant and played lead guitar, the joining with Dave Mustaine brought the band allot more equipment which they needed at that time.

It was on June 14 that the Metal Massacre LP was released it was Metallica's first appearance on an official record the first release of the LP contained a few mistakes though the bands name was miss spelt Mettallica and Lloyd grants name was misspelled as Loydd Grant. Brian Slagel did not have the money to reprint the sleeves and they had to stay as the were.

July 6 marked the start of the recording of the No Life Til Leather demo tape which contained the songs Hit The Lights (version 4), Seek And Destroy, Motorbreath (version 2), The Mechanix (version 2), Jump In The Fire (version 2), Metal Militia and Phantom Lord. This demo was funded by High Velocity Records

Metallica played their first San Francisco gig at the Keystone on September 18. On November 11 the band played at the Woodstock in Los Angeles supporting Y&T but it was on November 29 that Metallica played their first headlining show in San Francisco with Kirk Hammett's band Exodus opening for them. Ron Mcgovney played his last gig with Metallica on November 30 it was at Mabukay Gardens in San Francisco. It was only on December 10 that Metallica and Ron Mcgovney parted company though.

December 28 1982 was the day when Cliff Burton joined Metallica after persuading them to relocate to San Francisco, this was Cliff's deal for joining the band. This led to Metallica musically reaching a stage they may not have reached if Cliff had not joined the band his influence was immediately noticeable.

1983 was the year that Metallica really made an impact. They moved to San Francisco during February and played their first show on March 5 at the Stone a now legendary venue for Metallica. Kirk Hammett's band Exodus opened for them on what was to be Cliff Burtons first gig with Metallica. It was on the move from LA to SF that the band got a little bit, too personal a view into Dave Mustaines life style. It was decided as soon as they reached SF that they needed to have a new guitarist they already knew Kirk Hammett and it was decided to replace Dave with Kirk. On April 1 Kirk Hammett was asked to join the band. Dave Mustaine played his last gig with Metallica on April 9. It was only on April 11 that the band actually told Dave he was out of the band and gave him a coach ticket back home to LA.