PROFILE: Metallica

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1980
A young Lars Ulrich was addicted to the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal), and he tried to put his own band together. At this point, his attempt failed, but he placed an ad in a magazine called Recycler, to which one James Hetfield answered. James and Lars met up to jam, but nothing became of this first meeting.


Summer 81
Lars went to the UK to follow Diamond Head around for 3 months on tour. On his return he secured a deal to record a track for the Metal Blade compilation Metal Massacre. Due to the fact that he didn't yet have a band, he quickly began contacting people. The three members he managed to put together were:
Lars Ulrich (Drums)
James Hetfield (Vocals; Rhythm and Bass Guitars)
Lloyd grant (Lead guitar)


14.03.82.
Metallica's first show ever! At Radio City, in Anaheim, CA.



XX.04.82.
In order to get a certain live gig, Metallica needed to present some of their material, so they recorded a demo, later known as Power Metal . This was recorded with James, Lars, Ron McGovney, and Dave Mustaine. There isn't an actual title for this demo, but when it surfaced as a bootleg, the name stuck. The name comes from some early business cards of the band that Ron printed up.

xx.04.82
They re-recorded four tracks: Hit The Lights, Mechanix, Jump In The Fire, and Motorbreath. This new version of Hit The Lights appeared on the second pressing of Metal Massacre 1 (also the recent re-release).

25.05.82
Metallica played a gig at Lars’ high school, Backbay High School, managing to almost empty the hall.

28.05.82
They played as a five piece band for the first time with Jef Warner on vocals (luckily he didn't last).

14.06.82
The first print of the Metal Massacre compilation album was released, and included Metallica's first take of Hit The Lights. The second print had another version of this track. The album was released by Brian Slagel; this was the first release on his new label, Metal Blade.



06.07.82.
The demo No Life 'Til Leather was recorded. This demo was never officially released, but copies were made and spread like wildfire. Tracks included were:
Hit The Lights
Mechanix
Motorbreath
Seek And Destroy
Metal Militia
Jump In The Fire
Phantom Lord
Line-up was as follows:

Vocals/guitar: James Hetfield
Drums: Lars Ulrich
Bass: Ron Mcgovney
Lead guitar: Dave Mustaine

xx.08.82
Brian Slagel told the band about a great bass player (Cliff Burton) in a band called Trauma that played the Whiskey a Go-Go. James and Lars were not happy with Ron McGovney, and where so amazed by Cliff's playing, that they realized that this was the new bass player for Metallica. Cliff was not interested, but said that he would join the band if they moved to San Francisco, for he thought L.A. was a fucked-up freak show.

18.09.82
To promote the Metal Massacre album, Brian Slagel organized a gig with the bands the San Francisco. This was the first time Metallica played in front of the Bay Area crowd, and it was a crucial job for them. All of the kids joined the headbangers on stage and went nuts. Metallica had to follow up this show with numerous gigs in the Bay Area.



29.11.82.
The guys played at "The Old Waldorf" in San Francisco, with support from a band named Exodus, with one Kirk Hammett on guitar; this was the first time they met him. The show was recorded, and today is known as the Live Metal Up Your Ass demo. They intended to record it through the mixing board, but something went wrong, so instead they set up a boombox in front of the speaker stacks; technically, this recording is an audience recording. Both Metal Up Your Ass and No Life 'Til Leather came with a cassette liner that was written by Lars and contained the track listings and the band logo. This was Dave Mustaine's first show with the band.

30.11.82
Mabuhay Gardens. The last gig with Ron on bass. They soon afterwards asked Cliff Burton to join; upon hearing this, Ron left.

28.12.82
First jam session with Cliff Burton.

xx.01.83
The band is invited by record shop owner Jon Zazula to do some gigs on the East Coast. He also tries to get them a record contract, but when this fails, he founds his own record label, Megaforce Records, and signs Metallica as his first band.

March 83
March of '83 saw them on a journey from SF to New York to play a number of dates organized by Jonny Z of Megaforce Records. During this trip Dave’s drinking problems were getting a bit out of hand. The morning after they played a show in Vandenburg, supporting VENOM, they asked Dave to leave. Meanwhile, Kirk was already on his way over by plane to replace him.

05.03.83
Cliff Burton's first gig with the band, in San Francisco, at The Stone.

16.03.83
The "Megaforce demo" was recorded. This is Cliff Burton's first recording with the band. There are two different stories about this recording, and I'm not sure which version is correct, if either... Story one: the band used this recording (containing Whiplash and No Remorse) to get a contract with Megaforce Records. Story two: the band wanted to capture a recording with Cliff, so they did, and then took the tape to KUSF FM in San Francisco, where it was played over the air.

19.03.83
Live at The Stone in San Francisco. This was the second gig with Cliff, and this show was videotaped. Parts of this show are on the "Cliff 'Em All" video issued by Metallica.

April 83
Lars, James and Dave all re-located to San Francisco, where Cliff lived; he now became a full member of Metallica.

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01.04.83
Metallica called Kirk Hammett and asked him if he would like to join Metallica in New York for an audition. Kirk thought someone played an April Fool's trick on him, and answered "Yes, sure". The next day they called again to supply further details, and he realized that they were serious.



09.04.83
Live at L'Amours in Brooklyn, New York. The last gig with Dave Mustaine.

16.04.83
Having done his audition for Metallica, Kirk was accepted into the band; on this day he did his first gig with them in New Jersey. Exodus, Kirk’s previous band, went on to release some good thrash albums in the 80's and early 90's.

May 1983
They went into the studio to record their first album, Kill 'Em All , produced by Paul Curcio. Originally, this album was to be called "Metal Up Your Ass", but the record distributors refused to release an album with such a name. The name was immediately changed to Kill 'Em All , in reference to the record industry's distributors.

xx.07.83.
Kill 'Em All was released.

27.06.83
Metallica went on the road for a two month tour with Raven for the "Kill 'Em All For One" tour (the Raven album at the time was entitled All for One ). The tour ended on September 3, 1983.

October-December 83.
Metallica spent their time writing new material for the next album, Ride The Lightning .

February 84
The quartet visited Europe for the first time. They went on a tour supporting VENOM, starting in Zurich, Switzerland and covering Germany, France and Belgium, then finishing with the Aardshock Festival in Zwolle, Holland. During this tour, the British label, Music for Nations, released the 'Jump in the Fire' EP to promote the tour.

27.06.84
Ride The Lightning is released by Megaforce records.

November 84
The "Creeping Death" EP is released, featuring the original garage days on the B-side. Included is one cover tune, originally recorded by Blitzkrieg, and one track by Diamond Head. These tracks are now available on the re-release of Kill 'Em All , and garage Inc. Garage Days Re-Revisited is the follow up to this recording.



17.08.85
Performed for the first time at the famous Monsters of Rock festival at Donnington, England. Metallica was squeezed in-between two poser bands, Ratt and Bon Jovi, on the bill. James decided to tell the 70,000 kids what to expect: "If you came here to see spandex, eye makeup, and the words 'Oh baby' in every fuckin' song, this ain't the fuckin' band."

xx.09.85 - 27.12.85.
The band was in Copenhagen again, recording the third album, this time with producer Flemming Rasmussen.

xx.03.86
Master Of Puppets was released.

27.03.86
The tour with Ozzy Osbourne starts. This was a very important tour for Metallica, supporting Ozzy, as their popularity was steadily rising and they were ready to hit the bigtime. This was also their last tour as a supporting act.

26.07.86
Shortly before a gig in Evansville, Indiana, James broke his wrist in the infamous "skateboarding incident." The show was cancelled, and during the rest of the tour James sang with his arm in a sling while John Marshall stood in on guitar. At that time, John Marshall was Kirk’s guitar roadie, as well as a member of the band Metal Church.

27.09.86
It was approaching dawn on Saturday, the 27th of September, 1986. Metallica's two tour buses were making their way along a god-forsaken road that lies somewhere between the Scandinavian cities of Stockholm and Copenhagen. Apart from these vehicles, the route was deserted - there was no one else travelling at that unearthly hour of the morning. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, just before 6:15 a.m., one of the coaches swerved violently to its right and started careening wildly down the wrong side of the road. It was out of control, and a crash was inevitable.
The bus' brief, but horrific, excursion came to a halt some 60 feet further up the tarmac. By this time, the vehicle was on its side and lying in a ditch by the side of the road, near the small Swedish town of Ljungby.



During the unavoidable confusion that followed, the vast majority of the overturned bus' passengers managed to scramble free of the wreckage. Those that emerged included three of the four members of the band. In all honesty, the survivors had been extremely lucky, as they had all somehow managed to escape with little more than minor injuries and shock.

Swedish police arriving on the scene of the crash immediately arrested the driver as a matter of routine, but later released him without charges after further investigation revealed that the cause of the crash was black ice on a nasty bend in the road.

Unfortunately, however, there had been one fatality in the accident...... what is more, the deceased individual turned out to be one of the group. So, tragically, in the short space of those few dreadful seconds on that lonely Swedish road, Metallica's dreamlike existence was suddenly transformed into a hellish nightmare. Their 24 year old bass player, Cliff Burton, was dead.

"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 -1993


29.09.86
The dazed group dealt with their anxiety in the manner with which they were most familiar: drinking. James broke two hotel windows and screamed, venting his rage. Kirk and his guitar tech, John Marshall, were so shaken that they left the light on in their room that night. On this day James, Lars and Kirk returned to the United States.

28.10.86
Jason Newstead goes to an audition, in the hopes to become the new bass player. He learned all the songs in a couple of days, so when the three of them asked Jason what song he would like to play, he said "anyone you like." At the end of the audition, Metallica had five candidates, but invited Jason to have a drink with them at Tommy's Joint. Before leaving the place, the three members went to the loo, and when they came back, they told Jason, "Welcome to Metallica."

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08.11.86
Jason's first gig with Metallica, opening for Metal Church at The Country Club in Reseda. His second gig was the very next night at Jezabelle's in Anaheim.

10.08.87
The EP Garage Days Re-Revisited was released only including cover tunes to introduce Jason on vinyl to the fans. One of the tracks was left off the British version so it could qualify for the singles chart. This masterpiece is no longer available, and is now a rare collector's item.

20.08.87
The band started their European festival tour with a small secret gig at Club 100 in London. Thousands of people showed up, even though the gig wasn't advertised; however, many were denied at the door, as the club only had capacity for a few hundred!

04.12.87
Metallica's first home video, Cliff 'Em All, is released. This is Metallica's homage to their previous bass player. They didn't have any footage from the old shows, so bootleg videos taped by fans were added to the home video.

24.05.88
First show of the American "Monsters of Rock" Festival tour, with Van Halen at the Country Club in Los Angeles.

25.08.88
...And Justice for All is released by Elektra records in September 1988.

11.09.88
First show on the Damaged Justice Tour 88-89 in Budapest, Hungary.



06.12.88
Metallica filmed their first music video, One. They always said that they wouldn’t do a music video, but they now felt that the time was right, and were given maximum artistic freedom from their label.

22.02.89
This year Metallica received a nomination in the heavy metal category for the Grammy Awards. They performed One live at the show, but the award went to Jethro Tull. Metallica didn't seem to care, though; they added a sticker to their album reading "Grammy Award LOOSERS".

20.06.89
The home video "Two Of One" is released.

xx.02.90
Metallica wins a Grammy for Best Metal Performance, for One. While on stage receiving the award, the band gives Jethro Tull a big thank you for not releasing anything this year, as they won last year.

06.10.90
Metallica enters the studio "One On One" in North Hollywood to record their next album. Time passes, and the band is not finished until June 16th of the next year. The album is recorded by Randy Staub and assistant Mike Tacci, and produced by Bob Rock together with Hetfield and Ulrich.

04.11.90
Metallica recorded the track Stone Cold Crazy for an Elektra sampler.

xx.02.91
Metallica wins its second Grammy, for Best Metal Performance for Stone Cold Crazy.

30.07.91
World premiere of the video for Enter Sandman.

01.08.91
First show on the megatour - 'Wherever I May Roam' 91-92-93 at Phoenix Theatre - Petaluma, CA.

12.08.91.
The black album Metallica saw the light of day. Some shops opened the doors at 00:01 in the morning to be the first to sell the black album.



28.09.91.
Metallica went to Russia with AC/DC with Monsters Of Rock tour.The Soviet Union had just collapsed and it was a free show at big former airfield. Metallica was invited by Russian Prime Minister. Tracks from this show can be found on the B side on several singles. 500.000 attended the gig.

xx.02.92
Performed Enter Sandman at Grammys, and won for Best Metal Performance.

26.02.92
World premiere for the video Nothing Else Matters.

20.04.92
Played at "Concert For Life," a tribute show to Freddy Mercury at the Wembley Stadium in London. Metallica played three songs, which were released as a single only days later. All proceeds from this gig and the sales of the single were donated to Freddy Mercury's AIDS fund. The show was also TV broadcasted to the whole world.

09.08.92
James got burned by the pyrotechnics in Montreal, Canada. The next gigs had to be cancelled because James couldn't play the guitar with his burnt hand.

25.10.92
The first time Metallica played So What? live. What obviously made it so cool was that Animal, the vocalist from the Anti-Nowhere League who wrote this song, was dragged up to sing this masterpiece at Wembley Area, London, England.

05.11.92
All four members of Diamond Head were on the guest list this day in Birmingham, England. This started Metallica thinking of the possibility of jamming with them. With two drum sets on the stage, all eight band members played Am I Evil? and Helpless together. The members of Diamond Head are close friends of Lars, for he traveled with them on tour before Metallica was formed. Both of these tracks, and the jam with Animal ten days earlier, are available on the "Metallican vid" that comes in the Metallican-box for ...And Justice For All.

Nov. 92
The two home videos, "A Year And A Half In Ihe Life Of Metallica," parts 1 & 2, were released.

21.01.93
Some people at Elektra suggested that Metallica should come to Manhattan, and transform a record store into their own Metalli-store. The guys liked the idea and opened the store to a flood of fans on this day, selling only Metallica albums and merchandise. A tape was released for this day, and was exclusively sold at this shop on the Grand Opening. The tape consists of a medley recorded in Moscow. It was James who designed the tape cover with a drawing of Scary Guy.

22.01.93
A new tour saw the light of day. The "Nowhere Else To Roam" Tour '93 began in Kalamazoo, MI.

29.11.93
The box set "Live Shit: Binge & Purge" was released containing three CD's, three videos and a book.

28.05.94
'Shit hits the Sheds' starts with a Rehearsal Show in Buffalo, NY.

22.06.94.
Performed live at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Detroit. Glenn Danzig and Chuck Biscuts from Danzig played Last Caress with the band. Last Caress was written by Danzig when he was a member in Misfits.

03.07.94.
Performed live at the World Music Theatre in Chicago. This is Danzig's last show on the tour; Glenn Danzig sings London Dungeon, Last Caress, and Green Hell with the band. Suicidal Tendencies joins the band during So What?

[Taxigirl]

21.08.94
Performed live at the Bicentennial Park in Miami. The last show of the "Summer Shit Tour". Special guest is Rob Halford (ex-Judas Priest, now Fight) who sings Rapid Fire (an old Judas Priest song) with the band.

23.08.95
The tracks 2 x 4 and Devil's Dance are played for the first time in front of an audience at the London Astoria in England. This was a private show, and only members of the fan club were invited. According to Metallica this was the best gig they had ever played. This was also the first date on their short tour "Escape From The Studio" 95.



03.09.95
The Arctic Circle show, sponsored by Molson Breweries in Canada. 500 or so contest winners were invited to the "Coldest Show On Earth," in arctic northern Canada, a place so desolate and frigid that the only way in or out was by charter flights. The show was played in a huge, clover-shaped tent. Using four massive, fuel-burning, heating units they managed to keep the temperature warm enough for the instruments to function!

13.11.95
Metallica performed 7 Motorhead songs (dubbing their performance the "Lemmys") during Lemmy's birthday party at the famous club "Whiskey A Go-Go". This is also the club where Lars and James met Cliff Burton.

xx.12.95 - xx.02.96.
The band went into the Plant studio in Sausalito, California, where they recorded 18 of the 25 tracks due to appear on the new album. Again, Bob Rock is producing.

09.06.96
The four guys played at Slims Club, in San Francisco, for fan club members only. They did three members-only gigs in a row this month.

06-07.05.96
The video for Until It Sleeps was shot at locations around and in Los Angeles.

MAY.96
Our four guys spent time travelling around the world to promote the new album. They conducted numerous interviews, and organized huge listening parties where they would set up a truck full of speakers and play the new album, then sign some autographs for the fans. This occurred all over the world; in the States, Europe, Australia and Japan.

20.05.96
The single Until It Sleeps is released world-wide, excluding Northern America, where the fans would have to wait one more day.

26.05.96.
A huge Metallica listening party was held on the second day of the DYNAMO Festival in Eindhoven, Holland. Metallica's new album, Load, was played through the PA at the festival site for the 60,000+ audience, making this the largest listening party held, ever!! Two band members (probably Lars & Kirk) were at the festival site to present this event, to give interviews, and to promote the new album. Load was released a whole week earlier in Holland than the rest of the world, to make it possible to be sold at the festival. Therefore, Eindhoven was blessed not only with hosting the world premiere, but also with the release of the album for the first time anywhere in the world!



01.06.96
Load is released in Japan only.

03.06.96.
The album is released world-wide.

04.06.96.
The album is released in North America.

11.06.96
Metallica played live for the entire world, via the Internet. The broadcast site was Slim's, a small club in San Francisco, where the Webcast crew beamed the show across the globe, live as it happened, in spycams, music, video, pictures and descriptions.

17.06.96
MTV presented a Metallica contest that was so huge it took four tractor trailers to deliver the prizes to the homes of the four contest winners. The four band members of Metallica hung out with the grand prize winner, met the neighbors, and played some tunes. The contest final was aired July 1.

27.06.96
The American Loolapalooza festival tour starts in Kansas City with Metallica headlining the bill.

12.09.96
Another European tour begins. This time the tour starts in Ostenhalle, Germany.

23.09.96
Recorded the live video of Hero Of The Day in Barcelona, Spain. They weren't using a recording, and 5 seconds before each of the 3 times they played the song, a metronom was introducing the band to the required rythym, and the beeps of it sounded throughout the whole audio system at the stadium. Also, Kirk got 3 or 4 notes wrong on the intro during the first attempt. Moreover, Lars asked the crowd to be more energetic in each one of the new versions they played. So, by the third try, it sounded louder than hell!

13.11.96
Metallica recorded 3 live songs for the TV program "Later With Jools Holland," on the British channel BBC2. Wasting My Hate, Mama Said (James only acoustic) and King Nothing were performed completely live, with no playback.. It was broadcast on November 16th.

14.11.96
Metallica was intoduced to perform King Nothing live on stage at the MTV Europe Video Awards show. The lights went down and the band launched into the song Last Caress followed by So What? A few classic minutes of television to savour. The band was nominated earlier that evening, in the "Best Rock Video" catagory, but the award went to the Smashing Pumpkins. James later said in an interview: We needed to wake people up at the show! We felt it was a little boring, and we had been daring each other to do that for years.

18.11.96
The single Mama Said is released world wide.

18 & 19.11.96
Apocalyptica, the band who released an album containing Metallica covers performed with cellos, opened for Metallica in Helsinki, Finland.

[Taxigirl]

17.01.97
King Nothing premiered on MTV on 1/17/97. It was shot in Salt Lake City, Utah about a month earlier.


26.01.97.
Lars got married to his long time girlfriend Skylar. Apparantly Lars said that thing about them breaking it off was so that they would not get mobbed by fans at the church they got married in.


27.01.97
MetallicA played "King Nothing" on the American Music Awards and won the price for best metal/hard rock album. When they went up to accept their award, Lars said, "I would like to thank this man, James Hetfield, for putting on his best suit and being my best man at my wedding last night."



22.02.97
Ted Nugent was guest star at the gig at Palace Of Auburn Hills. They weren't too happy with him for what he did. Ted basically forced his way into their show, then ruined their moment in the sun (throwing pics and sticks and thanking the crowd).


22.08.97
Metallica played 3 festivals in Europe this summer to get out of the studio for a while. First day was at the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt, Belgium

23.08.97
Blindman's Ball Festival, Stuttgart, Germany

24.08.97
Reading Festival, Reading, U.K.

06.10.97
To celebrate the release of their new album, Metallica wanted to play a concert - for free. The only problem was that they didn't know where! They gave the fans a few details and a 800 telephone number where they could call in to make suggestions. The free concert had to be held on Tuesday, November 11 (Veteran's Day), outdoors as this had to be a big free show for anyone wishing to make the trip. Over 120,000 Metallica fans bombarded a phone lines.

10.10.97
Photo session for the launch of the new album has already took place, and it is a stunning live session by Anton Corbijn. These live photos will be included in the packaging for the new album. There was further two photo sessions prior to the album release, which was for press use.

18.10.97
The 11th Annual Bridge School Benefit Shows at Shoreline Amphitheater, San Francisco. They played an entirely acoustic set which lasted about an hour. Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains came out and played the Lynrd Skynrd song Tuesday's Gone. They also played Lowman's Lyrics for the first time.

19.10.97
The second Annual Bridge School Benefit Show at the save venue. the sets were the same except on Saturday they did not play Low Mans Lyric, instead they played another new tune called "My Eye's". Also on the bill was Kacy Crowley, Blues Traveler's, Lou Reed, Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthew's Band, and Neil Young.

20 & 21.10.97
The band shot the "Memory remains" video in LA, actually at the Van Nuys airport. It costed $400.000.00 and featured the band it a huge box that costed over $100.000.00. The video had it's world premiere on MTV's Mattrock show the 15th of November 1997.



26.10.97
The final day for the fans to call in to teh 800 telefone number and suggest a place where Metallica could play their free show. The "winner"? Philadelphia's CoreStates Arena parking lot.

07.11.97
Neighbors of the Philadelphia's CoreStates Arena parking lot in South Philadelphia are going went court on morning to try to block the free outdoor concert by the "heavy-metal band". It wasVincent Fumo who asked his Harrisburg lawyer, Christopher Craig, to see what he could do. Craig spent all day drafting a request for an injunction that he delivered to Common Pleas.

11.11.97
Metallica's free concert, dubbed the "Million Decibel March," was helt in Philadelphia parking lot and was a great success. For the show's intro, they showed Jaymz playing the famous ESPN commercials' "Da-na-na, na-na-na" from the Sportscenter music on his guitar. Here is what the local newspapaer Philadelphia Inquirer had to say about the show: "It was part burlesque show, part rugby match, 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 neighbors who feared the worst from the self-styled Loudest Band in the World complained more about the sound from the news choppers circling overhead."

12.11.97
Memory Remains single released in America. It has been available in Europe ant the rest of the world for a few weeks

13.11.97
Lars and his bandmates played a free show at London's premier dance venue Ministry Of Sound to launch their new album 'Re-Load'. Prior to the show Lars said in a press release: "I've never heard of the Ministry Of Sound but I'm sure Metallica playing there will making it a hit!"

06.12.97
Metallica performed live on NBC's Saturday Night Live show

Mars 98
The world tour in support of Reload in Asia. Metallica wasn't there on their Load tour, and they did Australia as well.

23 Jun 1998
Rehearsals for the upcomming "Poor re-touring me 98". The tour started the day after in West Palm Beach, Florida, and ended in San Diego, California September the 13th.

15 Aug 1998
Lars becomes a father. Skylar Ulrich gave birth to a baby boy, Myles Ulrich, at 4:15 am in New York City. He was 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 inches

5 Sep 1998
George, WA (The Gorge) Someone in the crowd threw a glass bottle towards the stage and hit Jason in the head! Jason got hurt but came back and finished the show as strong as ever. "We are here to give it all we got but I don t understand why we have to watch out for shit thrown at us during the show. I hope they find that fucker who did it" - James comments to the audience after the incident.

[Taxigirl]

14 Sep 1998
Metallica went straight in to the studio the day after the last show in San Diego. They recorded the new songs on the "Garage Inc." CD

18 Oct 1998
Playboy Mansion, Los Angeles. A 45 minutes gig in front of some of the most beautiful women in the world and other celebrities. Metallica played at the Playboy party



Oct 19 1998
Photo shoot in Los Angeles Metallica spent 6 hours at the old "Ambassador Hotel" together with photographer Danny Clinch. The pictures was ment for the "Garage Inc." cover

21 Oct 1998
Metallica spent Wednesday the 21st recording the video for their version of Bob Seger's Turn The Page from the upcoming 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. It all took place at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles.

Nov 98
Metallica filed a lawsuit against online store Amazon.com over the bootleg album entitled "Bay Area Thrashers: The Early Days." The group is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, in addition to an injunction preventing future sales of the album.

22 Nov 98
Metallica finished the videoshoot for 'Whiskey in the Jar' in Brooklyn, NY in the first week of December 1998.

19 & 20 Nov 98
Metallica perform to promote the release of Garage Inc. The Aragon Ballroom -Chicago the 19th and State Theatre, Detroit, MI on the Nov 20th. According to the industry trade publication Pollstar Metallica made $32 million dollars this year

14 Jan 99
Metallica filed a lawsuit against Victoria's Secret and Victoria's Secret Catalogue, citing trademark infringement, false designation of origin, unfair competition, and dilution.
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. These lip pencils continue to be sold by Victoria's Secret throughout the United States.


25 Jan 99
Whiskey in the Jar video and singles released. The single comes as a 3 CD set where parts 2 and 3 are limited to 10,000 copies

24 Feb 99
41st annual Grammy Award winners announced. Best metal performance: "Better Than You" by Metallica

16 Mar 99
The Recording Industry Association of America gave 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 got it for the black album. The awards was presented at a special ceremony in New York City's Roseland Ballroom with 46 recording artists representing 62 titles.
Until this day, the RIAA has only presented record sales awards for Gold (500,000 units), Platinum (1 million units) and Muti-Platinum® (2 million or more units). The Diamond Award was bestowed for the first time by the RIAA to the biggest names in the music industry.

James Hetfield thanked producer Bob Rock "for making the big noises extra big."


20 Mar 99
Kirk Hammett played with Swarm, a band formed by several of his friends

11 Apr 99
Metallica started their world tour in Honolulu. They also did two dates at the Berkeley Community Theatre in San Francisco which later ended up on the S&M album. A few dates in south America followed before they headed over to Europe where they ended the tour in Lisbon, Portugal. Many festival shows, including the Roskilde festival in Lars' home country Denmark



21 - 22 Apr 99
Metallica and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen perform together the 10 songs later know as S&M at Berkeley Community Theatre.
Gig reports said that ".....thrashier songs as "Battery" the orchestra basically bolsters the sturm und drang by underscoring the powerful themes that drive it. With other numbers, notably "Master of Puppets" and newer tunes like "Devil's Dance," there's more room for interplay between rock and classical elements - horns flash brassily in the mix and percussion peppers the grinding grooves."


30 Apr 99
Pantera frontman Phil "Animal" Anselmo joined Metallica onstage in Mexico City on April 30th. The quintet performed Creeping Death to the delight of 50.000 Mexican fans.

23 May 99
At the Dynamo Open Air show Metallica invited Evan, Billy and Danny from Biohazard, Scott Ian from Anthrax and Anthony from Merauder on stage to sing the "die die die" part of Creeping Death.

5 Jun 99
Metallica had a nice surprise in Milan, Italy. They invited King Diamond and Hank Sherman from Mercyful Fate for the 12 minute long Mercyful Fate medley!

14 Jun 99
Die Die Die My Darling single released with live tracks recorded at the Roseland Ballroom in New York november 1998. In Australia the single was released the 19th and it included as a bonusan enhanced CD-ROM with "Turn The Page" and "Whiskey In The Jar" video clips.

22-25 Jul 99
US Woodstock 1999 which commemorated the 30th anniversary of the original festival held in Bethel, N.Y. Of cource, Metallica played there as they did in 1994.

Sep 99
Power. Performance. Attitude. These are keywords when we do talk about the HotWeels Turbo racing game. And this time they can really call it Powerfull. The game released on Nintendo64 and Playstation Septemer 1999 with Metallicas "Fuel" in the soundtrack on the Playstation edition.

19 & 23 Nov 99
In conjunction with the new release "S&M, Metallica played two live symphony shows, one in Madison Square Gardens, New York with the New York Symphony orchestra, and a show in Germany with Babelsberger Film Orchester. A short tour followed.

23 Nov 99
The 2CD live album S&M released in the states. The date did vary depending on where you lived on the planet. Several Metallica videos were released on DVD at the same time "Cliff 'Em All" and "A Year and A Half... PT 1 & 2".

31 Dec 99
Silverdome, Pontiac, USA . Metallica and Ted Nugent will usher in the next millennium together with a New Year's Eve show in Pontiac, Mich

[Taxigirl]

9 Jan '00
Kid rock joined Metallica on stage in Minneapolis, MN, USA and sang the chorus of Turn the Page along with James. Kid Rock was supporting Metallica on their short mini tour.

23 Feb '00
The big M added another Grammy Award to their collection. This one for Garage Inc's Whiskey In The Jar for Best Hard Rock Performance. This is Metallica's fifth Grammy.



20 Mar '00
single "No Leaf Clover" released. Again there will be 3 different versions of the single. Fans can also watch a 45 minute CD-ROM documentary on Metallica's symphonic collaboration split in 15 minute edits across the single's 3-CD format

13 Apr '00
11 year old Rueben Moss fronts with 14 year old Evan Moss on drums and backing vocals. Jason is to sit in on 6 of their songs from their first CD "North Side of the Tree." The show was at Last Day Saloon in San Francisco.

13 Apr '00
In what marks the first significant blow in the brewing battle between artists and the emerging online music distribution aid Napster, Metallica has filed suit against the tech company.
The metal giants filed suit in U.S. District Court naming Napster, and several schools. The suit charges Napster and the schools in question with copyright infringement, unlawful use of digital audio interface device, and violations of the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act

Napster is still in its relative infancy, but the technology has managed to nestle itself at the center of a media storm (and to raised the ire of the music) during its brief life span. Napster boasts that its technology gives users one simple interface through which to search for and download MP3s of their favorite songs.

Metallica and co-plaintiffs E/M Ventures and Creeping Death Music claim that the company "encourages and enables visitors to its website to unlawfully exchange with others copyrighted songs and sound recordings without the knowledge or permission of Metallica."


25 Apr '00
The radio play for the soundtrack song "I dissappear" for the movie "Mission impossible II" started on the 25th of April. The movie soundtrack was released two weeks later. This song was available on the net in MP3 format prior to this and some radio station even played it before it was official released.

2 May '00
The band did an online chat with the fans to explain why they started the Napster case. Proir to the chat Metallica made 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?"


4 May '00
Kirk Hammett was welcomed on stage to jam with Sammy Hager and the WaboRitas.

18 May '00
the world welcomed James' son Castor Virgil Hetfield at 3:23 PM. He's a big boy at nine pounds and six ounces, and 22 1/2 inches long. Mom and son are doing great.

1 Jun '00
Motorhead played at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco. Right before the last song, James Hetfield came on stage, grabbed a guitar and said "These are the godfathers of heavy metal" and then jammed with them on Overkill.

3 Jun '00
Performed at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards, at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Metallica played "I Disappear," from the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack

26 Jun '00
New single as "I disappear" is released. This is the soundtrack for "Mission impossible 2" and the first track Metallica wrote for a movie. They wanted them to do the theme but said no and this did song instead. The soundtrack album was released 7th of July.

23 Jun '00
Short US tour starts in Memorial Stadium in Seattle

4 Jul '00
A 21-year-old man fell to his death at Baltimore stop on the Summer Sanitarium 2000 tour
The victim, identified as Martin Muscheet of Connecticut, fell from the upper deck of Psinet Stadium on to the pavement outside the venue. It appears he had his legs over the railing and either fell or lost his balance.

[Taxigirl]

7 Jul '00
James wasn't on stage with the band when they played in Atlanta as he were in the hospital with a few disks in his lower back slipped out of place. Here is a review of the show from encycmet.com
As for the show, Kirk, Lars and Jason came out and explained the situation and said that they will be playing again in Atlanta on August 4th to make up for Jaymz's abscence. They came out about 30-45 minutes later in their usual attire and began the show. The show was filled with a lot of guest apperances including members from Kid Rock, System of a down and Korn.


11 Jul '00
Statement of Lars Ulrich before the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate. A few lines of the statement:
To underscore what I've spoken about today, I'd like to read from the "Terms of Use" section of the Napster Internet web site. When you use Napster you are basically agreeing to a contract that includes the following terms:

"This web site or any portion of this web site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose that is not expressly permitted by Napster."


18 Jul '00
The veteran band played a secret gig at the House of Blues for 1,000 contest winners from across the United States, none of whom knew for sure who would be taking the stage until the curtains were pulled back. Before leaving the stage, Lars thanked Miller "for helping pay the rent this month"

2 Aug '00
First of 6 "make-up-shows" since Metallica could't play full set when James was injured. People could enter using the old ticket stub. For these shows Corrosion of Conformity opened for them

6 Sep '00
Metallica and Dr.Dre contacted several universities and asked them to ban "Napster" on the schools computers.

26-27 Sep '00
Rumors said that the band were in the "One on one" studio to start recording on their next CD, but the truth was that they were there to record an episode of VH1's "Classic albums" program.

5 Nov '00
Kirk Hammett among other stars and musician join forces in a protest march in San Francisco against the increase rental prices for rehearsal studios. The new echonomy with all the internet companies made a higher demand for rooms, so many bands and artists were kicked out. Kirk also had a speach at the event.

17 Nov '00
James is know to be a big Misfits fan, and he has been so for more than 20 years. The Misfits played in San Francisco and Mr. Hetfield was in the crowd. He hopped onstage with them during their gig at Maritime Hall to sing with the ghouls on "Last Caress" and, later in the set, "Die, Die My Darling."

30 Nov '00
Metallica was invited to perform at the "VH1 music award" and you know the guys, they always have to do something different. Metallica played at the parking lot outside for 200 fans and fanclub members, instead of playing inside in front of other celebrities. They also won the price for "Best stage spectacle".

Jan '01
Lars is in New York mastering the debut album by Systematic, a band he has signed to his label "The record company". Peter Collins is producing the LP.

17 Jan '01
The news shocks the whole world of Metallica fans, Jason will leave the band! Metallica did a full press-release which said:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2001
11:00AM (EST)

STATEMENT FROM THE MEMBERS OF METALLICA
Metallica regrets to announce that after 14 years as Metallica's bass player, Jason Newsted has chosen to leave the band.

Jason Newsted: "Due to private and personal reasons, and the physical damage that I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love, I must step away from the band. This is the most difficult decision of my life, made in the best interest of my family, myself, and the continued growth of Metallica. I extend my love, thanks, and best wishes to my brothers: James, Lars, and Kirk and the rest of the Metallica family, friends, and fans whom have made these years so unforgettable."

Newsted joined Metallica from Flotsam And Jetsam in the fall of 1986 after the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton. He participated in the recording of 6 Metallica albums (...And Justice For All, Metallica, Load, Re-Load, Garage Inc., and S&M), which have sold over 55 million copies worldwide to date. In addition, he played on numerous worldwide tours to millions of fans representing over 1000 gigs in all. While with Metallica, the band won countless awards including 5 Grammy Awards and 2 MTV Video Music Awards.

James Hetfield: "Playing with someone who has such unbridled passion for music will forever be a huge inspiration. On stage every night, he was a driving force to us all, fans and band alike. His connection will never be broken."

Lars Ulrich: "We part ways with Jason with more love, more mutual respect, and more understanding of each other than at any other point in the past. James, Kirk and I look forward to embracing the next chapter of Metallica with both a huge amount of appreciation for the last 14 years with Jason and the excitement of rising to the challenges that lay ahead to make Metallica shine brighter than ever."

In the spring, Metallica will begin writing and recording a new studio album with release sometime in late 2001 or early 2002.

Kirk Hammett: "Jason is our brother. He will be missed."

1 Feb '01
"Who want to be a millionaire" TV program with Lars Ulrich is recorded at ABC TV's studios. This was an all-star episode of the game show and each celebrity picked a charity to donate the money to, and they were guaranteed $32,000 even if they never hit the seat. Lars got out on the $64,000 question, about a comedy act, but still won $32,000 which he gave to a hospital for homeless in San Francisco. The show was broadcasted on the 11th of February

11 Feb '01
MacFarlane Toys is showing the Metallica action figures to the public for the first time at the Manhattan's Toy Fair. The models are based on the band during And justice for all.

11 Feb '01
James and Lars showed up Sunday night at the Cactus Club in downtown San Jose to watch friends and former tour mates, Corrosion of Conformity perform. Since C.O.C hasnt performed in a few years in Bay area it was no suprise to see James, a long time fan of the band, in attendance. About halfway through the set Hetfield got up on stage and played a song with them.

[Taxigirl]

12 Feb '01
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals discussed Napster again and ended up with the following.

- Napster knew its users were violating copyright laws
- Napster can continue operating until a lower court redrafts its injunction.
- Napster must lock out those users who exchange copyrighted songs without permission as they are infringing on the copyright holders' rights to control the reproduction and distribution of their music.
Hearing this, Metallica made an official statement and posteded on metallica.com It said:

"From day one our fight has always been to protect the rights of artists who chose not to have their music exploited without consent. The court's decision validates this right and confirms that Napster was wrong in taking not only Metallica's music but other artists who do not want to be a part of the Napster system and exploiting it without their approval.

We are delighted that the Court has upheld the rights of all artists to protect and control their creative efforts. The 9th Circuit Court has confirmed that musicians, songwriters, filmmakers, authors, visual artists and other members of the creative community are entitled to the same copyright protections online that they traditionally been afforded offline.

We have never objected to the technology, the internet or the digital distribution of music. All we have ever asked is that artists be able to control how, when and in what form their creativity is distributed through these channels. This is something that Napster has continually refused to do. Now the court has made that decision for them."



9 Feb '01
While there is quiet in the Metallica camp, the members sees their chances to be onstage with other bands and artists. Jerry Cantrell's band played on a local bar in San Francisco. Lars was there to support Jerry and accted as the Guitar roadie, handing up guitars to the guys on stage. Jerry also introduced him to the crowd. Cantrell was once a member of Alice In Chains.

21 Feb '01
Metallica picked the Grammy award for best "Rock Instrumental Performance" for the S&M version of "The Call of Ktulu". This is Metallicas 6th Grammy.

5 Mar '01
The issue of Playboy with the much talked about Metallica interview was released. The interview was done a few months earlier, before Jason told the band he wanted to leave. The journalist had talked to the guys one by one, and the result was not as planed. In the article Metallicas statements were put together which made it look like they were four childish guys fighting every day. Playboy Magazine also sent out a press release about the interview to promote the rag, so the news that Metallica was about to break up was spread like wildfire.
Some quotes from the interview:

James Hetfield's "vocal range is limited" but improving, according to Newsted.

Lars Ulrich said Hetfield is homophobic, and continued: "I think homophobia is questioning your sexuality and not being comfortable with it."

James Hetfield recalled that Danish-born Ulrich rarely bathed during the band's formative days in the early 1980s, and was not a good drummer. "To this day he is not Drummer of the Year. We all know that" he said.


27 Mar 01
Metallica complained to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco that Napster has failed to block access to its music as ordered under the court's injunction
The U.S. recording industry accused Napster of willfully ignoring a federal judge's order to block copyrighted material, saying the Internet song-swap service was still facilitating the trade of millions of illegal music files.

[Taxigirl]

Apr '01
Jason Newsted took his first steps alone when he joined "The Moss Brothers" on stage in San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley. The Moss brothers, Reuben and Evan 12 and 15 years old were good friends of Jason who has layed down the bass tracks on their two albums.
"I am going to live my life." Jason told the fans waiting outside for autographs after the show when asked about why he left Metallica. "I couldn't live my life until now. I'll keep doing little things like this, you'll see me around."



4 Apr '01
Godsmack had a concert at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. At the start of the encore. Sully, the vocalist, rolls out some guy in a wheel-chair, and everybody was like: "Hey, that's cool. Sully brought a wheel-bound stricken person to enjoy the on-stage performance. Lars Ulrich was the one sitting in the wheel-chair. He got to his feet, took a drink of beer, and squirted it -water fountain style into Sully's open mouth. Lars then acknowledged the crowd, hugged Sully, and walked off stage.

23 Apr '01
The 3 surviving members started working in the studio with no new bass player. Behind the production knobs, once again, was Bob Rock. Thru the official website metallica.com Lars told the fans that "We've got a shitload of sick ideas and it's really cool to get back to being a band again". At that time the album was planed to be released late 2001, but we all know that this didn't happen.

4 May '01
Short break from the studio. Lars went on paternity leave and brought back a healthy young lad named Layne Ulrich, born on Sunday, May 6th. James went bear hunting in Russia.

18 May '01
Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina club, has been a celebrity destination since Hagar became an active owner and host at the hot Cabo San Lucas, Mexico nightspot in 1989. Since then, the legend has grown and "drop- in" jams have become a regular occurrence.
A local band of Mexican rockers calling themselves "Vitamin T" were in the middle of a set, jamming to a cover of the Metallica song, "Until It Sleeps." At the mid-point of the song, vacationing Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett walked into the club. In the true spirit of the "Cabo Wabo Cantina," Hammett immediately made his way to the stage and joined "Vitamin T' for over an hour in an impromptu jam.



21 May '01
lars was asked if he could come down to KSJO, a radio station in San Francisco, for an interview. He said yes, but not for an interview. "I want to do my own radio show". Lars was supposed to start the show at 8pm, but late as always he showed up at 8:30, but did a good show, lasting 4 hours.
He didn't talk a lot, but played a ton of music like songs by orginial artist of Garage Inc., some music from the NWOBHM album he put together som years ago and a few original Metallica demos from the early 80s.


30 May '01
May 30th: with fresh new energy, the band once again entered the studio to create and record more music

14 June '01
Embarking on their second hiatus of the summer, which started on June 14th and involved long-planned travels for Lars and James whilst Kirk continued to spend time with his newly discovered sport - surfing. He went to Santa Cruz, and visited the headquarters of wetsuit company, and overall beach apparel giants, O'Neill, where he surfed wiith some of their team riders.

12 JUL '01
Metallica and Napster announced the settlement of their legal dispute. The settlement enabled the parties to work together to make Napster a positive vehicle for artists and music enthusiasts alike.
The band and the software company released a press release where Lars Ulrich said: "I think we've resolved this in a way that works for fans, recording artists and songwriters alike, Our beef hasn't been with the concept of sharing music; everyone knows that we've never objected to our fans trading tapes of our live concert performances. The problem we had with Napster was that they never asked us or other artists if we wanted to participate in their business. We believe that this settlement will create the kind of enhanced protection for artists that we've been seeking from Napster. We await Napster's implementation of a new model which will allow artists to choose how their creative efforts are distributed. It's good that they're going legit."


19 Jul '01
Metallica announced that the recording, and every other work with the band, had been delayed. Reason: James entered a rehabilitation facility to undergo treatment for alcoholism and other addictions.
The official statement said: James has entered an undisclosed facility, and he will continue to receive treatment until further notice. Until then, we have postponed all current activities, including recording sessions for our new album.


1 Sep '01
Big things happened at the Betallibash 2001 fan convention in San Francisco. A lot of fans entered to meet each other, get some Metallica goodies and see the tribute band Creeping death. During the set played by Creeping death Lars and Kirk showed up and not only watched, but joined. Together they played "Die, Die My Darling", "No Remorse", "Helpless", "...And Justice For All", a jam of "Ride the Lightning", and finished off with "Am I Evil."