On September 18 in San Francisco, Metallica appeared at the presentation of “Metal Massacre” organized by Brian Slegel himself. The band wound up there pure accidentally after Cirith Ungol (one of Slegel’s picks) couldn’t make it. The interesting thing was that all the fans that came to that concert had “No Life ‘Till Leather” and jointly sang the words of almost all the Metallica songs. This was the first time Metallica met with its real fans.

Metallica continued playing in San Francisco, gaining more and popularity until November 28, when the band finally headlined their own show! That show was also where and when Metallica met Kirk Hammett, who then played in Exodus – a band who was warming the crowd up at the show.

At the same time, there were and more problems with Ron McGownie in the middle of Metallica itself. Ron was getting more and more distant from other band members, even during their friendly parties. As things were getting worse, Brian Slegel invited Lars and James to visit concert of the band called Trauma. There, both were completely captivated by Trauma’s bassist – Cliff Burton. Cliff didn’t have any desire to leave Trauma, but after the concert and months after that Lars and James were literally stalking Burton, trying to get him into Metallica. Ron McGownie accidentally found out about all this, and in December he officially left Metallica. Several weeks after that whole Metallica moved to San Francisco, and Cliff Burton finally agreed to play with them.

When 1983 started, growing financial problems stopped Metallica’s growth, until they a very influential west coast guy named Johnny Z. Johnny Z. managed his own store called “Rock-n-roll Heaven” where you could find anything connected with heavy metal. Same Johnny Z. also organized rock concerts in New York and New Jersey from time to time. Johnny convinced Metallica to go New York where he housed all four guys for three months!

Gradually Dave Mustane and his heavy drinking started to distance him from the band as Ron got distanced before that. Moreover, other members of Metallica got an Exodus tape and just as they did with Cliff, they got determined that they have got to have Kirk Hammett instead of Dave. In April of 83 they shamelessly booted Dave, and instantly Kirk Hammett became the newest member of the band. Still Metallica kept playing at the same clubs introducing their new member to the public. The fun ended when Johnny Z. kicked them all out of his house for drinking two bottles of champagne that were his family’s treasure. For several weeks Metallica had to live in the abandoned warehouse.

In the beginning of May, however, the band got news from Johnny that even though he kicked them out of this house, he kept his word, and rented a recording studio “Music America” for two weeks. May 10, 1983 Metallica first came into that studio. Their material was ready and dozens if not even hundreds of times rehearsed. Finally, Metallica got its wish and they could release their own disc!!!

Censorship didn’t allow the original name of the disc – “Metal Up Your A**”, with a logo of a hand with a sword coming out of a toilet. Metallica had to settle on “Kill ‘Em All” that basically expressed their feelings toward the censors.

This album sold thousands of copies and made finally made Metallica a success, but that’s already another story .

P.S. You can find out more about Metallica on my website: http://xoma.newmail.ru

Bibliography

Dougnton, K. J. Metallica unbound: the unofficial biography. New York: Warren Books, 1993

Putterford, Mark Metallica live! London: Omnibus press, 1994

Rees, Daffyd and Luke Crampton Encyclopedia of rock stars New York: DK, 1996

Crocker, Chris Metallica: the frayed ends of metal New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993

Website: http://www.metallica.2000.ru

Metallica in person. Port Chester, NY: Cherry Lane Music, 1990