30 Years of Rocking Out: The Story of Metallica Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, the 7th biggest selling act in American history, winner of 7 Grammy awards, over 100 million albums sold worldwide and ownership of the highest-selling music box-set in the world – all these achievements and more can only describe one of the biggest and most influential bands in the world – Metallica. Ever since the early 80’s Metallica has been playing heavy metal music and has gone from being a underground club band to the biggest metal band in the world and one of the most influential bands in rock history. The story of how Metallica began resembles something like a story out of a movie. In 1981 drummer Lars Ulrich who had a connection to have one of his tracks placed on a metal compilation CD, placed an ad in a local Los Angeles paper “The Recycler” stating that he was looking for “other metal musicians to jam with Tygers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head and Iron Maiden.” James Hetfield replied to the ad and sure enough the core of Metallica was born. Then on a cheap recorder that James had, the two band mates recorded their first track which featured James on bass, rhythm guitar and vocals while Lars played drums and acted as manager. After that song Lars placed a second ad in “The Recycler” looking for a lead guitarist and Dave Mustaine answered the call. With James roommate Ron McGovney on bass, Metallica played their first live show on March 14, 1982 in Anaheim, CA. Although McGovney was there bassist at that time, he wouldn’t last long as later in the fall when James and Ulrich attended a concert at the Whiskey a Go Go where they witnessed bassist Cliff Burton playing in the band Trauma. Blown away by his use of the wah-wah pedal and raw crunch bass style, they asked him to join the band replacing Ron McGovney. Although he initially declined he later accepted if the band would move to San Francisco and the original 4 man lineup of Metallica was made. Metallica would go on to record a full demo tape titled No Life Till Leather that would be passed around and heard receptively in major cities such as New York and San Francisco. No Life Till Leather wound up in the hands of concert promoter/record shop owner Jon Zazula who promptly invited them to tour and record an album. With several labels denying interest in Metallica, Zazula borrowed money to cover recording costs and to sign Metallica to his own label “Megaforce Records”. Taking steps in the right direction, Metallica took a stolen U-Haul to New York to play at a show there and whilst there Metallica decided that there lead guitarist Dave Mustaine’s “violent behavior, alcohol and drug abuse was too problematic for the band to handle” and they decided to let him go. Short of a lead guitarist, one of Metallica’s roadies recommended that they contact Kirk Hammett of a local San Francisco thrash band. 2 phone calls and a flight later Kirk Hammett joined the band on April 1st, 1982. Although Dave Mustaine would go on to form the popular band “Megadeth” he has show resentment to Metallica and in particular to replacement guitarist Kirk Hammett for “stealing my job”. He has shown lots of anger especially since Kirk Hammett was voted No.1 guitarist in Metal Forces magazine while playing guitar leads and solos that Mustaine wrote in No Life Till Leather. With drama behind them and problems out of the way, Metallica would head to New York in 1983 to record there first studio album titled Metal Up Your Ass. As it turns out problems with the record label and distributors forced Metallica to rename the album Kill ‘Em All. Although Kill ‘Em All was not a huge success it did peak at the Billboard 200 at spot 120 and did boost the already growing Metallica fan base. After the albums release Metallica would go on tour with Raven and Venom to promote there new CD. After touring Metallica would quickly head back to the studio but this time in Copenhagen, Denmark to record there 2nd album Ride The