Up or down.
You were either like Page and Plant (hair down, and thus cool) or you were like KISS, Mötley Crüe, and so many other imitators (hair up, and thus not so cool). My hair went down. Always did, always will.
Next came the name. Every band needs a great moniker, right? We discussed and discarded several, including Leather Charm, which had been the name of a short-lived band in which James and Ron had both played. This was one of those names that just seemed incredibly wrongheaded to me. Leather Charm? What are you after with that one? Who’s your audience? It sounded kind of questionable in terms of projecting your notion of a good time, if you know what I mean.
It was Lars who suggested “Metallica,” and, it was an undeniably great name. The logo came from James. The first time I saw the Metallica logo, and everyone was raving about how cool it was, I remember thinking, Wow, it really is.
Whether Metallica had any reasonable chance for success, I couldn’t say. I do know that the first time I saw Lars play the drums, I was shocked at his mediocrity. Still, you had to admire his determination. The kid loved music (and good music, at that), and he wanted to be a rock star. That he would eventually become the Machiavellian character he is today . . . well, I didn’t see that one coming.
We obviously didn’t have a lot of material when we first started rehearsing together. Set lists in the beginning consisted primarily of cover songs, as well as songs written by James and his former bandmate Hugh Tanner. Most new material we had was written by me.
The Mustaine ab routine. Note: I was so young I didn’t even have chest hair back then.
Photograph by Brian Lew.
In the winter of 1982 Metallica went into a studio for the first time. We hadn’t been together for very long, but somehow we ended up at a little place in Orange County, recording “Hit the Lights.” When it came time for the guitar solo, I nailed it, and everybody started freaking out about how great it was. For some reason, though, when the first version of that demo came out on Metal Massacre several months later, it also included some of Lloyd Grant’s guitar work. That struck me as somewhat odd and not really in the spirit of brotherhood that fuels a band, but I didn’t get all worked up over it. Things were happening rather quickly, and I was excited to be part of it.
Our first live show was on March 14, 1982, at Radio City in Anaheim, California. It was a raw, unpolished, but wildly energetic performance in front of about two hundred metalheads, many of them friends of ours. Still, a respectable audience for an unknown band playing its first gig. To give you an idea of where we were musically, nearly half of the nine-song set list consisted of Diamond Head covers. We also did “Hit the Lights.” The only song that could reasonably be considered a Metallica original, at that time—a song written exclusively by one of the members of the band—was “Jump in the Fire.”
That was mine.
Early concert flyer.
Photograph by Brian Lew.
I point this out simply as a way of illustrating that my role in Metallica was actually quite prominent. I was the lead guitar player and one of the primary songwriters. A band member’s role doesn’t get much more vital than that. Not that I was particularly concerned with territoriality at the time. We were just having fun, playing music, partying like crazy, trying to get better with each performance. We were all in it together, at least for a while.
We each had our strengths and weaknesses, and it’s interesting to look back now and see what Metallica looked like in those early days. Intent on playing the role of front man and singer, James did not pick up a guitar that night in Anaheim, nor for some time afterward. But there was a bit of a problem: James was not a naturally gregarious fellow, particularly onstage. At one of our earliest shows, I can remember him standing at the microphone, freezing, afraid to say a word. I don’t mean during a song—James had no problem singing or performing, and later, when he began playing guitar, he proved to be a sturdy guitarist as well. But the stage banter? That was hard for him. At one point, sensing his anxiety, I walked over to the microphone and started talking. That was the beginning of my persona as an unusually provocative and loquacious guitar player. A shit stirrer, in other words. Tradition, of course, dictates that guitar players perform wordlessly. They can jump up and down, rip off their clothes, maybe even set their instruments on fire. They are not supposed to speak. That role is assigned to the singer. Everyone knows that’s the way it’s supposed to work.
I didn’t care. I was doing what came naturally.
Two weeks later we got a huge break, playing a pair of shows in one night at the Whisky in Hollywood, opening for Saxon. Credit must be given to Ron for this one, since it was his connections with Mötley Crüe that helped open the door. Ron had taken a three-song demo tape to the club, hoping for an audience with the club’s manager. While there, he ran into the guys from Mötley Crüe and told them of his plan, and they offered to help out. If that sounds gracious, well, it really wasn’t. Mötley Crüe had originally been booked to open for Saxon, but at some point they, or their management, had decided that they were now too big to be an opening act; they wanted to headline. And since we were ready, willing, and able, with a solid demo as a calling card, the timing couldn’t have been better.
It is obvious talking while not being the front man is humorous to me while in Metallica.
Photograph by William Hale.
Again, during both shows, we played mostly covers. This time, though, we did two of my compositions, “Jump in the Fire” and “Metal Militia.” Although we were tighter and made fewer mistakes than in Anaheim, we certainly weren’t perfect. I recall taking the mike from James again and generally flailing all over the stage while playing guitar. In the days that followed, we generated considerable buzz, although the mainstream rock press was not initially impressed. Indeed, our first review was a stinging jab directed at almost everything about Metallica.
With one notable exception.
“Saxon could also use a fast, hot guitar player of the Eddie Van Halen ilk. Opening quartet Metallica had one, but little else. The local group needs considerable development to overcome a pervasive awkwardness.”
Back before barricades were needed at Metallica concerts.
Photograph by William Hale.
Ouch!
I don’t recall taking any pleasure in being singled out as the one bright spot in an otherwise forgettable show. (I’m sure I stood up in defense of my bandmates.) We experienced growing pains no different from those endured by all great bands. The truth is, we were doing something radical. We were fast and loud and dangerous, on the cutting edge of heavy metal. Practically speaking, thrash began with early Metallica, in both form and attitude.
The next few months brought a kaleidoscopic blur of rehearsing, writing, performing, and partying. Everything happened so fast. There was a four-track demo (commonly referred to as The Power Demo in Metallica lore) that we recorded in Ron McGovney’s garage. That tape included two of my songs, “Jump in the Fire” and “The Mechanix,” along with “Hit the Lights” and “Motorbreath,” which was credited to James (although I believe in its nascent stage it belonged at least in part to James’s former Leather Charm bandmate Hugh Tanner).
I’m not sure how we managed to accomplish as much as we did, given the lifestyle we were leading—all that fucking and fighting, drugging and drinking and vomiting. But we did. Our repertoire expanded, our performances improved. Very quickly we realized that in order to achieve the heaviness we wanted, we needed another guitar player. Since James still wasn’t interested in anything other than singing, we recruited a guy named Brad Parker. The first day of rehearsal he showed up wearing a striped shirt with high French cut sleeves—the kind you might see on a Russian sailor. He wore eyeliner and a white feathered earring. I took one look at this guy and started laughing.
Dude, if you last a day in this band, I’ll be shocked, I thought.
He actually lasted a few days—maybe weeks—but not long enough to
matter. He played one show with us, at a place called the Music Factory in Costa Mesa. Before we took the stage, he turned to me and said, “Listen, while we’re out there, call me Damien, okay?”
“What?”
“Damien . . . Damien Phillips,” he said.
“Who the fuck is Damien Phillips?”
He smiled.
“I am. It’s my stage name.”
That was the first and only time Brad Parker and/or Damien Phillips played with Metallica. Our next gig was one month later, shortly before Memorial Day 1982, with James playing rhythm guitar and singing lead. By this time we had dispensed with the poseurs and the endless search for another guitar player and simply decided to encourage James to handle the job himself; he turned out, of course, to be a formidable player.
Throughout the summer our schedule intensified, and so did our reputation. We played at least one gig a week at various venues around Southern California: the Troubadour and Whisky in Hollywood, the Woodstock in Anaheim, any number of smaller parties and concerts at places you’ve never heard of. The first version of Metal Massacre was released in June, and within a month we found ourselves in a studio, working with a record company executive by the name of Kenny Kane. This guy owned a punk label and apparently had gotten the impression that Metallica would somehow appeal to the label’s demographic, so he offered us a chance to record an EP. When he heard the tapes, well, I guess he wasn’t thrilled, since (obviously) Metallica was not a punk band. He withdrew the offer and we kept the tapes. The resulting demo, titled No Life Till Leather, consisted of seven songs: “Hit the Lights,” “Mechanix,” “Phantom Lord,” “Jump in the Fire,” “Motorbreath,” “Seek and Destroy,” and “Metal Militia.”
I was the primary writer on four of those songs: “Mechanix,” “Phantom Lord,” “Jump in the Fire,” and “Metal Militia.” Without meaning to sound bitter, it’s important to note that this demo, which provided the spark for the underground phenomenon that Metallica became, stands as a rather indisputable piece of evidence in the war between those who think my contributions to the band were significant (Megadeth fans, mainly) and those who don’t (Metallica fans). When Metallica released its first album, in 1983, all four of those songs were included (although “Mechanix” had been reworked and given a new title, “The Four Horsemen,” I still received a writing credit).
No Life Till Leather became our calling card, and we used it to build an audience from L.A. to San Francisco. We had no formal contract, no means of distributing songs, but that was far from an insurmountable obstacle. Tapes were copied and passed around, and pretty soon we were playing in front of fans who knew the words to our songs, which I have to tell you is about as thrilling a thing as a young rock star can experience. We were getting better and we knew it.
We also were completely out of control. I will never deny that I was a handful in those days. I was aggressive, driven, and unpredictable, and I drank way too much. But so did everyone else in the band. We practically lived in our cars, driving up and down the coast, drinking before and after rehearsals and gigs. It wasn’t unusual for one or more members of the band to pass out during those trips and wake up to discover that his face or body had been painted. We shared homes, money, equipment, drugs, alcohol, girls. It was a life of utter decadence (and at times one hell of a lot of fun). For all of us.
The difference, and I suppose it is an important distinction, is that we were different types of drunks. I was often an angry, hostile drunk; Lars and James were happy drunks. Harmless, for the most part, although their antics were juvenile and sometimes, in my estimation, weirdly hurtful. For example, they were relentless in their abuse of Ron McGovney, which I attributed to the fact that Ron was unwilling to stand up for himself.
As word of No Life Till Leather spread, so too did our reputation. We found ourselves spending increasing amounts of time on the road, driving up and down the coast between L.A. and San Francisco. Invariably, those trips became exercises in humiliation for Ron. On every trip, it seemed like one of Ron’s shoes would be tossed out the back of our truck, just so Lars and James could watch him get pissed off. But he rarely fought back. If they had treated me that way, I would have left. But Ron was a sycophant, and so he hung around, complaining and whining, but still picking up the check more often than anyone else. He’d sit there in the truck, looking like he was going to cry, while James and Lars got drunk and shared food. Literally—I once saw Lars take a big bite of sandwich, chew it up, then lean over and spit the cud into James’s gaping maw, like a mother bird feeding its chick. My threshold for depravity was pretty high in those days, but I recall with some clarity thinking that this particular rite of passage, or whatever it was, seemed mighty fucked-up.
Admittedly, the person I was onstage—pissed off, trying to play my guitar so fast that it would nearly burn my fingers—was not far from who I was off the stage. When I drank, I would often get combative. I didn’t always go looking for a fight, but I certainly never walked away from one. Even when it involved my friends and bandmates.
Prior to the formation of Metallica, I’d bought a couple dogs to dissuade people from breaking into my house (which had happened on occasion, in part because of my “business” interests). These were formidable pups—Staffordshire terriers (which are similar to pit bulls) cross-bred with Rhodesian ridgebacks—and they quite naturally scared the shit out of most people. But they were also very affectionate and loyal, and I cared for them immensely. When I traveled to Ron’s house for rehearsal, or to a gig, I’d usually leave them behind to protect the house. Sometimes, though, one of the dogs would keep me company. One day in the summer of 1982, I drove to rehearsal, and when I let the dog out of the car she began running around. Dogs do that when they’ve been cooped up for a while. At some point the female jumped up on the front quarter panel of Ron’s car, a beautiful Pontiac GTO, prompting James to give the dog a hard kick across its chest. The dog (she was still just a puppy) let out a yelp and scampered away.
And I went nuts.
“What are you doing?”
“She’s scratching the car, man,” James said, as if that was an acceptable excuse for kicking a dog.
“Fuck you!”
The actual fight didn’t happen right there. They call it a hang fire, like when there’s an unexpected delay between the trigger of a gun being pulled and the actual discharge of the weapon. You know it’s coming, and there’s no stopping it. It’s just a matter of time. James and I alternately cursed at each other and refused to speak, until eventually we were both in Ron’s house, preparing to rehearse, and tensions boiled over. There was another round of accusations and insults, more cursing, more threats.
“You keep talking like that, I’m going to punch you in the mouth,” I said.
“Fuck off!”
In the middle of this exchange, Ron walked out of the bathroom and into the living room. He and James went way back, and despite the fact that James often treated him like shit, Ron instinctively defended his friend.
“You hit him, you’ll have to hit me first.”
“Shut up and sit the fuck down,” I said.
And then James jumped to Ron’s defense. “You touch him, you’re going to have to hit me first.”
Jesus, I thought, what is this, some kind of fucking game show?
I realized I would have to make a decision.
“Okay, you win,” I said, and with that I threw a right cross that landed flush against James’s face, turning his mouth into a pile of bloody Chiclets. To my surprise, Ron immediately jumped on my back. Reflexively, I gave him a hip toss; he flew across the room and landed on an entertainment center, sending shards of particleboard all over the place and destroying the old Pong video game hooked up to the TV. The fight might have gone on longer if not for the presence of my friend and martial arts training partner Rick Solis, who quickly intervened. I was enraged, ready to kill both Ron and James, when Rick came up from behind and grabbed my elbow, pinching the ulnar
nerve and rendering me incapacitated.* We stood there together for a moment, saying nothing, when suddenly James began screaming at me.
“You’re out of the band! Get the fuck out of here!”
Ron was yelling, too. Lars, meanwhile, was standing in a corner, just sort of twirling his hair, and trying unsuccessfully to mediate a settlement. “Come on, man . . . I don’t want it to end this way.”
“Fuck you! I quit!”
“Good! Fuck you, too!”
WHILE OUR DISAGREEMENTS had never reached this level of intensity, it should be noted that by this time Metallica was already a band struggling with personality conflicts. Each of us was guilty of pointing the finger of blame at one time or another. My job was safe, as far as I could tell, although obviously I’d failed to assess the situation properly.
The dismissal lasted roughly twenty-four hours. I returned for rehearsal the next day, apologized to everyone, and was welcomed back into the fold. Everything was fine. Except it wasn’t. Some things can’t be undone, and this was one of them. In many ways, it was the beginning of the end. Ron and I grew increasingly annoyed with each other. I thought he was smug and spoiled and not particularly talented; he viewed me as unpredictable and dangerous—not inaccurate, I must confess. When a break-in at Ron’s place was traced back to acquaintances of mine (not friends, mind you, and I certainly had no idea what they had done), Ron became angry and accusatory. My response, and I don’t say this with any pride, was to walk into the rehearsal room one day when Ron wasn’t around and pour a can of beer into the pickups of his Washburn bass, effectively destroying a very expensive piece of equipment.
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