OZZY, LEMMY Among Expected Guests During METALLICA's Week-Long 30th-Anniversary Celebration

December 5, 2011

METALLICA will begin a week-long celebration of its 30th anniversary as a band on Monday night (December 5),when the group plays the first of four intimate shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco for fan club members only. Frontman James Hetfield told The Pulse Of Radio that METALLICA hopes to make the shows special for the people attending. "It is a fan celebration everyone who's come along the METALLICA ride for 30 years and we're constantly wanting to give to the fans what they don't normally get from some other band or some other connection," he said. "So these four shows at the Fillmore are something like that."

The other three shows will take place on December 7, December 9, and December 10, with special guests and events, rare songs, varied set lists and more.

Hetfield told The Pulse Of Radio that he hoped Ozzy Osbourne and MOTRHEAD bassist/singer Lemmy Kilmister would be among the guests at the shows.

METALLICA plans to begin work on its next studio album early in 2012. The group recently released its collaborative album with Lou Reed, called "Lulu", which flopped saleswise and earned the quartet the worst reviews of its career.

The band has booked several European shows next summer, including one at a venue in Denmark that used to be a prison, at which it will perform its self-titled 1991 effort, a.k.a. "the black album," in its entirety.

METALLICA was formed when Ulrich, who had moved to Los Angeles from Denmark, placed an ad in a local paper called The Recycler looking for other musicians to play with. The ad was answered by guitarists James Hetfield and Hugh Tanner of the band LEATHER CHARM.

METALLICA officially formed in October 1981 and the band's first recording was "Hit The Lights" for the compilation "Metal Massacre".

Bay Area DJ Ron Quintana came up with the group's name: he was debating between using "Metallica" and "Metal Mania" for the name of his radio show and Ulrich encouraged him to use "Metal Mania" so that he could use "Metallica" for his new band.

METALLICA's first full lineup featuring Hetfield, Ulrich, guitarist Dave Mustaine and bassist Ron McGovney played its first gig on March 14, 1982 at Radio City in Anaheim, California.

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