Streaming Murder In The Front Row : Bay Area Thrash Metal Story : @AmplifiedMusicDocs ,,/

In the early 1980s, 12 million people were unemployed in our country, 1.3 million of them in California, more than 150,000 right here in the Bay Area, like this self-named Reaganville, near the railroad tracks. in Berkeley, those are the conditions for difficult times of real struggle. and I am sorry to say that we are in the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. Yes, the San Francisco Bay Area, located at the western edge of the continental United States, has a long hi

story

of supporting new music and free expression, from jazz experimentation to poetry. Rock and roll in 1980, with the American economy in recession, a new group of teenagers came of age and wanted new music, something faster, something heavier, something that reflected their own lives and not previous generations of distant Europe.

The sounds of heavy

metal

were slowly rippling Westward carried by word of mouth some rare imported records, some bootleg cassette tapes and music magazines, but California was too far away for most of these bands to tour here, so young people Bay Area music fans did what we do best, including waiting. the music we wanted we created our own we're going well I just want to say one thing first you Must Die posers are crazy we're a little crazy we were just kids crazy kids it was scary and it was dark, is this an outlet for angst um Alex Skolnick was born and raised in Berkeley, California Hi, I'm James Hetfield from Metallica this is the music you don't want your parents to listen to Jerry Holt David Ellison's faces for Mega Death I don't need to Say my name, everyone watching this knows who I am, we do it for girls and beer and I didn't drink.

My name is Chuck Billy, I grew up in Dublin, California and the pits were violent as hell. Marcus from San Francisco Bay Area Phil Demmel from Dublin California the volume the madness was epic wow we need to do more of this Rob Flynn Oakland California my name is Ricky I play guitar for Exodus people have a passion for

metal

There is no distinction Among the bands and fans we called it the land of Misfit Toys. In our scene we felt invincible, it was about survival, it was like ah, Exodus has the recipe for destruction. The Exodus was playing, we were there.

Kurt came up with a name and we thought, wow, what was the question again? My name is Lars. org and I'm from Denmark Joy Mariah Slayer, singer and bassist of Slayer, so I got goosebumps talking about it right now and my name is Paul bostaff Larry lalan El Sobrante California Charlie benante and I'm from the Bronx New York Dave Lombardo Southeast In Los Angeles there was an aura of watching hi

story

happen, guys from the East Bay, they played before us and that was kind of a mistake. I'm Robert Trujillo, I'm from Santa Monica, California, there goes that guy who was Metallica, what was he up to?

As exciting as she thought it would be, father, we were far from the city, we were isolated, there was nothing to do, all we had was music, you know, it was a pilgrimage, you know, we'd mow some lawns, save a few dollars. take the elevator through the county bus to the BART station, take the BART to Berkeley and walk to Telegraph, it's the or I went to all the Hard Rock stuff, you know, Aerosmith Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, anything and everything around that I had. an edge that was loud and energetic. I just went to Kirk was the first guy who played me like Uli Roth, they were Scorpions and that was the first day we went out and that's when we met up at his house to go see Ted Nugent and the Scorpions, but there were other things that came out of England and Germany that no one really liked on a large scale, apart from the kids that I knew, kids my age listened to disco, they listened to pop and I just didn't. really interested in that we all went to the same record stores, there were very few, there was something I just wasn't getting enough of until I heard this band called UFO and they, the heaviness, they had the intensity, they had the energy that they had . musicality they had a guitarist who was sent from heaven named Michael Schenker me and John Marshall became obsessed with UFOs abroad.

I was in Berkeley in April and May of 1980 and I was walking down Telegraph Avenue, you'd see it below. at Telegraph in Berkeley all the time while I was walking I heard a Motörhead song, you could hear him coming from like a block or two away, you know, total character, there was this crazy guy, tall, skinny, in a jean vest with long hair , a big Thin Lizzy patch in Chinatown. his back and was playing Motorhead on this Boombox, you know, on his shoulder. This was back in the day when he was carrying a big sound system that needed like d-cells like 10 of them, yeah, just a Boombox this size on his shoulder.

I'd just be blowing up Motorhead and that was experts, this was so loud, it was like a Memorex commercial, who is this guy who looks like someone we should meet real quick? They invited me to hang out with some members of their team and I ended up at a place in Golden Gate Park called Strawberry Hill where I met Ron Quintana Ian Callan it was the beginning of meeting this group of people who were all Iron Maiden Motorhead Saxon Diamond Head Merciful Fate Fanatics my music from 1980 sucked 1979 sucked worse being a kid in San Francisco radio was going downhill so the radio stations were really bad and luckily there was Kusf who could play harder punk stuff so that's where you first heard UFO, maybe once in a while, and in high school I ran into a friend and him.

I said you had to go to the store called Record Vault, it's incredible, I got on the bus, I got on, I went in and it was like walking to Mecca, it was dark, it was cold, Motörhead was playing and on all the walls there was everything. That In what you liked, we found all this great imported metal, you know, Budgie, Phantom, Diamond Head and the sweet Savage demos, all this stuff that we really loved and that you weren't going to find on Tower Records back then. You're at the record store for two three hours, you only have 20 dollars in your pocket, so you're trying to figure out which two records to buy.

You know it took a while. It was the place where everyone came to discover things. That was the place. everyone came to buy their new release to get their copy of metal Mania art shock karang whatever and it was an amazing experience to go there and see all these like minded people who were also there buying the same thing and they were all wearing vests and patches in the back and in metal and in all that underground stuff the record stores had the albums placed on the wall and on a little shelf so you could see the cover and there was the cover of Iron Maiden's first album with Eddie You know, I was Like, oh look, in Southern California, my place was called Middle Earth Middle Earth Records and you know you'd have to go and order the record.

There was so much anticipation around getting it with all the different bands. I know all these different unique sounds and styles and we just dove headfirst into it. I gravitated towards these metal bands because they were an escape. You listen to our theme song. They are talking about a fantasy. In my head it was no different. to a Stephen King novel yes, there were

murder

s, yes, there were satanic things, it was fantasy, it didn't make me want to go out and slaughter babies or anything, it was an escape from my suburban teenage life, this is just a drawing of Eddie I I was a big Iron Maiden fan and obviously should have paid more attention to Geometry.

I scored a 27 out of 52. The compact cassette tape came of age in the 1970s, was inexpensive and easy to record. Tape marketers quickly adopted it as a means of spreading the newest sounds on Krang's pages they would have karang pen pal ads I would post them for free that's what started it all that's how I heard about Brian Liu KJ Dalton KJ had a lot of maids and Brian too, so it was great. another big staple of the movement, everyone had their list of demos and bootlegs and they asked for the other person's list and big tapes back then it was sales mail, tapes, stamps and handwritten letters, all of a sudden I was getting letters from people from Germany, Holland.

France England New York Chicago just opened up this whole worldview. I had been dealing with so many people getting tapes and fanzines from England mainly this list kept growing from two three four five six pages, then I realized I wanted to make a fanzine. and then I started adding photos in July and it became Metal Mania in August of 1981. When I met Ron, he made me a compilation tape, I mean, it was the thing to do as part of the conversation back then, early 80s, What has perhaps become a misconception over the years about the tape trading network is that we weren't dubbing albums, we were dubbing live bootlegs.

You know, at that time it was part of being a music fan, so you wanted to own the record you wanted to own. the seven inch single because it made you feel part of something bigger in high school they had a guitar class and it was literally 30 people learning to play the guitar and in that class was Mark Peterman who was finally in a blind delusion and Kirk before Gary. in the band, you know, when it was just Kirk and them, sometimes they would rehearse in our rehearsal space, you know, and Kirk and I were together in Mr.

B's class, in guitar class, we were more or less how to learn our instruments and you know. Kirk exposed me to so many different types of music like I'd never heard UFO or the Scorpions, all we had was music, you know, and then when we got into music, all we had was each other and you know we wanted to take it to the next level so we got instruments and I think the anger of being in a place that just didn't have enough to offer you know the frustration of being bored. I think a lot of that was channeled into our instruments in Los Angeles heavy metal.

It was starting to rise in December of 1980, a friend of mine and I, who by the way were the only two people at the time who knew anything about their new wave of British heavy metal, went to see the Michael Schenker Group play at a place called The Country Club. in Reseda and after the show my friend John was in the parking lot and saw a kid wearing a European Saxon t-shirt. Now in 1980 no one knew who Saxon was in Los Angeles much less had a European t-shirt and that, of course, was a A guy named Lars Ulrich fast forward to when James and I had the band One Thing and started playing in Los Angeles about a year and a half later, but I got the idea to make the compilation album.

Lawrence called me and Dan said. If I formed a band, could it be on your album? I thought, of course, absolutely, so Lars and I are always talking about making a magazine, we need a shopkeeper, we're going to start a club and hang out and the laws in their own way, you know? he said, oh that's cool, that's a good idea, man, he showed me a list of the names of his future band or club, so it had generic names of popular cars from Roddy American Thunderbolt metal Mania Metallica. I had a huge list of names that ended up being a few. bands start with an m.

I think it was Metallica that we wrote wrong on the first version of the album. Lars was always able to make things happen somehow, he got them a gig opening for Saxon James didn't play guitar, he just sang and Dave Mustaine. he played guitar, his set consisted of Blitzkrieg's Hit the Lights Blitzkrieg and about five Diamond Head covers and that was pretty much it. The selection of the covers we did, I think, was a little more complicated because we all had a say in which bands we liked. Metal Mania 5 came out right after Metallica played their first shows, so Lars helped write a article about their show and this great new band, Metallica, wrote this little article about Heavy metal and the attack of young metal Metallica.

And this is Metallic's first article and of course it was written by the way, but they never quite clicked with the LA crowd. We had gigs when we could, as many as we could, and you know, we got kicked out of some of them. clubs because they thought we were a punk rock band, with the help of Brian Slagle, we were able to go to the San Francisco

area

with some other bands from La. It was playing when they got to San Francisco and saw the energy involved. and they just wanted to be in that element and it helped them tremendously and it helped us grow as a scene in San Francisco and the Bay Area, just as a lot of bands came out of the East Bay, a lot of musicians came out of the East.

Bay East Bay is a prosperous place in the '70s and early '80s, it had high unemployment and crime and was a boring place where my mom worked a lot, so during the day she had a lot of free time for me. just play at home we're Ghetto Kids, you know, we steal, you know, there was a time when the Wagon Wheel liquor store and Pinole burned down, you know, most peopleKeeps us away from buildings as if burned, not from the Exodus, we crawl through the rubble. because there were dozens and dozens of bottles of alcohol in there, I actually knew about Gary's robbery when we were in high school, they didn't give us anything, we stole some of our first equipment.

Gary was a friend of mine from Richmond and he was kind. from helping us with equipment and stuff like that and then Kirk gave him a guitar lesson and wow, he taught me how to play guitar, you know, I hold a pick the way I do, I worry about a bar chord the way in which I do it, we do it. exactly the same because he showed me this is how he will choose, so the whole break was like that and then it was Kirk saying yeah, I want to play with people who find guys to play and make it happen.

I remember walking into this party and not knowing it. Anyone who saw this short guy would care that he was mushroom-shaped, super long, he talked like that and, you know, he was making jokes and some of them were really funny, you know, and he started talking about music, it's like, oh yes, friend, this. the race is so heavy, so heavy, oh Maiden, so heavy, so heavy, and I said, hey brother, you know, UFOs, Rock Bottom Rock.Bottom starts singing Rock Bottom 17 and Nature's Queen to me. I looked at him and told him: "You are going to be the singer of our new band Exodus, he is fine and from that moment on we were inseparable, his name was Pablo Nikolaiovich Balakrishikov, I mean." Nicholas's son in Russian was a blue-blooded Russian he was a small boy very aggressive strong thick 100 Russian man Paul was Paul, leave her, he had so much charisma, so much energy that you just wanted to be close to him, he couldn't.

He didn't sing very well, but he could sing well enough, that's where he really joined the line-up. You know, that's when we found the band's voice. You know Baioff wasn't a singer when we met him, he was just a headbanger like us when it's time to go out. Ninja's got the crowd completely crazy, a good Exodus there in the studio tonight, oh yeah, you know they're playing tomorrow night on the map, there's going to be a rage, you're mad too much now, tomorrow night, we'll burn the place to the ground . oh it'll be fun to watch now, here's some Exodus for all you fans out there.

Paul's first joke was at the ducal palace in Alameda, which was a little Hall Pizza Joint type place, you know? And I remember knowing he was the right guy for the job because it was one of those places that has a stage about a foot high and the next thing you know he's on top of the tables and he's rocking them ferociously like that trying to break it, It was just amazing. I checked everyone's attitude and made sure they were with us. You liked music. You knew the music and you weren't a fucking imposter. He was friends with a lot of people in San Francisco.

There was a really cool scene going on. there, so I was able to put on a soft Massacre show at the Stone in San Francisco, which was one of the big clubs there, so it was going to be three bands from LA and I called Lars and said, "Hey, one of the bands fell". We have this concert in San Francisco, you guys want to do it. We weren't one of the three biggest bands, we weren't first on the agenda there, but they invited us when someone canceled, so we jumped in Ron McGoverny's van. With our gear and we left with a trailer in the back, there were only a handful of people there.

I know many people claim to have been there. In fact, their original bassist Ron McGoverny gave me this shirt and that was the most amazing night. I once saw why in La they are a bit Outcast nobody knew and we went to San Francisco and that place went crazy in September 1982 Metallica played their first show in San Francisco the reaction was immediate and explosive my mom didn't let me Dave had this charisma that just took over the band and when Metallica played I thought he was going to be like the next superstar, I mean, because he was so crazy on stage and it was funny who's the leader, you or him, and I liked it.

Since I have a big mouse, I like to talk foreign. Some of those people that I had become friends with over the previous year or two came over and you felt like there was like a scene, kind of a collection of people who were really fans of the music that was. something really different than what was happening in Los Angeles at the time, so it was a very surreal transformative experience for us, we're all teenagers, they were in a band on stage, we were teenagers in the crowd and you know, at that moment Metallica was playing.

Diamond Head covers, you know one of those bands that we thought no one else knew about and when they launched into The Prince, that's where the link to that band and the Bay Area happens. If you know that band, you're a bro, that was the Yeah, I remember that first show seeing fans that didn't care how they looked, I mean they had cut off their jeans and stuff they didn't care about and they were in

front

of the stage banging heads because the music did that for them they weren't gathered in the bar scene or anything, they were there for the music, they're beautiful or whatever.

Now I think we had a very different relationship with our fans because you know we were salt of the earth. Metallica came to the Bay Area to play the old Waldorf and I remember seeing them thinking very well and the law rocket lit up and they played for literally 25 people and that spoke volumes to me. I said a lot to get out of trouble. He said many of everyone who was next to him. this or back, okay, okay, we know what works here and we know it doesn't, so Metallica I first met them through the demo, so shortly after, the band I was playing with By the time I was rockin' we're playing. a show together they were playing before us a mistake something about Metallica they had that special that allowed that kick and you know, they got that extra adrenaline boost that I think made everyone step up their game and then we played a show the next day and it was a benefit for Metal Mania and it was a kind of hodgepodge song that was put together in 24 hours they needed to find bands that had gotten Metallica they asked us to open we said sure we would open the show that is in the mubuhay gardens we played our show then mataka appeared and they played and They were just fantastic and that's when I met James for the first time and that's when I met Lars, you know, it's funny because it was a window into what was to come in my future because while I was talking to Lars, he got naked and changed right in in

front

of me and I was like, “wow, this guy does it” and then I realized this is what I guess Europeans do because you know, besides the East Bay, I had to do it.

Feuding with rednecks everywhere, as their legendary No Life Till Leather demo cassette was recorded in the summer of 1982. It immediately became a staple in the underground tape trade and established the band as a force to be had. consider. four song demo called power metal and then the infamous no life to leather tape arrived a couple of months after I started sending it to the same people I've been trading some of this other underground metal stuff with, like the KJ Daltons of the world, oh my God, this tape is incredible, it just crushes, it's incredible, they've come so far and I sent Brian the first Metallica demo and I think that's the first tasty God, oh, while I was working at the club that one of my co-workers had.

I started doing an event on Monday night called Metal Monday and these bands that later became

thrash

were introduced and it became clear that this was a new direction. Attendance on a Tuesday morning at any of the high schools in the Bay Area was pretty poor, if I can attest. to that, because a lot of us are still in high school, the people on the sidelines were so loyal to their bands that they didn't like the band, they actually turned their backs on the band while they were playing, there was a band. They called Hans naughty and Naylor based in San Francisco, but with a very similar aesthetic to the Los Angeles Sunset Strip and they were on the bill with Metallica, there were fans who had patches of obviously their favorite bands and all that and they showed how much they loved them. like the band or they didn't like the band, we could have bothered them a couple of times and that got boring, so it just quietly changed and I guess it was a silent protest that made it clear that hey, you're not a favorite band and we're waiting. this one, the one on my back patch.

Cliff came to us and said, I'd like to learn to play bass. Jan and I said yes, so we got him a cheap guitar and a cheap amp and started hitting it. lessons and from then on, you know that was all Cliff knew about Cliff Burton from his previous band drama because bailoff knew about trauma or bailoff had seen trauma and said, oh, you have to see this band to have a killer bassist and a killer. guitarist, he told me one day: hey, come on, you want to go to San Francisco, see a show at the Stone, what's going on here too, these guys see this band, Metallica, maybe a couple of months later I was talking to Lars, did you?

Did you know? There are good bassists out there and I said, well, there's a band from San Francisco with this amazing bassist named Cliff Burton. I saw him as a troubadour a while ago coming down and playing again, you guys should come, so I thought, okay, cool show happening. Lars and James were there and I know how far along the set was, but it was pretty early, maybe the second or third song Lars goes to me, that's going to be our bass player. Ah, Cliff represented the Bay Area, he represented a freedom, he represented a rarity that I.

I didn't know much while he was growing up in Los Angeles. I went and saw Cliff play with trauma at Keystone Berkeley and it was no secret that the band knew Cliff was about to be taken from them. That's where Cliff belonged. He was in Metallica. Cliff would be. be talking to someone on the phone and just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, and this went on for, oh God, I swear, a month and I finally told Janet who Cliff talks to on the phone so much and she was like, well, There's a band from Los Angeles.

Angeles that wants me to join them and Clifford said no, I'm not going to Los Angeles, he said, he said, I told him if they want me to join their ban, come to the Bay Area and, geez, here. They did, then one day Baylor called me and told me that this guy Cliff Burton, bassist for Trauma, is in Metallica now and I said no, and then I saw them at The Stone, you know, because the first geek at The Stone and it was that I just kind of like looking in the mirror, there's another band playing like what we are, you know, our own stamp on it, but, you know, I remember we just hung out and we got hit that night and we just We saw, said the Same thing is like finding a kindred spirit, you know, there was a lot of integrity in the metal scene in San Francisco and you know, besides going up on the hill by the park and just playing whatever music we loved, it oozes and music , you already know.

That was our Collective, that's where we met and we really felt like we had a family that brought us to the Bay Area. You want me in the band. You have to come here on December 28, 1982. Cliff Burton was invited to play at a small house in El Cerrito that would later become known as Metallica's mansion, part audition and part rehearsal, only a lucky few didn't exist. audio, but luckily for the story, Brian Liu brought his camera and photographed the band's new lineup at At some point Lars probably called me and said, you know we're going to play with our new base.

Ron Quintan was there. Rich Burch was there. Ian Callan, who did Metal Mania with Ron Rosera. There was a group of maybe five six of us. There is this one. little room in El Cerrito and that was the room where Metallica played with Cliff for the first time and there he was playing with Cliff for the first time in the living room listening to Seek and Destroy and suddenly he's doing some stuff like, oh my God, this is going to be amazing, it kind of catapulted Metallica to another level and in early 1983, Metallica moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area for a very short period of time with Mustang in the band and Cliff in the band while rehearsing and a few really cool shows in the Bay Area, that was one of the things that was noticeable when we played together, when the lights are down and the guitars are roaring, there's some respect, it's just that the whole

area

was up there and it was I felt like I was on a cliff. time home to play at Stone, we went, you know, we had a great show, the place was packed and then Metallica came on and it was the first time I could see the whole show while I was watching it.

I thought these guys are great, they would be much better off with me in the New York area. Anthrax proudly flew the flag of new heavy metal. I think we felt a little out of place because we were the only band in the East. Coast wanted to do something like this and we thought it was cool that in the Bay Area there was this kind of club with these kinds of bands that would play and just make music and I remember Exodus was one of the first bands as well. Metallica, who I thought were great, I started releasing the tape and then we started getting a good response and eventually,This tape ended up in Johnny Z's hands around the time we met with Johnny Z in New Jersey and he gave it demos.

She was bringing a band from San Francisco to come with Johnny Z. He came to the house with a demo tape that had no life for it. We were impressed. Metallica was always ahead of us and the other bands, you know. They were always six months to a year ahead of us. They came out and they would kill them all before any other band released their records. I think killing them all really set the tone for what was to come in April 1983. Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica. and replaced by Kirk Hammett, we had obviously started hanging out with Exodus and Kurt definitely had a lot of musical talent and was also very up for whatever was going on, yeah, Kirk and I were at this party and he was like, “Hey, man, come here ".

Mark Whittaker just called me. They want me to audition for Metallica, you know, it's like a passing of the torch, you know, like Kurt gave me the keys to the family car, you know, and said, here it's yours, now don't blow it up, yeah, in what to the music it refers. Exodus' music was similar to what Metallica was doing. I already had the skills to be able to play or all that stuff in Kill Em All, no problem, that was the least of my worries because even then I knew that when you get into a band there is a certain dynamic and if your personality doesn't work within that band, that dynamic just won't work, you won't go anywhere.

A group of Die Hard New Jersey metal fans known as the Old Bridge Militia brought Metallica to their house for some fun. house, it's quite surprising, the house got a nickname which was the fun house because of all the things we did there, the place was all fun because what were you doing there? You had dirt bikes happening, oh.yeah there were just new rides, the cars you know up to a chain, we were welcomed to quite a few places that maybe you shouldn't have been, therefore I didn't have much to choose from, they didn't have much attack without hot.

Yeah, yeah, sure, you know, they provided us with the things that we needed, you know, everyone knew we were going to have these crazy parties with the music going crazy, the sound system was, uh, I think it was like a four-channel Onkyo, yeah, it had the SAE, but I bought a normal recording channel, yes, a full rack system, yes, we just didn't have the usual speakers that we had. I guess they were monitors, 212 214, so whatever went up on the roof of the house, runs a demo and then you're in your bedroom, you know, it was like wow, this is pretty wild, meanwhile, in East Bay, Exodus quickly took hold when Bay Area heavy metal band Ruthie's Inn became home to the burgeoning scene.

Looks like someone is trying to make the place respectable. This place, let's open it again, bring this last time I was here, it still had the marquee and you can still see Ricky involved. This place was as much the epicenter of the Bay Area pass as CBGB was for New York. punk scene, I mean, there were a lot of clubs before the ruthies, but this is where the violence took off, this is where the

murder

in the front row really took place. My father was Wes Robinson, born in Port Arthur, Texas, came to the East Bay around 1933.

He grew up in a home full of music and they were die-hard Jags fans and would sneak out late at night to go see Elephants Gerald or the classics (many of the greats who started his love for music). a lot that he had a club, but more that he would foster relationships that would allow him to use different venues for performances, he was a promoter, you know, that was the beginning and Wes Robinson, you know the late great West Robinson, you know, he signed Exodus in the first ever showed at ruthies the blues club his joy for something always led his actions to get involved in it he never got involved in something just because he could make some money from it he saw something in it I'm not sure what he saw maybe it recognized when, yes, when he was a music fan, being younger, obviously very different music, but I think he saw some of that same energy, so it really helped nurture the scene, there were battles along the way, they had battles in the neighborhood, um. you know, there was a um, there was a parking lot in front of Ruthies, that's right, the business is still there.

The Big O Tires people were throwing up there in that parking lot and breaking bottles after a while. I thought these people never complained. They never call the police, they never do anything after thinking about it. I'm like, well, they sell tires there, so we were partying across the street, in the Big O parking lot, someone would drive up in their Chevy Nova, pop the trunk, and there. There would be coolers of beer and bottles of Jack or whatever and we'd all go out, half the bands would wait with us and drink with us and then, oh, I have to go to the show, well, the Exodus shows at Ruthies were really crazy I mean, no.

I don't think I paid even once to get into the program. Wes was sitting at the door that I was passing by and he was just like Connie Pam Rebecca Leah those girls or something because there weren't many of us. We'd go to the bar, we'd sit, we'd drink, we didn't have ID, we weren't old enough, but it just happened, you know, people were dancing and the bands were playing so loud it got really humid. That's quickly when we found our house because it was where we were from. You know Rick and Paul were both from Berkeley.

You know Robbie was from Berkeley. Tom and I were from San Pablo. Exodus at Ruthie's house. A random person would just record it and send it. We sent it to our pen pal so you know we were already bonded over Blood. That's how the music from Exodus came to light very quickly and became a scene. It was the place to go. They have great kamikazes. You never knew what was going to happen. You know, something was crazy. I'm going to jump, of course, I was young and we were all angry and it was a party, the place was very dark, you could get away with almost anything there.

I will never forget it once I am in the crowd. like hitting your head, going crazy and stuff and actually bumping into some people, there were some people like having sex, the shows were classic, man, I mean, it was like Ruthie was so hot and wet in there that the walls were sweating like if there were people hanging from the pipes. The pipes and sprinklers and toilets were breaking the place would just be destroyed and they would still have us back like two weeks later Toby Ridge Andy Anderson Lonnie hughnault you know we would all take turns we called it bowling ball and it's where people jump. on stage and you're crouched in a crouch position next to the drums and you start running and just back them as hard as you can into the crowd you know it was fun we were hanging out at the Big O across the street east Toby Rage the cat shows up and sees Leroy with this Mike Torreo hair and his white capezios and he walks over and just puts on cute shoes.

Toby Rage was at it again. I never saw him break character. I don't know how we lived at that level. I just remembered just feeling claustrophobic in there, but if the music was good, that's all that mattered. Exodus just owned it and the pits were violent as hell. It was glorious. You know, Exodus's group of close friends. You know that they are. He called the kill team and literally if someone showed up at Ruthie's Inn wearing a Motley Crew t-shirt or a rat or a metal hair band, they would literally rip the kids' t-shirt off, cut strips of the t-shirt and tie them up. around his wrists as if they were scalp. and those aren't friendship strips, they're like war trophies, Lizzie Green, a bail bondsman's girlfriend, actually made a comic, it was based on the bobsled team and it was just them going out and literally killing impostors.

Paul and I had the idea that I'm going to make money, so I dropped this whole comic. She would sit there and draw these little comics that have now become Slay's team. The comics that are famous. I can't believe this car hit him. Someone wants to kill us all. It's murder. team and they will kill us all unless we fight back so we start a posing war so this is actually a real person. We call him Poser Bob. I don't remember what Bob's real name is. He dressed like that, he had no problem being a By the way, folks, she's a nuclear scientist now.

I investigate explosives for the government, it's the party line, but I'm betting on the government, it's my line. Rage. I mean, it's like no one would try to pose if you were suddenly there. I'm going to let you know the Converse print on the side of your head you got off the plane one day we went to ruthies the next day people were jumping on the PA stack they were jumping into the crowd people were standing with their backs against the states holding their hands like that throw people, we've never seen anything like that in Europe, kill it, I didn't stage dive most of the time, I stayed outside, let other guys push the guys in the middle close enough that you can still see the band, but not understanding, you know, running over ruthies was crazy and we were never really crazy about keeping people off the stage at that time, you know, that's what they did and they had a great time doing it if you were an imposter or a dumb girl or something might be terrifying, but if you were friends with them and you understood or accepted them, their hearts were so big, one of those defining moments in any scene where you know that was the show that inspired the lyrics. by Bonded by.

Blood, I remember it was us in a rock band playing well and the rock band that was up there rocking for their sisters band or whatever with their glass and they left them at the front of the stage and when we walk in everyone starts to break all the glass, then people's hands got cut, so there was literally blood on the stage, there's literally blood everywhere and I remember this girl who was there to see the rock band must have seen something that made her She liked the band and she was in front and she was rocking, yeah, this is kind of cool and Paul bent down and got a handful of blood on her and just wiped it on her face and she ran out ah screaming united by the blood is written by a band that was in the middle of That song and that album resonate a lot because it's a product of the scene that you know if you listen to it.

It's almost like a documentary in a way about those brief years when this whole Bay Area scene was just getting started, as you know. 83 to 85 Okay, no one, I mean no one had ever seen anything like Slayer. I remember thinking this is really interesting. Okay, they're from Southern California, but they're faster than any band. I've heard the visuals, the speed and just the heaviness. Everyone just took me to this Slayer when we went to the Bay Area, that's where we felt at home because LA was saturated and Hollywood was saturated with Glam Rock, we all know what that is compared to the Thrashers and the metalheads to those of us who were in front.

When we played, the only thing I remember was the enthusiasm of the crowd, the intensity of it, the kids were jumping on stage and then they started walking on people's heads and shoulders, you know, because everyone was stuck together, we went up north and did a show with Excellence that surprised me and there is nothing wrong with Imports. The Bay Area was the epicenter of the

thrash

scene and if your own region didn't embrace you, we'd be The Nobody, nobody did what we did to be there and hear them think. oh my god these guys are doing the same thing, we're really heavy music, the songs are awesome, the band is awesome, the guys are really cool and we get along really well.

L.A was more where hair metal was coming down, so here we are. Sort of OC and the OC audience was very similar to the Bay Area audience, but the Bay Area audience was much more advanced. I first learned about Slayer when Brian Slagle, who runs Metal Blade Records, sent me an advance tape of Show No Mercy. their first album was almost like a demo and again it was at the time when all we cared about was bands playing fast and Slayer came here and played their first three shows in January of '84. And the first one was at Keystone Berkeley.

If you look at the back cover of Show No Mercy, they were wearing eyeliner, why are you wearing makeup? You can't call it Glam and it wasn't actually makeup, but eyeliner. Someone made a comment, why are they wearing that makeup? My thought is I'm not really wearing makeup but you know damn well you don't need to wear that stuff man everyone's in makeup and they know the spandex and the whole journey that's going on and I think Carrie could have done it. I had spikes at the time if you don't know me if you don't know guitar if you don't know much about Slayer you know those spikes had some problems and I was these people like Andy Anderson and Toby rage like the original slave team, they noticed it and started a chant to take off her makeup and you know, Andy even went as far as going to the men's room and looking for paper towels and we waved the towels at him.paper.

Slayer did two shows that they played. at Keystone Berkeley the night before and then played at Ruthies the next night with Exodus. The Keystone Berkeley show was the last show they used the makeup on because we told them it wouldn't wash off at Ruthie's, that was it for me. I took all that off. Like I didn't need that, so I stuck to black shirts and leather pants and after the Keystone Berkeley show we destroyed their hotel, it was a strip of destruction that had to be admired and appreciated, it was incredible, they had a hotel room in At the Berkeley Plaza Hotel, we just destroyed that place and we showed up with a hunting Tom and these guys were nailing pizza to the ceiling, man, and you know, stuffing everything they could into the bathroom and we actually tunneled through. through the wall to the manager's room. hotel room, they trashed this motel room that I had in my name because I was the oldest guy in the band, so we had two rooms and they trashed them not too many years ago, now Carrie and I were having a conversation and somehow that arose. and he said, "You know, I had a lot of trouble about that." That was our first introduction to traveling away from home in 1984.

Wes Robinson organized a mini festival that brought together various types of bands, although it was called Eastern Front and the festival was affectionately known as Earth Day A sly nod towards the many more great chefs Bill Graham's Dam Green, this was how we would imagine what a day on the green should be like because these were our heroes, these were our gangs in Wes Robinson who ran the ruthies, they organized it, it was kind. Like the Woodstock moment in the Bay Area scene, I wanted people to be able to do what they do and hopefully make some money from it and if they weren't making money, at least there was the show and all this stuff. was at a water park that's at the bottom of Berkeley, right on the other side of this estuary that flanks Interstate 80, the lineup was Slayer Exodus had Suicidal Tendencies, it's kind of a defining moment historically because it's a crossover moment.

As if Suicidal were a hardcore band and they were playing with our metal bands with x's and Slayer. I know for a fact that the band couldn't play La when I first joined the band and basically Suicidal Tendencies got banned in LA, everyone was like, "Hey, we're not that different, we love extreme." music we hate Glam Rock, we hate everything, like you know, poser type, it was like a defining moment because everyone who was there was like wow, this is cool and you can see all the pictures, I mean all those guys who are fast friends already and if not that solidified it, that was one of the first shows I started to see that you knew the camaraderie between the bands and stuff and I think that's one of the things that shows in the photos too.

It was just amazing. You know the spirit of the north by experiencing that positive energy and for me it was everything. again because, again, I didn't even get a chance to play in La, but you know, with this band that was from La, it was fast and furious, we had a lot of space, the ground was flying and it was a great show. Good to be back with you Dave Mustaine from San Francisco started his new band Megadeth with Vengeance and immediately played in the Bay Area where he was welcomed with open arms. This is the first Megadeth demo that Dave recorded.

After gathering the original Megadeth, he sent him out. to maybe half a dozen fans and hand-wrote the track list. Dave had a friend, Brian Liu, who offered to run our fan club, which was basically a post office box, and one day this letter shows up saying Hi Dave, me. I hope your new shit is faster than Metallica and that night, I'm not kidding, we went to rehearsal and we sped up every song 10 to 20 beats per minute, I mean every song, so things like skulls under the skin, which are as if we were the Sabbath group. Officer, we've been to the Bay Area enough times.

I couldn't tell you how many, but we've been there enough that showing up at Megadeth will make people think about Slayer too. I saw Mustang playing Metallica, Jeff and I. We would both sit in the crowd and ask how he does that, how he is playing, without looking at his fingers. I mean, we'd be surprised if he was up there, looking over there, so I was flattered when I said there's a lot of Came Calling. of crazy folklore about those first days, weeks and months after I left New York, when I got on the bus, traveled to California, did a lot of soul searching, I had already started writing the lyrics, the first lyrics I ever wrote It was for the song.

I set fire to the world that was called Megadeth and I saw a piece of paper on the floor of the bus that belonged to Senator Allen Cranston and it was a hand that Bill had extended and told the Megadeth Arsenal that it cannot be read. He was talking about his nuclear Armament Arsenal negative, that's a great line, so I wrote it, put it in the song, I didn't think you knew that One Day would end up being the title. My first show was with Megadeth and I remember the first time I saw Mustang. play I just couldn't believe it as a band, that was the first place we went there, it was Ruthie's and that was interesting because, uh, Ruthies was so small that we had built this crazy stage at Carrie's house and I was asking Take him, he would let us would help until we found a permanent player and built the stage because I wanted this war scene.

When we get there, the ceiling is this high. We're trying to figure out how we're going to get there. all our stuff there, it's like we borrowed every Marshal in the community and everything we could buy from recycling, we gotta keep our head down and jump in the air, you're going to stick your head in the light. socket, he says, "I'm going to put together this super group that's going to take no prisoners." What I noticed around town is that there are a lot of people posing, preening and wearing their studded bracelets from the shops on Hollywood Boulevard and They all looked like Vince Neil or David Lee Roth, but Dave was the real deal.

Everyone is really surprised that Mustaine was kicked out of the band, because back then he was almost like the leader. He really had something to prove after leaving Metallica. It's amazing how quickly he put it together. Megadeth is a band that was conceptualized before it was a band. It was an architectural plan of what the band was going to be and I think because that was drawn up in Dave's apartment in mine. This vision of what we've been looking for is a great combination and has that punk energy when we debuted the band in the Bay Area to see that frenzy and the kid reached out and actually grabbed the swing and broke it off my base. in the middle of the song and I've never seen anything like this and people were literally like bleeding on stage from the hits to the head and the hits to the front, you could almost feel the tension, you know he's up there trying to prove that he is a foreigner, maybe in January of '83.

They left in April, they came back, I think, a month in June after finishing the recording and then they were on tour, so that first year, in quotes, they moved to the Area of the Bay, they were probably only here a couple of months, we really had We came from the underground we recorded Kill Em All We ran back to San Francisco to give it to all the people who were our core group. It was our chance to put the scene on the map. Kill Em All came out in the summer of '83. You know, and in our second issue I did the review, you know, we had record reviews, you know, and I said Metallica were going to have a full page, no one knew at the time how big they were going. to become, but I said this band is a killer, so I came to the title of the middle album of the year Kill Em All Exodus recorded their definitive thrash metal masterpiece bonded by blood in 1984 bonded by Blood and how you don't like it bonded by Blood oh The Exodus um, especially from that era, that's my favorite The Exodus album joined by Blood was more anticipated than killing them in a lot of ways just because you know we spent more time with Exodus than Metallica, I basically ended up replacing Kirk, We've never been in a studio before, so you're learning the process, you know the whole microphone thing and how to keep the guitars in tune because the microphone hears everything and you're just learning from scratch how to record an album that we recorded together with Blood in Prairie Sun.

Studios, our friends would do it. We came from the Bay Area and we partied at night, you know, and they got too drunk, those fist fights and the broken windows, the whole thing with some of my blood was like it was a chemistry that five kids didn't know nothing. About recording, we have nine songs together and we just want to put everything we have into these songs, man, and just capture this vibe, it's the craziest thing, the first note, man, it's like answered by Blood bonded by Blood, it's an incredible album. The riffs the speed that's my Exodus record That's the Exodus record captured that kind of that youthful angst and anger that was thrash metal that was a Bay Area thrash metal record, you know, so, you know, kill them all united by Blood, they are, they are kind. like they were twins to this day people are like the bottle man from Blood forget it there are quite a few covers from that time period where you look at them and go wow really but still I mean. what was inside that sleeve was nothing but pure barrier Thrashers Hoser guy is an impostor a pose here some places don't know that you kill the closers they break an imposter's leg that makes me smile impostors must die there is only a fallen man the epitome of what a singer is Should be because if you don't like him he's all Pummel that impostor he'd go on one of those rants about killing imposters on stage and if there was posturing in the crowd they'd be worried If she is dead, he would go to people's houses. houses and completely destroyed his houses.

The Exodus guys would be there and Paul would kick people out. One of the prerequisites for getting into the party was that you had to bring a two-by-four so you could destroy the place and I remember grabbing a beer bottle right in the fireplace right when we walked in and it just exploded, he had his way with it. with a lot of things that were a bit of a mess, actually, to be honest, he handcuffed someone to a tree like this, he ran a life A sewer rat let loose in my house once we cut people's hair, if you had a rat pin on a Bon Jovi shirt, a Motley Crue shirt or something, it would strip you right where you were instead of cutting that shirt off.

Cut you off with that if that's all he did, they were lucky. I remember the place he lived in as if he lived on a concrete slab. His wool turned with him door to door and Paul was practically inseparable. He had a house demolition party. Some crazy stuff happened at these parties, a lot of beer, a lot of liquor photos, walls smashed, holes kicked in, just slamming our arms down the halls, just hitting everything, the plaster house was dismantled, you know, piece by piece. Paul bailoff later died. He suffered a stroke in 2002. He is loved by his friends and metal fans everywhere.

Paul for what he lacked in pure musical talent. He had all the drive and passion you could want because we've done more to keep him around, probably yes. I have been a failure trying. I am happy to have a million memories and 5 billion photographs of incredible moments to remember. He's like the greatest thrash metal man of all time and he made an album twice. We are all together with him. at the bedside in the hospital and Rick, you know, and I lowered him to the floor, you know, you know, I'm missing the legend. I miss it every day in the mid 1980s.

Lars and James lived in the infamous Metallica mansion in El Cerrito, yes, The Metallo Mansion and that is certainly not one of our cars right there, that Porsche was not parked there our fault, but at least with the Metallica Mansion it was literally almost a straight shot back from Ruthie's house, so like there was a show or whatever in At least that was a straight shot almost down San Francisco Avenue. Pablo back home definitely a bachelor pad where you don't dare enter the bedrooms with all the front rooms covered with posters and beer bottles. I remember taking all the furniture out the front door.

Here and organizing this party we left the record player and maybe a couple of chairs, maybe a sofa and, obviously, the alcohol, so the music, the alcohol and we went crazy fighting and we had these crazy mosh pits in the house, for We are usually partying in the streets. or whatever, having a place to go and hang out was cool, even Metallica's house. I think they were actually there more than Metallica, you know, because they were already on tour constantly while they were on tour, the lone members of Metallica would write postcards to keep in touch. with the scene at home ah yeah, postcards, letters, that was the only way you could keep in touch when we got to a town and you know, write down what was going on and just send it to all those early show newbies that were a kind of laying the groundwork for the sceneof the bear were happening hey John, how are you?

You know we're playing and playing and it's okay, we're going to go out and party, go drink and then you turn it around, hey John, it's 2am. m. you're here we're furious we're getting drunk we're drinking beers and hanging out with Venom metal in your ass right stack Marshall Lars Ulrich drummer in parentheses in hindsight it was probably them dealing with everything that was going on with them you knew they were going to the next level a thousands of miles from home being away from home being away from your friends being away from your girlfriend was a big deal and they liked writing letters, you know, back then we all wrote letters waving the flag for the San Francisco Bay Area on the scene, so it was important for us to stay in touch with everyone who was at home holding the four Say Titles and destroyed them.

Clifford was writing me very long letters from Copenhagen with this horrible handwriting and just talking about how great things were going, this tour is great, the first Archer Festival. I called Lars if he wanted to open my festival because I thought they were a great band and, you know, sending money for plane tickets and stuff was definitely a big hit. Great impression, you could already tell that these kids were going somewhere that everyone knew. I mean, we all knew some old black and white photos of Metallica at that show, they were so nervous at that moment to do the show even though you knew they were out.

They were still part of the scene, you heard the band was turning people away just like they did when they started here on our way, they said no we didn't have the cover, it was just Kirk, there they were copying the tapes the next day and They were sent to Germany, Belgium, France, all over the world, it wasn't really until James started to get some European shows under his belt in the spring of 1984 where he started to be able to dominate the big European crowds, it was then when he became James Hetfield. the leader this certainly wasn't the shy kid who was in high school hating life this was the kid who finally found his voice and got to be in a band that could help him express it we were very aware that something was brewing in San Francisco, that was a little heavier, a little angrier, Exodus, you know, they were definitely part of that escape from what he saw in the Bay Area.

Andre verheisen booked Exodus at the Dynamo Club, the show moves on to Legends spread by numerous pirates who were actually This is the first time in Europe, the only club show they did was at the Dynamo. They performed alone to 300 to 350 people, more people there than I think were officially allowed, maybe three times as many because everyone wanted to see those bands and the Dynamo Club was the only place you could see it thanks from my friends by correspondence Brian Lew and Andy Airborne Anderson, who were very close to Exodus. I got some live tapes, you know, and we were fascinated by them, they were even faster than Metallica, they were even a little more intense. where it came out and word of mouth is the strongest promotion you can get while Metallica was on tour Pam and Connie were looking after the mansion, we had ruined their finances along the way we weren't very good at balancing checkbooks The markets left a checkbook and left a checkbook signed with checks and we were supposed to deposit money and then give them the check.

I had to go to my very conservative Republican parents and ask them to save Metallica, so I like to say that my mom, Mike and Carol Bryant, saved the Metallica platform, sorry guys, so there you have it. Everything went well, yes, new bands were emerging all over the Bay Area inspired by the scene they lived in. Translate Testament The violence of the Angel of Death, forbidden and possessed, all left their mark on the medal scene. Every year there would be a band that would sort of step up in the role of being able to headline a show.

I would say Ruth, this is the stone. Metallica came out with Kilimall and they were doing the Kill Em All For One tour. We stood right on the edge of the pit and headed over. They beat him up the whole show when it was Cliff Burton and he was doing Anesthesia Pulling Teeth and these guys are amazing and the whole way home it was like we were going to form a band, we were going to start playing shows, we were going to play thrash. all these people were going to shows at Ruthies and the Bay Area clubs and stuff and they basically looked at the stage and said, "I can do that." You always hear old guys talk about the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and you know. how they picked up a guitar right after seeing that was my Beatles Ed Sullivan moment but we wanted to be something if we wanted to matter we had to get into Ruthie's and if we could survive the ruthies and not get murdered and not be booed go on stage and not get broken microphone in front of him, like people used to do, and he survived the sled team, so that would be the best.

You can't tell the story of the San Francisco metal scene without talking about Debbie Abono, she put together one of the hardest bands to come out of the Bay Area that was possessed of, you know, super satanic speed metal, this is metal. Mom, right here. I know there are some metal moms around the world, but this one was ours. I broke my leg in a dri. show, she basically nursed me back to health at her house, she was the mom of the scene, you know, every show, she would be there for every band, she lived in a house in Pinole and the after parties were at her house , she really saw everyone. that scene is human while there was a lot of demonization of you know, you know, the youth she knew we needed a safe place and Debbie Bono's house was always a safe place, you know a party would last a couple of days, it would last a couple of days. and sometimes I would go to school the next day walking through the people that were still at my house, they all knew that Debbie would take care of them if they had nowhere to go, the kind of person who talked by word of mouth was because you say, hey, I need this or I need that for my band and my mom would go out and get it for me personally.

She helped me a lot. I started taking guitar lessons with Joe Satriani. I couldn't pay it. She paid. and you know, I couldn't thank her enough, there's no way I would be anywhere I was now without Debbie, so you know, internally grateful for everything she did, a young 16-year-old Larry Lalonde, he's in tenth grade in high school and they have a record, you know, imagine being a 10th grader and you have a real album and you're playing in clubs. I remember showing up in high school and saying, hey, I have a record of saying, yeah, big deal like People would say, Well, you think you're good from time to time, she was constantly getting tapes in the mail, she was getting hundreds of them from other bands that wanted her to manage them, she really took care of everyone you know and when she managed. prohibited her from going on tour.

I think she was 57 when she was doing this. I mean just going on tour in a van for two months all over America at 57 and I think it's crazy and it's all the Horrors, you've probably heard that she put up with a lot of our shenanigans, you know, one time, I guess They had like a porn magazine in the back of the truck and they had taken a bunch of photos inside. windows of the van and we pull up to a gas station and here's this grandma, you know, this old lady coming in and here are these raunchiest pictures on the windows that she couldn't believe they did that stuff, thank you, I always considered that. us, the third wave of thrash, so it was like Metallica Slayer Exodus was the first wave and then trying the angel of death, forbidden violence started auditioning, it just went from band to band to band to band to band and that's it You know, it finally clicked with the forbidden evil in a band. that young man could have a show at rooties and no one would bat an eyelid, we're hanging out like ruthies and the rock isn't supposed to be there because we're 14.

My first show was November 24, 1984, Mega Death Angel, when they were loading up, you know, we were making fun of them like your mom was hosting the show for you and then we were getting mad like they were referring to us as so young and stuff and just focus on the fact that we are When I was young it was hard to form a band, especially if you were 15. I also knew that if I could get through just one show it would be a positive experience. I need to do this. Alex is here. I'm sure he told you that.

I know he is 15 years old and was not a teenager. He was on tour all the time. You know, from the first album to the fifth. We made an album every year and we toured every year. Five discs. Five years of ownership is credited with the beginning of the Death Metal genre. I know the whole satanic thing was kind of fun. I don't think anyone liked Satan, he just scared people, so in August 1985, Metallica played Bill Graham's legendary day at the Green Festival on a bill that featured scorpions and Yngwie Malmsteen. Metallica stealing the show I was there was crazy, did we all come here to kick ass or the fact that Metallica got the chance to play Donnington and then two weeks later a day on the green was just total attention to what i remember?

In there, a little cold, without really knowing what was happening, but surprised by the consumer's satisfaction. The audience had embraced this so fervently from the moment the band took the stage that it wasn't even a question of whether they understood it or not. that these people got it and I witnessed extraordinary fervor and enthusiasm because it's hard not to get carried away with the background role of most other bands, but with that Metallica version it stood out Cliff Patty's very serious attack on the strings, his technique was very abrasive, he has a lot of power, so it's almost like that punk attitude came out of his fingers and yet he was very elegant with this connection to classical music.

You can't overstate what a huge moment it was not only for Metallica but for the entire scene, the fact that Metallica was playing a dander green it was like all of us were playing Dana Green Day on the green, it's been around since the 70s to be asked to be a part of it, no matter where we were. were on the poster, the rat was placed on top of Metallica, which was sacrilegious to say the least, so I painted this poster with the Metallica logo by squishing this rat that was turned upside down with a little spiked wristband and was sitting on the side of the thing I said rat poison and a couple of overweight women in spandex berated me, you know, Metallica came out and took over as soon as they got on stage, it was the rock in the pond, concentric circles of violence spread all over.

I remember standing there stage left and going there is Metallica and there are 60,000 people and it's 1985 it's like yeah, this is really cool. I don't think anyone has ever seen a mosh pit and it didn't occur to me to go and there will be a mosh pit so for both of us. Having all of us there on the stage on the green was a huge accomplishment. The whole metal community was excited and supportive, and especially for Cliff, who is from the Bay Area, it was like heaven to him. Everyone knows about it around the world, so he was excited after the day.

At the green show we did our normal things, you know, James and I went out into the crowd to throw fruit. Fred, rotten cotton and some of the others, you know, they had some drinks and they went crazy, they took avocados and they prepared them through uh vents and air. The conditioned vents just ruined the backstage dressing room. Are you supposed to throw out the trash? You know, that's how we did it, we destroyed it. I called Metallica's house and James answered the fun and I thought where we were in trouble I had no idea you know there's a problem. another day after ours, you know another band has to use your trailer, you're going to have to go there and talk to Bill, it's like, oh, it's like they're calling me, he sat me down and said, hey, I know you're a band rock and roll in the background and you know that breaking up, destroying things that you know can be fun for a while, what would you do if people came into your house and behaved this way and James behaved, more or less do they do it every weekend?

I didn't quite understand what he was trying to say and he said that you guys are talented and you are on a path of destruction. He knew what he said. I had the same conversation with Sid Vicious and Keith Moon and they didn't listen, maybe you. I'll listen, maybe not. What really happened was that James was totally brave and Bill totally respected that, so I said, you know, I'm young, I'm stupid and thanks for that, I appreciate the talk and I'll do the best I can years later. Go see me, how is James? Well, you know, I haven't really talked to him lately, but I'm sure he's fine to this day.

I still never said thank you to him because he enlightened me a little. He did it well. of his skill he returned to play in the backstage area he put this clear plastic queen all over the ceiling the walls the floor the table evenhe wrapped beer bottles in it so it would be protected 1986 was a devastating year for thrash metal Metallica Megadeth and Slayer, followed by Anthrax. They all released Landmark albums, so I asked him a big question where this was taken and he says I'm pretty sure it's in Copenhagen. He woke up and put on his little box or his shorts and he had a little amplifier and his white guitar. and it looked like a Gibson but it wasn't and he would play, he couldn't wait to go on tour and Cliff was so excited that he didn't want to go to Europe like a short tour that he wanted me to start looking at.

At this point, the houses had really developed and we were going to live together, so he wanted me to look at the houses around East Bay on September 26, 1986. Metallica played a show in Stockholm, Sweden, supported by his friends Anthrax. Anthrax was. Moving on to the next show, Metallica never arrived in the early hours of September 27th. Their tour bus crashed and Cliff Burton died. He was 24 years old. I went home and started calling Cliff in Sweden at the hotel. He had the itinerary. Oh no, them. I haven't signed up yet, okay that's weird, try again an hour later, that's when she told me and I just wasn't even real, it wasn't possible, so I immediately called Cliff's parents.

I didn't want to be with anyone else. you know he wanted to be with his parents and smell their stuff, we don't sit around and say oh I think next year will be big or I hope this, I hope we just go and do it and don't put too much into it I thought about what could happen and what could happen if we try not to think too much about the future. Cliff was such a character and he was with us for that short period of time. Thank God there were some people filming and there were friends around who had cameras to really respect that moment.

I am very happy that he was in my life and I was able to share some moments with him. Someone is so close and someone I saw my future with and it was horrible, it was just horrible for most of us. We were so young back then that we hadn't really dealt with death before the first thing I did. I got up and headed to the Vault because he was working the next day in the store from the moment we opened the door. it was a constant flow of people coming in it was the place where people came to cry it was the place where people came to reflect and tell stories and it was almost the perfect place to find out because it was also home to the whole scene for him and those Guys, what made us survive was that community of those Thrashers that no one ever thought about.

The dangers of rock and roll or the fact that tour buses crash and you know people die out there doing what we all aspire to do and doing what we ultimately loved. I know we felt bad, but I couldn't imagine what each of them felt personally. Yes, it's a terrible time. The terrible thing I know about Cliff is that he was a very kind soul and we laughed and laughed. You can't ask more of your kids, especially when you don't have to tell them much that they, uh, Cliff would just decide that he knew for himself what was right and what was wrong and he practiced it just like he practices music.

People forget why you do this is because they remember those days when you were in a shitty rehearsal room, nothing else mattered except making something that was everything you lived for, so metal Allegiance, we're just the neighborhood kids, we're friends who share the same record collection and it was just a great spirit and we said, you know, maybe we should make a record to see what it sounds like if all of us can really write and record some music together, the marching orders for that . However, the record is that we are writing a final thrash record and obviously Alex is involved in that scene.

We're getting Mark Assaghetto. Gary Halton. Truck. Billy. We're getting the best of the Bay Area. You'd expect this to happen everywhere, but we're like you know. Do you think it is like that? No, it's the Bay Area, no, it's a special place and we have some special people who support each other. Wow, sometimes we can do jams with people you know and they approached me. I'm like absolutely. Please, nothing to download, oh, from the thrash of the '80s. The metal music that was nurtured in the Bay Area extended its reach around the world inspiring metal fans everywhere to Crank It Up in 2013.

Gary Holt replaced the late great Jeff Hannaman. Enslaved, it's a little strange, you know, it's like he got the call from Carrie to help. They, you know, people who don't know the background between the two bands will ask me, well, how does it feel to play with metal legends? They are my friends. I think metal fans are the most devoted of all fans out there. They're not fickle, they like what they like and I think Slayer fans are those fans times 10. Their courage and I feel more honored by the fact that people have such admiration for the band.

You use stories about some of these people that, uh, you. Music can be strong and help us together get through a certain point in my life. I'm very grateful because I was later given a negative ethnography in 2017 for the best metal performance for their album, the hunt for dystopias is safe, this community has a way of taking care of itself I feel honored that the fans still like it what we're doing it's great to hear it feels good whoa oh my god when we take out our instruments we become like teenagers again we have a good time we joke we laugh Everything we do revolves around improvisation, there seems to be a certain energy and magic that is very pure on this music in 2016.

Metallica released Hardwired to self-destruction to great critical and commercial success. We are very grateful to continue where we are. I'm here in Mexico City playing in front of 60,000 or 70,000 people in a show that leaves me speechless. It's pretty extraordinary for bands like Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer and Exodus to still be around and still play. I tell you what you think is going to happen. It hasn't happened to you, you have no idea, you just don't know, if it wasn't for Cliff, it wasn't for, you know, those early Metallica records, you know, I wouldn't be there, that's for sure and there would be no reason why. which Cliff.

He was a fun bassist and you can feel that on stage for me it is an honor and a blessing to be able to play his bass lines and celebrate him and his base playing to the world around the world to take it there and share it if you and I were sitting around in 1982 chatting about the East Bay days, obviously no one at the time would stop long enough to believe that the music and the scene could have that kind of impact and that kind of longevity. that says I think about albums and there's still no ballad, they wanted to say that because that's not what it was about, you know they weren't going to do it.

I love those guys, they're still my friends, they're like my brothers, we didn't do it. We invented music, we didn't invent metal, we just took what we loved, you know, we stood on the backs of giants and put two cents into it and that's all we did and now thrash metal came along, it was a real event that had come very far. -Achieving an impact on musical culture over time. Look, this wasn't here. I wondered if the stage was where the bathroom was. I think it was and this wall was exposed. You know, we're talking like you knew this 35 years ago. exactly more or more, I'm surprised how well the park works, although we made a lot of covers, we took the stones from Def Leppard and Wasted from Def Leppard and we, the first maid, now our friend bought one from Iron Maiden just for the cover and like it was so fresh and new back then, a lot of people thought running free was an original exodus for a while and we were like no, sorry, I can't take credit for that, we got a Prowler, that song Prowler .

Hey, Kirk used to sing another piece of meat by The Scorpions that was in my high school band room when he was still in school. It was a perfect storm of all the people we needed to form a lasting music scene that continued. do great things and the amazing thing about it is that we were all young innocent people and we didn't know what we were doing or where everything was going, it just happened, it was like it came from heaven, this is one of the best moments. of my life, thank you, you know, I was telling someone this morning that I thought Metallica played here no, no, Kirk Hammett from Metallica when he was a member of our band Exodus, we played here when we were 16 years old.

Oh, you are Exodus, yes, I had it. I've been a fan forever, that's amazing, you're back. Exodus continues to play around the world and there are still no ballads.