30 Interesting Things That Every Fan Should Know About Their Favorite Metallica

Metallica, a pioneer of thrash metal, is an American heavy metal band based in San Rafael, California. The current members of the band include James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, and Lars Ulrich. Here are 30 interesting facts about the band:

1. Metallica is credited as one of the "big four" of thrash metal, along with Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth, and also one of the most influential heavy metal bands of all time with more than 110 million records sales worldwide.
2. The band's name "Metallica," was suggested by Ulrich's friend Ron Quintana. He also suggested a few other named including "MetalMania."
3. Their 2003 album "St. Anger," was not received well by some fans in the United States, who even had a CD-burning party to show their hatred for the album. Despite earning some of the fans' hate, the album sold over 6 million copies and was certified 2x platinum. "St. Anger" even got the band a Grammy for Best Metal Performance for the lead single.
4. With the debut of their 2008 album "Death Magnet," Metallica became the only band in the United States history to have had six consecutive studio albums debut at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200.
5. Their self-entitled album, also known as "The Black Album," with over 30 million copies sold worldwide, is considered to be the best-selling album of the SoundScan era.
6. Their 1984 album "Ride the Lightning," due to the French pressing misprint had reportedly 400 copies with a green album. This green cover album is highly coveted by collectors thus becoming a very rare thing to find.
7. During the touring for their "Master of Puppets" album, the band lost their bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident on September 27, 1986. Burton was only 24 years and has left his legacy behind, with the Rolling stone magazine voting him to be the ninth greatest bassist of all time, in the year 2011.
8. In the year 2003, Hammett was ranked at #11 on Rolling Stone’s list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."
9. The band's origin is really an interesting story, where Hetfield replied to an advertisement posted in Recycler by Lars Ulrich, back in 1981. This led to the two meeting up for a jam session, but the outcome was only after a year, when Ulrich immediately had to form the band to record a track for the Metal Blade compilation "Metal Massacre."
10. Hetfield usually spends much of his free time as a mechanic working on classic cars. One of his favorite cars is "The Beast," a Blazer, which is outfitted to survive earthquakes and nuclear blasts.
    
11. The Metallica, in the year 1994, formed a club "MetClub," for their die hard fans. the club produces an annual T-shirt, and fans can also get tickets, merchandise, and even backstage passes for signing up members.
12. Bassist Robert Trujillo has been with Metallica since 2003, but has played only in one studio album - "Death Magnet." Initially he was member of the bands Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grroves, and the Ozzy Osbourne's band, when he formed the Mass Mental in the year 1998.
13. The most popular track "The God That Failed," from their 1991 self-titled album was based on the death of Hetfield's mother who chose her faith in God, to heal her, rather than any medical treatment for her cancer.
14. The band has a total of 83 full-time staff working for the members. In fact, Ulrich has a personal assistant named Barbara, who follows him everywhere and does everything for him.
15. Obsession, the band that Hetfield joined first, is famous for the launch of singer Michael Vescera’s career. The band is still active today and even released “Order of Chaos,” their latest studio album in the year 2012.
16. Ex-Pentagram member Joe Jasselvader believes the tragic death of the famous bassist Cliff Burton, was because Burton possesed tarot cards that were from the Salem witch trials, which is said to have been covered in human blood.
17. During theie 2012 European Black Album Tour, the Metallica played "The Black Album," in all its entirety. The album was ranked at #255 in the list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time," by the Rolling Stone in 2003.
18. It seems like the first instrument that Hetfield learned to play was not guitar after all, but the piano. He was around nine years old, when he started learning to play a piano.
19. The band prints their own magazine titled "So What!" through their club MetClub. The magazine is issued out five times throughout the year.
20. Every member of the band, besides being a part of Metallica, have also dabbed in some side projects and have gone solo too.
    
21. In the year 1982, Hetfield and Ulrich, first saw Burton perform live on stage during a show for the band Trauma. Before joining Trauma, Burton created a band named EZ-Street, with Jim Martin and Mike Bordin.
22. Hetfield had first jam session with original bassist Ron McGovney, with the band Obsession and not Phantom Lord.
23. As a kid, Ulrich was a tennis prodigy, with both his dad and grandfather playing the sport professionally. It was at the age of 16, that Ulrich's passion for music was ignited, when he met Swedish mellow singer Neneh Cherry.
24. Before the "St. Anger" album, they even hired a psychologist, to prevent the band member from totally breaking down while recording it.
25. Hetfield does not like the concept of expressing personal political opinions through music, as he claims people will believe the celebrities' opinion to be more valid because of the celebrities' popularity.
26. Hetfield, Burton, Cotton and McDaniel created a "Joke Band," named Spastik Children, through which they played in clubs in Northern California. For these performances, the members never practiced and the music was more of raw punk style.
27. During their show at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium on August 8, 1992, Hetfield happened to walk into a 12 foot flame, that left his upper body and head with second and third degree burns. Due to this, the band ended their set early.
28. Before joining the band, Hammett was a part of the Exodus band. He thought it was his friend's cruel April Fool's joke, when he first received a call about auditioning for Metallica. It was only in the second follow-up call that he realized it was a serious opportunity.
29. Ulrich has a passion for art and is an avid collector. He sold his Jean-Michel Basquiat painting ‘(Untitled) Boxer’ for $13.5 million, in the year 2008.
30. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Metallica is the third-best-selling music artist with a total of 59.12 million albums sold in the United States, as of January 2016.
    
31. Metallica Net Worth: Metallica was listed at #21 in the Forbes list of “Celebrity 100: The World’s Highest Paid Entertainers,” with an earning of $66.5 million.