Metallica Tickets

About Metallica

Lars Ulrich had struck a deal with Metal Blade Records to get a song on the compilation album, Metal Massacre. After finding Hetfield and Mustaine the group recorded its first song. The band found its name through another of Ulrich’s friends, Ron Quintana, Quintana was brainstorming for titles for his fanzine and had narrowed it down to Metal Mania and Metallica. Ulrich convinced Quintana to use Metal Mania took Metallica for the name of his band.

Early on in Metallica’s history, the group went through several roster changes before even playing a concert. The original bassist, Ron McGovney was ousted in favor of Cliff Burton, who Ulrich and Hetfield saw at a concert at Whiskey a Go Go, in 1982. His addition moved Metallica to San Francisco in 1983. The original lead guitarist, Dave Mustaine, was replaced during the recording of the group’s first album in 1983 in Rochester, New York, after the group alleged he had issues with drugs and alcohol. He was replaced by Kirk Hammett and still holds a grudge to this day against the band despite his success with Megadeath.

Metallica struggled for years, failing to be much of a draw on early headlining tours or as a supporting act. Their concerts did not fail to impress record executives though, and in 1984 Elektra Records A&R director Michael Alago and Q-Prime Management co-founder Cliff Burnstein saw them perform and signed them to a record contract and management deal. The result was Metallica’s first commercially successful album, Master of Puppets. The album spent 72 weeks on the charts and peaked at number 29, their first time breaking in the Billboard 200’s top 100. certified gold in November 1986 and platinum six times, 17 years later, the album brought Metallica into the public sphere for the first time.

A tragic bus accident took the life of bassist Cliff Burton while the Metallica was on the European part of their Damage Inc tour in 1986. Shocked, the group tried to piece things back together by adding Jason Newsted and continuing with the tour schedule. The new lineup returned to the studios in 1987. The album, …And Justice for All, was released in 1988 and was a huge hit. The album was certified platinum just nine weeks after its release. Metallica tickets to the Damaged Justice tour became almost impossible to find.

The album was a commercial success despite being wrought with production problems, but still garnered the group’s first Grammy Award nomination for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrument. In a stunning upset that became fodder for comedians and sketch comedies, Jethro Tull, a jazz fusion group, won the award. Metallica followed the nominated album with a self-tiled release in 1991. The album gave Metallica their first number one album and went on to become the group’s best selling album.

Heavy criticism from metal fans dogged the next two Metallica releases, Load (1996) and ReLoad (1997), for taking a more alternative rock approach, but the album still sold and Metallica tickets still sold very well, as tour dates constantly sold out. Metallica was accused of being out of touch with its fans, especially after their conflict with Napster in 2001. A demo that was supposed to be released on the Mission Impossible II soundtrack was leaked to radio stations and became a hit.

The band, however, discovered that the source of the leak was the peer to peer music sharing network, Napster. Metallica waged a public war with the popular site. They eventually won despite the backlash that blamed the high prices of the CDs despite their low production cost.

When the group returned to the studio in 2001, a documentary crew followed them and Hetfield went to therapy for drug and alcohol abuse. His decision to hire a therapist drew criticism from Newsted and in 2003 he was replaced by bassist Robert Trujilo. That same year, Metallica released their eighth studio album, St. Anger. Once again rabid fans rushed to get Metallica tickets ad the album. Fans and critics were critical of the change in musical direction for the album, with less guitar solos and the use of a snare drum. The title track won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 2004.