Metallica is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month, and the celebrations are in full swing! Shortly before celebrating the occasion with two live-streamed performances in San Francisco , the group received a tribute from their hometown.
Last Thursday, the city's mayor, London Breed , declared December 16th as "Metallica Day." California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an official proclamation acknowledging the band's new milestone and highlighting their successful career and charitable and philanthropic work.
Breed commented during the ceremony: “They are part of the fabric of the community. They have touched people’s lives for generations. When you talk about San Francisco, you talk about streetcars and then you talk about Metallica. And on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, I want to officially declare today 'Metallica Day'.”
The event celebrating the creation of "Metallica Day" featured drummer Lars Ulrich and bassist Robert Trujillo . During his speech thanking them for the tribute, Ulrich recounted the history of Metallica's relationship with San Francisco.
“We didn’t start in San Francisco. We started in Southern California. And we came to San Francisco for the first time in 1982, in September, and played at the Stone and later at the Old Waldorf a few times… And we’d been in Los Angeles for six, nine months, and we didn’t belong there. The reason we all wanted to be in a band was to fit into something bigger than ourselves, and we absolutely didn’t fit into anything in Los Angeles, Sunset Strip, Hollywood – none of that. We felt like complete outsiders.”
When we came here in September 1982 and started playing, we did four shows that fall – like I said, at the Stone, the Old Waldorf, and Mabuhay Gardens – and we were embraced and felt so welcome and loved here. There was a sense of musical community for people like us, who felt like outsiders, who liked things that weren't mainstream, and that's obviously been a significant part of San Francisco's history. So, coming here in 1982, supported by the history of the culture, the Beat poets and the hippie movement, the music and Bill Graham and everything that San Francisco represented, we were just instantly embraced.”
He concluded by saying, “We felt so welcome, so loved, and finally felt like we belonged somewhere. And it’s been 39 years of feeling that sense of belonging, not just to a geographical place – San Francisco, the Bay Area, Northern California, whatever you want to call it – but also to a state of mind. You belong to what San Francisco represents.”
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