Old Band Members

 

 

Like a lot of bands in the heavy metal genre, Metallica has boasted quite a few line up changes over the years. The band’s sole original members, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, originally recruited bass player Ron McGovney when the band first started out in the early 1980s.

McGovney had been friends with Hetfield in high school, where the two bonded over their mutual love of heavy metal. McGovney was in the original line up of Metallica, but did not last long. He later said that his time in the band was an unhappy one. He felt that he was treated unfairly by the other members, and forced to do promotional and grunt work for the band. McGovney received a major electric shock after then lead guitarist Dave Mustaine poured a bottle of beer down his bass. Not long after, McGovney left the group. He later became a member of Phantasm.

In the year 1982, Dave Mustaine was recruited to be the band’s full time lead guitarist. But Mustaine would not remain long in the band, either. He was later asked to leave by Hetfield and Ulrich, who could not tolerate his erratic, drug and alcohol fuelled behavior. Mustaine would later go on to form the band Megadeth, who alongside Metallica and Slayer are considered to be among the most influential bands in the thrash metal genre.

Meanwhile, the band found a replacement for McGovney in the form of Cliff Burton, a highly skilled bass player who would contribute much to Metallica’s commercial breakthrough success. Unfortunately, Burton was killed in a bus accident when the band was on tour in Europe in the year 1986. He was twenty four years old at the time.

After Burton’s tragic death, Jason Newsted was asked to fill his shoes. Newsted left the band in 2001.