Metallica played a special concert earlier this month in Hollywood, Fla. as a tribute to Jon and Marsha Zazula, the couple that essentially helped start their career. At the beginning of the show, a tribute video played on the venue screens, and it’s now been uploaded to YouTube so fans who weren’t in attendance can check it out.
The video started with Lars Ulrich recalling the first time the band got a call from Jon Zazula in 1983 when they were living in San Francisco. James Hetfield explained that Zazula had received their demo tape, which was a common way to spread music during that time, and he was really enthusiastic about what he’d heard. So, a young Metallica set off across the country in a U-Haul to meet Zazula in New Jersey.
“One of the first things we had to tell him was, ‘Hey, we’re here! And we’re getting rid of our lead guitar player,” Hetfield said with a chuckle. “He was like, ‘Okay, well let’s keep going.’ We shared the same vision, so it felt absolutely right at the time.”
Kirk Hammett eventually chimed in, noting that he’d taken his very first picture with Metallica in the parking lot of Rock ‘N Roll Heaven, Zazula’s N.J. record store, right after meeting him and Marsha Zazula. The couple took Metallica into their home — the band moved into their basement in Old Bridge, N.J., and Ulrich referred to it as “Ground Zero for everything that was Metallica.”
“I would like them to know that we are so grateful,” Hetfield said. “Without that step in our careers, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett and Robert Trujillo spent the rest of the video clip telling stories about their time living and working with the Zazulas. You can watch it for yourself below. An additional video clip of the Zazulas speaking about Metallica can be viewed underneath.
After the video concluded, Metallica played a 16-song setlist consisting solely of songs from their first two albums Kill ‘Em All and Ride the Lightning, which were both released through Zazula’s label Megaforce Records. See a full recap of the evening here, and find out how you can download the audio from the concert at this location.
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