During an early iteration of what eventually became Metallica, the band recorded the song “Hit the Lights” for the 1982 edition of the compilation album “Metal Massacre” under the name “Mettallica.” Along with frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, the other musicians featured on the demo track are Dave Mustaine, Ron McGovney, and guitarist Lloyd Grant.
In a recent interview with Reality Check, Grant recalled his time working with Ulrich and Hetfield and was asked if he should be considered one of the original members of Metallica.
“ Well, I don’t think Metallica wants to say I am an original member because the band weren’t really formed then,” Grant replied. “It was, like, I was looking for people to play with and we had a magazine, or a weekly [publication] that comes out on every Thursday, and Lars put an ad in and I answered the ad. And we started jamming and so forth.”
While he is sometimes overlooked, Grant has gotten some recognition in recent years. When Metallica celebrated their 30th anniversary In 2011, the band played live with a variety of guests, including Grant who came out to play “Hit the Lights.”
In 2018, Grant shared a few stories about Metallica’s early days during an interview with “The Ex Man” podcast, and revealed that he had written a few things with them. However, he is unsure if any of their recorded material still exists.
“When I met Lars, they weren’t called Metallica,” he said. “We were just forming a band at the time, so there was no name at the time as far as I know.”
“I met Lars through The Recycler [newspaper]. They got kinda big and you had the version for Orange County. Yeah, we were jamming. We were playing a lot of British heavy metal. We were playing covers. And I was starting to write some other stuff.”
“I don’t know where the [the tapes] are right now. [Laughs] But it wasn’t anything significant, if that’s what you meant. We were just jamming. We may have recorded quite a bit of it. I don’t know. Whenever you see [Lars], ask him that.”
