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By Root 356 0

where he intentionally made a stop-off in order to see them before returning home to America. ‘I met [Maiden bassist and founder] Steve Harris for the first time in 1981,’ he recalled. They were playing ‘at a place the size of your living room’. Nevertheless, for the seventeen-year-old rich kid and aspirant megastar, at that moment ‘Iron Maiden were the best rock band in the world’. He added, ‘But it wasn’t just the music.’ There was quantity as well as quality; a factor he would later utilise to deliberate effect in Metallica. Maiden would ‘put ten minutes more music on albums than any other rock band’. They had ‘the best packaging, the coolest T-shirts, everything’. There was ‘a depth to [their] whole organisation that was great for fans like me, and it was a big inspiration for us in Metallica. I wanted to give the same quality to kids who were into our band.’ It was also the last time Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno would sing with the band: sacked for allowing his drug habits to get in the way of Maiden’s rocket-like upward surge. Going backstage after the show to say hello and get their autographs, Lars noticed there was clearly only one leader of Iron Maiden: Steve Harris. It taught him an important lesson, he later told Harris: ‘True democracy doesn’t work in a band.’

The crazy little kid with the funny accent and the energy to burn was learning fast. Or as he later put it to me, ‘That’s one of the reasons Metallica exists, because I’d sit there and learn from the Motörheads and Diamond Heads and Iron Maidens, because I was so far up their asses all the time – as a punter, absorbing and learning the vibe. That’s what made me realise I wanted to do this shit myself.’

Two

The Cowardly Lion

Miami, or maybe Tampa, the Monsters of Rock tour, 1988, walking down the hotel corridor, Kirk and I.

‘Hey,’ he said, ‘do I smell…what is it? Wait…lavender?’

‘Yeah,’ I smiled. ‘I’ve just been dousing myself. Gotta headache.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘lavender is supposed to be good for that, right?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘they call it the medicine chest in a bottle.’

‘Sure,’ he said, ‘what do you do, like, put drops on your clothes?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘or maybe rub some on the inside of your wrists or your temples. Better than taking aspirin.’

‘Sure,’ he said.

I liked Kirk. It was a relief talking to him. We were both vegetarian, smoked a lot of weed and liked to kick back. We stood there waiting for the elevator to come. The door slid open and there was James inside.

‘Hey,’ said Kirk, smiling.

‘Hey,’ said James, not smiling.

‘Hey,’ I said, but he just ignored me, barely nodded. I wasn’t surprised. To James I was just another one of Lars’ little friends and Lars had a lot of those. I decided to ignore him and carry on my conversation with Kirk.

‘So,’ I said, ‘are you into essential oils then?’

Kirk looked aghast. ‘What?’ he spluttered. ‘No! I mean…no! I’ve read a little about them, I wouldn’t say I was like into them.’ He made to laugh it off as James looked down at us and glared fiercely.

I felt like I’d just had a bucket of water – or worse – thrown over me. Like, shut the fuck up, fool! You don’t talk about gay stuff like essential oils in front of James! Jesus, what are you, fuckin’ crazy?

Realising my blunder, I wanted to turn and run. There was no escape, though, as we rode the elevator in silence the rest of the way down to the lobby. As we all walked into the bar together, I noticed Kirk affecting a sort of mini-Hetfield saunter. Safety in numbers, I found myself doing the same. There was a tape of an Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay show blaring from the big video screen on the bar-room wall and we all sat down to watch it, ordered three bottles of Sapporo (large), and began yucking it up. The Dice was a very Hetfield sort of a guy, took no shit from homos or foreigners. Told it like it was; mouth like a machine-gun. The Dice was a very Metallica sort of guy, I realised. I just hoped the smell of lavender didn’t get in the way of James’ beer…

They say opposites attract. That was not the case when Lars Ulrich and James Alan Hetfield