Lady Who Let Metallica Observe in Her House Remembers What They Had been Like

A younger Metallica have been “respectful” to then-Megaforce Data worker Victoria Calandra in 1983 when she began letting them use her Central New York residence as a apply area. The circumstances are actually thrash steel lore amongst diehard Metallica followers.

This was on the time when Metallica and different early Megaforce Data acts have been made to cease utilizing the house of Megaforce’s Jon and Marsha Zazula for rehearsing. The Zazulas, in New Jersey, had obtained a letter informing them to chop the noise. This was additionally at the time that now-Megadeth bandleader Dave Mustaine was let go from Metallica, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett stepped in.

“Metallica were sent to my house in Cortland, New York,” Calandra recollects in a 2014 Metallic Hammer retrospective. “We had no problem with the neighbors. It was an old Victorian house that was really built well.”

She continues, “Dave Mustaine had just been given a bus ticket and sent back to California. Kirk Hammett was barely 21, and so shy and talented. And Cliff Burton was one of the sweetest guys I have ever met. They were very young and very respectful. I was their housemother, cook and hairdresser, and made sure they followed all the rules.”

Metallica Rocked the Home

Calandra provides, “If they stayed in there after 11PM, I locked them in. James Hetfield broke through the door one night, however. They hung blankets on the walls and said it was really similar to where they jammed in California. They rehearsed for their first big tour while they stayed there.”

Different Megaforce Data bands who have been despatched over to Calandra’s home after Metallica included Anthrax, Exciter, Overkill, TT Fast and Raven, Metallic Hammer explains. Nevertheless, Metallica “stayed the longest,” Calandra says. “They were there for three years.”

Metallica Hold Rockin’ At the moment

Today, Metallica are getting ready to once more tour the world this yr and into subsequent on their huge “M72 World Tour.” Supporting acts embrace the re-formed Pantera, 5 Finger Demise Punch, Greta Van Fleet and different acts, relying on the date.

Metallica will play every metropolis on the tour for 2 exhibits with out repeating songs. The live performance additionally contains a new in-the-round stage design that relocates the famed “Metallica Snake Pit” to middle stage for an entire 360-degree view of the present.

See Metallica dates at this hyperlink. Get tickets right here. 72 Seasons, Metallica’s newest album, arrives on April 14.

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Metallica, “Hit the Lights” (1983)