Metallica’s Forgotten Guitarist Describes What His Early Days With Lars Ulrich Were Like.

The name of Lloyd Grand doesn’t get mentioned often, but he played an important part in Metallica’s earliest days.

Long before Metallica became a heavy metal behemoth selling albums by the millions and having its name spoken with reverence by generations of fans across the world, there was the young Danish ex-pat Lars Ulrich, armed with nothing more than a big dream, and not even a “full drum set” – or so Lloyd Grant tells Metal Hammer.You don’t hear the name of Lloyd Grant spoken all that frequently, but the Jamaican-born guitarist played an important role in Metallica’s earliest days, and as such always deserves special credit.

Some of you may know him as the author of the solo from “Hit the Lights”, the very first song that Metallica recorded and which got released on Metal Blade’s debut LP, 1982’s “Metal Massacre” compilation album. Perhaps more importantly, Grant was also the first person with whom teenage Lars started jamming seriously upon arriving in the US, and for a while, the two musicians shared the dream that would eventually become Metallica. Reminiscing about their first meeting, Grant said:

“Lars was already a pretty interesting guy when I first met him. He knew exactly what he was looking to do, even though he was still living with his parents at that point. I was just trying to get into a good band, particularly one that would play around town.”

 

When asked to describe the impression the young Lars Ulrich had made upon their meeting, Grant replied:

“When I first met Lars, he didn’t have a full drum-set. He’d got this made-up kit while he waited for a full set to come from Denmark or whatever, so it was pretty funny playing with him at first, even if he still sounded pretty good. I’d go over and we’d usually sit around listening to records before we played, with him making copies of anything I really liked. We’d go over it a bit, then next time we’d try to play the songs we’d heard.

“Before Metallica became a band, Lars was still investing all of his time into eventually making music. He’d go to the record store a few times a week to see what new things were coming in from Europe, listening to them but also studying them. Even when he went on vacation to Europe, he ended up going to see bands – I couldn’t believe it, he was seeing the bands we both listened to.”

The two bonded instantly over their shared love for heavy metal. Grant says he was heavily into the “stuff coming out of England”, and through Lars Ulrich, he discovered other European bands such as Scorpions, Michael Schenker and UFO, adding them to his listening repertoire of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. The guitarist explains that although the two weren’t considering their jam sessions to be the work of a “band”, he nevertheless describes Ulrich at the time as “desperate” to put one together:

“There wasn’t a band at that point – Lars was just desperate to find people he could play with. We were just two guys both looking for like-minded people, not just someone who could play but someone you’d get along with enough to move in together.”

As the two went on jamming, the core of Metallica began coalescing around Lars Ulrich. In other words, James Hetfield eventually got in contact with the drummer, and the idea of Metallica started emerging on the sidelines, even though the band’s name itself still wasn’t there:

“Metallica kind of formed on the side while Lars and I were playing together, so I didn’t really interact too much with the other guys. We would be jamming in Lars’ apartment, but he was still looking for people to play with and so when I wasn’t there he was finding other people to play with too.

“He met tonnes of people and would play with them in either the rehearsal studio or his place, but it got to a point with me where we’d not just be jamming but actively trying to write songs. It didn’t happen often – maybe once a week – but I do remember he brought a guy into the practice once and it was James Hetfield. They’d got a tape and it was an early instrumental version of ‘Hit The Lights’, but at that point there still wasn’t a name for the band.”

As Lars got more involved with James Hetfield – and, eventually, Ron McGovney – he jammed less frequently with Grant, and eventually stopped altogether. However, Grant would come back to the band once more during those days, to record the aforementioned solo for “Hit the Lights”:

“I think we stopped playing around the time he started getting together regularly with James and Ron McGovney. By the time he’d got the full band together we weren’t playing any more, but I do remember he still approached me when it was just Lars, James and Ron to go and play with them.

“I went over and we went through it a couple times, which was really awesome. After that I got another call, this time to come and record Hit The Lights, put down a guitar solo because they were trying to get the song onto the compilation Metal Massacre. They literally turned a recorder on and just got me doing a solo; if I’d known just how much interest it was going to create I’d have spent way more time on it!”

Soon afterwards, the role of Metallica’s lead guitarist would be occupied by Dave Mustaine, and even after he had left to form Megadeth, Lars Ulrich & Co. already had Kirk Hammett “in the wings”, as Grant explains. As a result, Grant would go on a rather different personal and professional path after having his brush with fate by recording with the future biggest metal band in the world. He said:

“I wanted to be a musician, become a full-time player, but I couldn’t do that. I lived alone and needed a job to pay the bills, so it just never happened for me. At that point it felt like you could be in a band on a morning, they’d break up before noon and you’d got another one that evening.

“Three, four people in a band wanting to do different things and then falling out over it… I just couldn’t put all of myself in that when I was working, trying to keep a roof over my head and keep my car on the road.”

Still, Grant kept in touch with Ulrich after their lives took rather different turns, and says the two corresponded regularly up until the “Black Album” era. Even afterwards, Grant kept receiving invitations for special events and anniversaries, and would make an appearance on stage every time Metallica stopped in his city. Looking back at his role in the story of Metallica from today’s perspective, Grant concludes:

“It feels super important, my name appearing in the same breath as the story of Metallica. It’s pretty interesting, but obviously at the time we couldn’t predict the future so nobody knew what was going to happen!”