Metallica Now Has Its Own Dedicated Day As ‘Metallica Day’ in San Francisco
Metallica‘s 40th year anniversary has been continuing celebrated with no stop. San Francisco has just declared December 16th, 2021 as ‘Metallica Day‘, while it was also holding a ceremony to commemorate the honor.
As the ceremony took its place at the Chase Center in San Francisco, the regarded members of Metallica, Lars Ulrich, and Rob Trujillo also gave their speech to accept this honor and reflected the city’s importance both for the band and their personal lives, as well.
During the celebrations, Metallica got on the stage at Chase Center after a long time, as their last performance occurred on the September 2019 S&M² concerts. And tons of fans from all around the world flocked to the concerts in San Francisco all weekend. Afterward, the regarded metal band also curated other events all around the city, after the long four-day weekend of celebrations started on Thursday, December 16.
On the other side, also the city’s mayor London Breed was there to give a speech about the role San Francisco played in shaping Metallica, as well, on the statement:
“When you talk about San Francisco, you talk about cable cars and then you talk about Metallica. And on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, I want to officially declare today ‘Metallica Day’,” Breed said, in part.
Lars Ulrich then followed him with his testimony to the city, before also Rob Trujillo continued with his speech, presenting his appreciation for the city and its collective creativity. The talented Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich made his speech with those words down below:
“We didn’t start in San Francisco. We started in Southern California. And we came up to San Francisco, the first time, in 1982, in September, and played at the Stone and subsequently played at the Old Waldorf a couple of times… And we had done six, nine months in Los Angeles, and we did not belong.
The reason we all wanted to be in a band was to fit into something greater than ourselves, and we absolutely did not fit into anything in Los Angeles, Sunset Strip, Hollywood — any of that. We felt like complete outsiders. When we came up here in September of 1982 and we started playing, we played four shows that fall — like I said, at the Stone, the Old Waldorf and at the Mabuhay Gardens — and we were embraced and we were taken in and we felt so welcomed and so loved up here.
There was a sense of music community for people like ourselves who felt like outsiders, who liked things that were not in the mainstream, and that was has obviously been a significant part of San Francisco’s history. So coming up here in 1982, standing on the shoulder of the history of the culture, the Beat poets and the hippie movement and the music and Bill Graham and everything that San Francisco represented, we were just embraced instantly.
We felt so welcomed, so loved and we felt finally like we belonged someplace. And it’s been 39 years of feeling that sense of belonging, to not just a geographical place — San Francisco, the Bay Area, Northern California, whatever you wanna call it — but it’s also a state of mind. You belong to what San Francisco represents.
We have been so proud to shout from every rooftop all over the world, at every press conference, in every mic that’s been shoved in our faces for the better part of 40 years how much San Francisco gave us an identity and gave us, like I said, a sense of belonging. And we fly the flag proud for San Francisco and the Bay Area all over the world on our t-shirts. But we are so proud of our connection to everything that San Francisco represents and to all the wonderful people, to, obviously, the great physical and geographical elements here and the history and the cable cars and the Giants and the Warriors and the list goes on.
Those of you who know our story know that we’ve been fortunate enough to travel all over the world — we’ve played all seven continents — and there are many, many wonderful places on this planet where music, compared to when we started — Latin America, Southeast Asia, places that you wouldn’t expect 30, 40 years ago that you could bring rock and roll to — that have now also embraced us. But our hearts and our souls and our sense of belonging will always be San Francisco. And Metallica and San Francisco will always be two words which are synonymous with each other.”
Metallica also posted photos of its official proclamation to its social accounts to thank, capturing, “Thank you so much to Mayor London Breed for hosting us this afternoon Chase Center and for the incredible honor of this proclamation. Contributing to San Francisco in our small way means the world to us,” in one of them.
Thank you so much to Mayor @LondonBreed for hosting us this afternoon @ChaseCenter and for the inredible honor of this proclamation. Contributing to San Francisco in our small way means the world to us. @sfgov @apeconcerts #Metallica40 pic.twitter.com/wMvgmZ1Ybm
— Metallica (@Metallica) December 16, 2021
Although the regarded band had another ‘Metallica Nights‘ during the years, the ‘Metallica Day‘ that San Francisco declared for them has actually become the biggest one with being on a city-wide scale, as well. But after all, it also seems like a belated move, considering the relation between Metallica and San Francisco, along with their contributions to each other throughout the years, as well.
Ultimately, we should also say that the actions happening on the regarded band’s side doesn’t seem to be stopping, since Metallica has become an investor in one of the leading media brands while Lars Ulrich also announced today that he is making donations to three charities in his hometown after he won an award from a foundation, besides many other attempts of Metallica, lately. So stay tuned to hear more about the regarded band’s upcoming news!