ouses, and the vacant one James would be moving into was doubled as a rehearsal space since Ron was learning how to play the bass guitar. (Doughton 15-16)As nineteen eighty one rolled around both James and Lars were looking for musicians that shared the same taste in music they each had. Lars decided to place an advertisement in a South California paper called "The Recycler." The only other ad that came close was James' and so the two decided to meet. Their first practice together was anything but smooth, considering the fact that Lars was still learning and could not even keep his drum set upright. (Krgin 51) Even though Lars was clearly unprepared to make a career out of music he had made some connections. He befriended a man named Brian Slagel, who was in the process of forming his own record company named Metal Blade Records. Brian was in the middle of doing a compilation project where his goal was to expose up and coming bands to the general public. He pretty much guaranteed Lars a spot on his project if Lars could form a band. Lars got the information back to James and so they decided to give it a try. James, Lars, Ron, and a friend, guitarist Lloyd Grant went into a recording studio and recorded what would be Metallica's first song, "Hit The Lights." Slagel was clearly impressed and did not hesitate to place the song on his compilation project. (Crocker 25-26)Soon thereafter though several small problems became evident. First of all James did not feel that Lloyd could keep up very well. James turned to another friend, Dave Mustaine, to fill in the void and Dave soon took over the role of lead guitarist for Metallica. Another problem was that Ron did not really want to play and had to be coaxed into helping James, Lars, and Dave record a few more new songs. Ron stayed but was not very enthusiastic about the situation. The recording in question was finished in April of nineteen eighty-two and became very popular i...
