Original METALLICA Bassist Clarifies Who Sang In Band’s Early Days

Metallica Ron McGovney

Original METALLICA bassist Ron McGovney took to Twitter to say who sang in the band’s early days while MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine was still in the group.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about who sang vocals when we played live when I was in METALLICA, Ron wrote. “James Hetfield. That’s it. Dave Mustaine did talk in between songs because his guitar wouldn’t stay in tune. Dave sang backup vocals on “Killing Time.” That’s it.

Having previously played with guitarist James Hetfield in the garage band LEATHER CHARMMcGovney was a member of METALLICA during its first year of gigging and appeared on their early demos before departing late in 1982. After a period of inactivity, he played in the thrash metal band PHANTASM.

In the recent issue of Classic Rock magazine, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich promised the follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired…To Self Destruct will be the best album the band has ever made.

“It’s the previous thing, the coolest,” Lars said. “But all kidding aside, if it wasn’t because we thought that the best record was still ahead of us, then why keep doing it? In METALLICA, we love the creative process, and it’s hard for me to imagine that we’ll ever stop making records.”

In a recent interview with NMEUlrich was asked if he has found this lockdown period creatively productive.

“I’m not sure — it’s not easy, but we’ve been doing what we can. We’ve been exchanging ideas back and forth,” he responded. “The hardest thing about being in four different spaces is that there’s no software that can have us all play in real time to reach other. So I can play something and send it to the next guy and then he can play on it and he can send it to the next guy, or vice versa, but we can’t play at the same time so it takes the impulsivity and the momentary energy out of the occasion.

He continued: “I’ve talked to some people in technology about how close we are to being able to all play in real time with each other, but that hasn’t been cracked yet.

“If it is, we’ll maximize it, but for now, we’re in this bubble for a couple of weeks, and we’re looking forward to seeing if at some point this fall, we can get back into another bubble where we write and play and maybe even record — so we’re looking forward to the possibilities on that one.”

When asked when fans can expect new music from METALLICALars said: “Not soon enough! Right now, I’d say the hardest thing about all this is trying to plan, because five minutes later, those plans change — that’s just the nature of the state of the world at the moment and we’re going to have to accept and surrender to it.

“I think it’s a good reminder of the fragility of the world and how maybe we should occasionally pause and be a little bit more respectful and appreciative of what we have and understand how quickly it can derail in terms of how we arrogantly expect everything to be way we wanted as a human race.”