Metallica Serenade Willie Mays at San Francisco Giants Game
This past Friday night, Metallica's James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett performed "The Star Spangled Banner" at AT&T Park in San Francisco. As you can see in the Facebook photos below, they played custom San Francisco Giants-themed ESP guitars through a pair of Giants-themed Mesa/Boogie cabinets.
During the evening, better known as "Metallica Night," Hetfield sang "Happy Birthday" to Giants legend Willie Mays while bassist Robert Trujillo held up a Willie Mays sign.
Drummer Lars Ulrich also got into the act, throwing out the game's first pitch.
"It's amazing, you know," Hammett told MLB.com. "As a hometown kid, being able to hang out with my hometown kid, I mean, it's epic, you know. It brings me back to when I was a little kid and I used to go see the Giants at Kezar Stadium in Candlestick Park and whatnot. Willie Mays is here. I used to idolize Willie Mays when I was in fourth and fifth grade like all my other friends did. It's just a really, really cool thing. I totally enjoy it. I mean, it's wonderful.
"My family loves it too, and it's just a great, great thing. And James and I, our rendition of the national anthem, I really feel, is really unique and different, and it's great that we can come here and play our version for our home team and our hometown audience, and it's really, really great."
Below, check out footage of "Happy Birthday" and "The Star Spangled Banner," plus a few of the band's official photos from the event.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**
Join now for unlimited access
US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year
UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year
Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
“Gilmour says, ‘I want to play on it’ – like, he doesn’t do this’”: Body Count rip through their Comfortably Numb reimagining on the Tonight Show, as Ernie C does his best David Gilmour
“You could tell it was gonna be a good group, but people wouldn’t even book the band”: Long-awaited Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary gets its first trailer – and hints at the band’s early struggles