Lars Ulrich was asked about how he came up with the name Metallica in the 80’s when the band formed in a new NPR interview.
“Well, I came up here [to San Francisco], actually, in the spring of 1981 and ended up at a kegger over on Strawberry Hill. And I met a bunch of really cool San Francisco kids.
“One them was named Ron [Quintana]. And he told me he wanted to start his own fanzine, like a hard rock fanzine, where he wrote about all his favorite bands. And he wanted… he asked me whether he should call the fanzine Metallica or Metal Mania.
“So I suggested that he call it Metal Mania.”
Ron Quintana was asked by Metal Core Fanzine whether he’s angry at Lars for taking the name:
“I was happy to give it to him. I was a metal maniac and so when I named Metal Mania, I named Metal Mania before he used Metallica’s name because I didn’t want to use it.
“There was already Encyclopedia Metallica, which is a good name, but for me I thought Metal Mania was better and so when he told me he was gonna use the name [Metallica] for his upcoming project, I said good [Laughs] doing something with it.”
