A Childhood Dream Comes Full Circle
Daron Malakian recently shared an unforgettable story about performing live with Metallica during their early touring days. He revealed the moment in an interview on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin, explaining how years of playing Metallica songs as a teenager led to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
As a kid, Malakian spent hours in a friend’s garage learning Metallica covers. Those songs stayed with him, and years later, they unexpectedly became his ticket onto one of the biggest stages in metal.
“I was like 12 or 13, at that point I had been playing the guitar for like a year. I was with these guys in my school that we would in their dad’s garage. We would play Metallica covers. That’s pretty much all we play. So I knew all these Metallica covers as you know when I got older I knew them,” Malakian said.
The Summer Sanitarium Turning Point
The moment happened during Metallica’s Summer Sanitarium tour, before Toxicity had made System of a Down a household name. During the tour, James Hetfield was injured in a jet-ski accident and couldn’t perform. Rather than cancel shows, Metallica kept going with help from other musicians on the bill.
Malakian realized he knew the songs well and told his guitar tech to let Metallica’s crew know. Moments later, he was unexpectedly called to the stage.
“So we were on tour with Metallica on the Summer Sanitarium tour. I met Metallica on stage really playing with them. I never met them before. We’re the first band. Nobody knows us. It’s 1999 maybe at this point. Toxicity is not out yet. And so we’re on that tour and James Hetfield along the way gets injured. I don’t know, they told me he was going water skiing or something and he got injured. They didn’t cancel the show.
So all the opening bands played and then Metallica still went on stage and Jason Newsted was singing and then they brought the guys from Korn on and they kind of played like this cover song or something. It was like they didn’t know what to do. Because James wasn’t there,” he recalled. “And I turned to my tech and I go, ‘Listen, man. Go tell their tech that I know a lot of their sh*t,’ cuz I’ve learned it playing it in this garage with these other guys. I go, ‘I know a lot of their sh*t from, you could say, Justice for All and back.’ Next thing you know, my tech goes and talks to our guitar tech. And then my tech comes back to me. He’s like, ‘All right, come with me.’ Never met Metallica before.
Thrown Into History
Malakian described being handed a Les Paul guitar likely belonging to Kirk Hammett and being pushed onstage in front of nearly 60,000 people. Dressed casually and completely unprepared, he suddenly found himself playing “Master of Puppets” with his heroes.
When no one stepped up to sing, Malakian did that too, turning the moment into a career-defining experience.
“So, next thing you know, I go on the other side of the stage. I get handed a Les Paul. I think it was one of Kirk Hammett’s Les Paul. And they’re like, ‘All right, go.’ 60,000 people. I’m not even ready to like get on stage. I’m wearing a white tank top and a Lakers sweats and I’m just completely was there just watching Metallica, you know? Next thing you know, I get handed a guitar and they go, ‘Go.’ You got to understand our band’s not big yet. I’m still a kid. I’m 22 years old. I can’t even believe that we’re even allowed to open up for Metallica. So, this is all new to me.
A Legendary Metal Moment
The collaboration didn’t stop there. According to Revolver, Serj Tankian also joined the performance, while Jason Newsted handled vocals, creating what fans later called the “Mastertarium” medley.
For Malakian, it was the perfect bridge between his garage-band childhood and his future as a metal icon.
