James Hetfield answered an ad in The Recycler before forming Metallica. The Los Angeles newspaper was a well-known local classified-ad source for musicians, and drummer Lars Ulrich used it in 1981 to find metal players.
Ulrich’s advertisement sought musicians interested in jamming on songs by Tygers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head, and Iron Maiden. Hetfield responded, and the pair began building what became Metallica. Hugh Tanner, Hetfield’s Leather Charm bandmate, also answered initially, but Hetfield and Ulrich soon became the group’s central partnership.
A common mix-up is to credit the advertisement to Hetfield, when Ulrich placed it and Hetfield answered it. The Recycler was not a major national music magazine like BAM or The Village Voice; it was a Southern California classified newspaper. Metallica officially formed in October 1981, after Ulrich and Hetfield had connected and secured a place on the Metal Massacre compilation.