System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian has reflected on the time he was asked to fill in for Metallica's James Hetfield.
It was the year 2000 and SOAD had yet to make their breakthrough, as Toxicity was released the following year.
That explains why they were the opening act on Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour – playing before Korn, Kid Rock, Powerman 5000 and the thrash giants themselves.
In July of 2000, Metallica frontman Hetfield was injured in a jetski accident. Rather than cancel any dates, Metallica decided to plough on with the shows.
That resulted in a young Malakian grasping the opportunity to help out and form core memories that he still recalls with fondness.
He tells Rick Rubin's Tetragrammaton podcast "When I was 12 or 13, at that point I had been playing the guitar for a year. I was with these guys in my school. In their dad's garage we would play Metallica covers. That's pretty much all we'd play.
"I met Metallica on stage playing with them. I never met them before. We're the first band. Nobody knows us. Toxicity''s not out yet. We're on our first album. And we are on the Summer Sanitarium tour.
"James Hetfield gets injured. They told me he was going water skiing or something. So they didn't cancel the show. All the opening bands played, and then Metallica still went on stage.
"Jason Newsted was singing, and then they brought the guys from Korn on and they kind of played like this Cheech & Chong cover song or something. They didn't know what to do, because James wasn't there.
"And I turned to my tech and I go, 'Listen, man. Go tell their tech that I know a lot of their shit. Next thing you know, my tech goes and talks to their guitar tech and then my tech comes back to me. He's, like, 'All right, come with me.'
"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 Pauls. And they're, like, 'All right. Go.'
"You gotta 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 at this point of my life.
"And they put me out there, and I turn and I'm, like, 'Hey.' It's Lars, it's Kirk, it's Jason Newsted. They're, like, 'What do you know?' I go, 'I don't know. Master Of Puppets'' Okay. Count it in.'
"I'm up there with Metallica playing Master Of Puppets in front of 60,000 people. And I'm, like, 'Who's gonna sing?' I said, 'Fuck it. I'll go sing.' And I sang. You would think we were rehearsed it, but we didn't rehearse it. And I didn't even know it was gonna happen. And it happened. I'm up there and I am playing Metallica with Metallica in front of an audience where I would've been in the fucking cheap seats just three years ago."
The unbelievable experience did not end there, as Malakian was asked to help out again for more shows.
He adds: "I got off stage. Next thing you know, they're coming to me. They're, like, 'Hey, James isn't gonna be able to play for a few nights. They want you to come and play with them.'
"And then next thing you know, they're, like, 'Hey, get your shit from your bus, because you're flying on the private jet with us now.'
"Yeah, man. That happened. Oh, man. I'll never forget it. Even though my band is where we're at right now, it still brings goosebumps that I had a chance to experience that at that point of my career."
The full interview can be heard below.
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