Lars Ulrich Reveals Who Came Up With the Name 'Metallica'

As a guest on the celebrity-hosted podcast SmartLess, Lars Ulrich rehashed a lot of the band's early history, including who actually coined the name Metallica and how it ultimately wound up becoming the group's moniker.

SmartLess is hosted by actors Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Ozark), Sean Hayes (Will & Grace, executive producer of Grimm and Hot in Cleveland) and Will Arnett (Arrested Development, BoJack Horseman).

Arnett, in particular, expresses his Metallica fandom and the trio engage in casual banter and dig into the band's past, present and future.

Who Coined the Name Metallica?

Ulrich recollects the famous tale and how he took the name from Metal Mania magazine founder Ron Quintana.

"Back then, pre-internet, pre-all this stuff, if you wanted information about your favorite band you had to write to penpals and everybody that was really into music at the time made their own fanzines. It was eight pages stapled together down at Kinko's about whatever their favorite French heavy metal band that five people had heard of," explains Ulrich (transcribed by Loudwire).

"Ron Quintana wanted to start a little fan magazine and he asked me one day whether he should call it Metal Mania or whether he should call it Metallica. And I told him to call it Metal Mania [laughs] I'll hang on to the Metallica," the drummer continues, obviously having seized the perfect opportunity to take the promising name for himself.

"I've been forgiven [for] that thankfully a long time ago and Ron is still a good friend," he muses.

More About Ron Quintana + Metal Mania Magazine

As Ulrich mentioned, Quintana founded the Metal Mania fanzine and he's one of the key figures in the early Bay Area metal scene.

Although it had a very limited broadcast radius (said to cover just a few blocks on the street), Quintana played heavy metal on his "Rampage Radio" show on KUSF at the University of San Francisco in the early '80s.

Metal Mania was in publication from August of 1981 through 1987, converting to a local TV show from 1998 through 1992 under the name VideoZine, also referenced as Video Mania.

A Metal Mania Facebook group can be accessed here.

Quintana is also featured in the documentaries Murder In the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story and Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal.

What Else Was Discussed on the Podcast?

Ulrich talked about his youth as an aspiring tennis player, moving from Denmark to the United States, a hilarious Spinal Tap moment, how compromise in a band is important and more.

Listen below.