Metallica Did It Up Right For Their 30th Anniversary [VIDEO]

I love Metallica. Not everything they've done musically or otherwise per se, but I feel very fortunate to have grown up on their music.

As a fifteen year old boy growing up in the small town of Vernon, Texas waiting for ...And Justice For All to hit the streets I felt like me and a few of my close friends were onto something no one else was. At that time hair bands were all the rage with bands like Motley Crue, Cinderella and Poison dominating the air waves and while those bands had done a few songs here and there that I like, those bands just didn't speak to me. Their music was all about partying and getting laid and that most certainly wasn't goin' on in my adolescence.

As I child I remember being terribly afraid of nuclear war and apparently so was Metallica (see "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Blackened") and while I was never suicidal, I dealt with episodes of anxiety and depression and it was obvious James Hetfield could relate to that as well ("Fade to Black"). There were so many other little things about Hetfield's lyrics that spoke to me combined with some of the best music I had ever heard in my life that made Metallica the perfect band to represent me in my youth.

Fast forward a couple of decades and Metallica's celebrating their 30th anniversary and while their music didn't do it for me so much after ...And Justice For All, I still thought the Black Album was pretty cool and Death Magnetic was a decent return to form for the band, last week was as good a time as ever to be a Metallica fan.

That's because Metallica know how to treat their fans.

Say what you want, but could you ever imagine bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC or Black Sabbath playing four fan club exclusive shows in a small venue in their hometown? Those are the bands you need to compare Metallica to and don't get me wrong, I love every member of the Big 4, but none of those bands compare to Metallica in the grand scheme of music history.

While I didn't get to make it out to San Francisco for the celebration, thanks to the internet I was able to check out some of the highlights from the show.

I loved seeing Dave Mustaine and Jason Newsted on stage again with the band, but it was also cool that they brought Ron McGovney and Lloyd Grant up on stage for "Hit the Lights" as well. Factor in some really cool moments with Black Sabbath members Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler along with Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin and Robert Trujillo sharing their memories of the late great Cliff Burton, not to mention the band debuting never before heard tracks from the Death Magnetic sessions and I would say overall, their 30th anniversary celebration was a huge success.

Check out these six performances from the show: