On Thursday, February 20th, James Hetfield of Metallica gave his first live performance since his recent rehab stay that forced the band to cancel tour dates.

. The performance was apart of a tribute to Eddie Money, who Hatfield was close to. He performed an acoustic version of Money’s “Baby Hold On” at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, California. According to BlabberMouth, Hatfield was not a part of the announced guests for the star-studded tribute but was still able to perform. The proceeds from the show benefited the USC Eddie Money Cancer Research Fund.

Throughout the performance, Hetfield described his first time meeting Money, which was at an Oakland Raiders game where Eddie was set to perform the national anthem. “I met him before he went out there, and he kinda blew me off,” Hetfield said. He continued to say “I saw through that ego, and he saw through mine, and we got to be friends, ’cause I think our egos matched the size or our insecurities.” Check out the performance below.

Since announcing his return to rehab, he made his first public appearance at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA unveiling his “Reclaimed Rust: The Hetfield Collection” exhibit, featuring 10 of his custom vintage cars. He was also interviewed and admitted he is unsure about the future of Metallica and/or a new album.  “That’s a great question. We don’t know . . .  That’s the beauty of this. We’ll sit down and figure out what works best for us. Whatever is coming up, we don’t know. And we kind of thrive off of the fear of the unknown — a bit — and being scared just enough to feel alive.”