According to Loudwire, December 16 is now officially “Metallica Day” in San Francisco, California as the city celebrated the band’s 40th anniversary. San Francisco held a ceremony in Metallica’s honor. For years they have been celebrated by the San Francisco Giants but never by the whole city. 

According to Loudwire, The ceremony was held at the Chase Center in San Francisco where Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Rob Trujillo were present to accept the honor and talk about how San Francisco as a city has impacted their personal and professional lives in profound ways. Mayor London Breed also gave a brief speech saying, “When you talk about San Francisco, you talk about cable cars and then you talk about Metallica. And on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, I want to officially declare today ‘Metallica Day’.” Afterwards, Lars Ulrich delivered a touching testimony to the city. He said, “When we came up here in September of 1982 and we started playing, we played four shows that fall — like I said, at the Stone, the Old Waldorf and at the Mabuhay Gardens — and we were embraced and we were taken in and we felt so welcomed and so loved up here.” He continued, “We felt so welcomed, so loved and we felt finally like we belonged someplace. And it’s been 39 years of feeling that sense of belonging, to not just a geographical place — San Francisco, the Bay Area, Northern California, whatever you wanna call it — but it’s also a state of mind. You belong to what San Francisco represents.”

Last week, Metallica announced that their December 17 and 18 San Francisco performances for their 40th anniversary will be streamed on Prime Video and Amazon Music. They’re bringing special guests to each concert, including Kamasi Washington, White Reaper and Goodnight, Texas. To truly honor the occasion, Metallica is offering more than just music: there will be a blackened whiskey tasting between shows and a film festival showing videos of their concerts.

Photo credit: Mauricio Alvarado