Former Metallica bassist Ron McGovney shares band's old business card

Ron McGovney, the former bassist of Metallica, has shared an old business card that the band used to hand out in their early days.

McGovney served as the bassist and backing vocalist in the band during 1982, and appeared on a small number of the early Metallica demos. He was replaced by the late Cliff Burton in December 1982.

Posting on Twitter on Sunday (January 17), McGovney shared an image of one of the old business cards that Metallica used to hand out during his time in the band.

Featuring the band’s logo and the phrase “Power Metal”, McGovney also shed light on the phone number that was listed at the bottom of the card.

Original Metallica business card. The phone number was the one I had in my bedroom in 1979. I moved to our rental house two doors down in 1981 and took the number with me. That house was where Metallica started. I lived in a condo 1983-1987 and had that same number. pic.twitter.com/0pvaZVxEtp

— Ron McGovney (@RonMcGovney) January 17, 2021

“The phone number was the one I had in my bedroom in 1979,” he explained. “I moved to our rental house two doors down in 1981 and took the number with me. That house was where Metallica started. I lived in a condo 1983-1987 and had that same number.”

McGovney previously told Shockwaves that he made the original Metallica business card “to send to the club promoters along with our demo. The card was supposed to just have the Metallica logo and a contact number”. [via Blabbermouth]

“But I thought it looked too plain and decided it should say something under the logo,” he continued. “I didn’t want to put ‘hard rock’ or ‘heavy metal,’ so I coined the term ‘power metal’. I thought it had a nice ring to it. No band had used that term before as far as I knew.

“I remember bringing the business cards to the band, and Lars [Ulrich, Metallica drummer] got so pissed off at me. He said: ‘What did you do? What the hell is ‘power metal’? I can’t believe you did such a stupid thing. We can’t use these cards with the words ‘power metal’ on it.’”

McGovney reunited with Metallica for the first time time in nearly 30 years back in 2011 during a special show in San Francisco.