Kirk Hammett has revealed that he was sitting on the toilet when he got the phone call to join Metallica. The lead guitarist said that at the time he was in the metal band Exodus and received the call on April Fool's Day. He told Loudersound, “It was April 1st, April Fool’s Day, and I was sitting on the toilet. I got the call from Metallica sound engineer Mark Whittaker, and after I hung up, I was like, ‘I can’t believe I just got that phone call. Was that an April Fool’s Day prank?'”
He continued, “A couple of days later I got this tape from them, but I already had the demo and I already knew two thirds of the songs on there.”
Kirk then talked about how his Exodus bandmates reacted when he told them he was leaving to join Metallica. He said, “They were p*ssed. I remember Paul Baloff was so p*ssed that he poured a beer over my head. He said, ‘angry-hurt voice I can’t believe you’re doing this Kirk’, then poured his beer over my head. I just took it, ‘Yeah, yeah, I know…'”