Metallica, specifically James Hetfield, was very important to my journey into music. I played trombone in band class throughout school, and I always had this interest, but when I heard Metallica, I began to know what it was that I was into, musically. I always liked my dad's rock n roll records but that was all I knew about what music I liked. I quit band class when I really started to get serious about guitar and I studied Metallica as a way to teach myself to play the things I wanted to play. I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time, but that's what happened anyway. When I started to get to the point where I felt like I couldn't absorb anything new/useful to me from them, I started to look to other people/bands to glean from. Obviously Megadeth was the next step from there lol...SRV got me going too...but Metallica was the beginning in earnest, for me personally.
I don't actually listen to them that often anymore but I still love Metallica. I mean, ya gotta love Metallica...