James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo from Metallica talk about the first time they heard Van Halen in the first video below.
James: I remember hearing on some radio station that Van Halen’s [first] album was coming out. [I was like] “Whoa, what is that? It’s crunchy!” That really made my hair stand up. Back when I was growing up Van Halen was the heaviest we had in California.
Robert: I remember hearing [“Eruption”] blasting and thinking, “What IS that?!”
The second video below shows Metallica in the studio playing Van Halen’s “Somebody Get Me a Doctor“, May 30th, 2008: