For about two years, singer-songwriter Avi Vinocur drove from his home in the Sunset District to Metallica’s headquarters in San Rafael almost every day, always thinking that his dream job of working for this legendary metal band might be soon Will end.

"I refused to buy a FasTrak bridge for my car because I kept telling myself,'No, I don't need this,'" Vinocur, who started as the band's studio technician in 2008, said in a recent video interview with The Chronicle . "I just think it will all end at some point."

He finally surrendered and purchased a transponder. Now, 13 years later, the 37-year-old musician uses it to commute from his new home in Richmond to the Metallica headquarters, where he is a member of the band family. In addition to his ongoing gear technical duties, he also played harmonies and played the mandolin with Metallica on the Fillmore and Freemason stages, at the opening of the Chase Center in 2019-Michael Tie Elson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra-and "The Howard Stern Show" and so on. (In the last one, an amused Stern introduced the band as "Metallica with Avi".)

Vinocur has been dealing with these responsibilities while at the helm of a very different project: his folk rock touring band Goodnight, Texas is scheduled to perform in Fillmore on Friday, December 17th as part of Metallica’s "San Francisco Acquisition." A series of local events curated by the thrash metal icon.

In one example of the collision between the two music worlds of Vinocur, Good Night Texas will open the wedding band, a side project of Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. (The show will be held on the same night as Metallica’s stage performance at the Chase Center, so Hammett and Trujillo will assume dual responsibilities on that day.)

"Adding us to the show will definitely bring a diversified music night," Vinokul said of the bill. But at this point, he has become accustomed to the somewhat split personality of his music career.

Vinocur grew up in Los Angeles. After listening to Jimi Hendrix's music, he was inspired by playing guitar in elementary school. He enrolled in San Francisco State University in 2005 and used the school's audio engineering course to train at Talking House, a recording studio in the south of the market. There, he met the engineer Peter Krawiec, who occasionally worked with Metallica's equipment manager Zach Harmon.

One day Krawiec brought Vinocur to Metallica's headquarters to help with inventory. The young musicians were moved by the warm and hospitable attitude of the band members. He wants to come back.

"I send text messages to Zac every day, just asking him if he needs any help," Vinokul said. "Finally, he said that he had a job for me, picking up some equipment in the guitar center, and I didn't look back. I always expected the band members to say, "Who is this kid? "But they embraced me from the beginning."

As a studio technician, Vinocur assists engineers and producers in solving equipment problems. He helped Metallica record "Death Magnetic", "Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct" and their split collaboration song "Lulu" with Lou Reed. Eventually, the band realized that the guy who tuned the guitar, looked for equipment, took out the trash, and picked up people at the airport was also a talented musician.

While at San Francisco State University, Vinocur was an early member of the San Francisco blues rock band Stone Foxes. He left in 2011 and started his American band Goodnight, Texas. (He and his collaborator Patrick Dyer Wolf named the band after the geographic midpoint between San Francisco and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Wolf lived. The small village of Texas held three performances with fewer than 30 people.)

Good Night, Texas-whose music is steeped in the myths of Delta Blues, Illegal Country, and Depression Folk-has released three full studio albums, and the fourth one will be released in January. The band has steadily established a group of followers in the Americana circle, but since that day in 2016, Metallica lead singer and guitarist James Hetfield contacted Vinocur for the first time and asked him if he would accompany him in solo performances. Its fan base was unexpected Way to expand. A charity concert with Sammy Hagar at Fillmore.

Despite the initial tension, Vinocur has become accustomed to the "surreal" experience of performing with Metallica. But he does not take it for granted.

"I know they rarely play with other musicians, so I feel very lucky and grateful to be included," Vinocur said. "I'm just a soft folk singer from San Francisco. I can play with one of the largest bands in the world."

Fanaticism seems to go both ways. In an email to The Chronicle, Hetfield described Vinocur as "an excellent multi-instrument player with a unique interpretation of songs."

"When I heard his songs played with us, he helped me broaden my horizons," Hetfield said. "Thank you very much for him in my life."

Vinocur recalled the time when Hetfield texted him "Suddenly, asked to participate in a crash course on bluegrass music."

"He wants to know all the bands I've heard and better understand the genre," said Vinocur, who was happy to send a playlist to Hetfield.

In 2020, after "Good Night", the Texas song "Railroad" appeared in the ubiquitous Netflix documentary series "Tiger King", Metallica ensured that Vinocur became the center of attention.

"We are having a Zoom meeting and they said they have a special guest to speak," Vinocur said. "It turned out to be me. They were like,'This is the guy in'Tiger King'-it's time to say a few words Avi, because you are now the most famous member of the band."

Of course that is an exaggeration. But he said that Vinocur has established an image in the Metallica fan world, and this experience is mostly positive. This year, the Texas Good Night Band was invited to contribute a cover of "Of Wolf and Man" to "The Metallica Blacklist", joining a large tribute album including Miley Cyrus, Phoebe Bridgers, Weezer and My Morning Jacket for 53 songs.

"Some fans said,'You ruined it.' I think it's funny," Vinokul said of his reaction to "Good night, Texas" on the track.

But others appreciated their explanation, and found a clue between the dark, fictional ballads of Texas and the classic, more aggressive Metallica voice, good night.

"I think many people have seen it, even if it is a quiet version, it is still heavy," Vinocur said. He plans to perform in Fillmore and then go back to work to prepare for Metallica's upcoming international tour-FasTrak.

"It's affirmative to me, because that's what I think of our band. I think you can be quiet and heavy at the same time."

Good Night Texas and Bastardane's Wedding Band: Friday, December 17th at 9pm. sold out. The Fillmore, 1805 Geary Blvd., SF www.concerts.livenation.com

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