For roughly two years, singer-songwriter Avi Vinocur commuted almost daily from his home in the Sunset District to Metallica’s headquarters in San Rafael, perpetually thinking his dream job for the legendary metal band might be terminate at any time.

“I refused to buy a FasTrak for my car to cross the bridge, because I kept telling myself, ‘No, I won’t need it’,” Vinocur, who debuted in 2010 in as a studio technician for the group, said in a recent video interview with The Chronicle. “I just thought it was all going to end at some point.”

He eventually surrendered and bought the transponder. Now, 11 years later, the 37-year-old musician uses it to travel from his new home in Richmond to Metallica HQ, where he is part of the band’s family. In addition to his ongoing technical duties, he has performed backing vocals and mandolin with Metallica on stage at the Fillmore and the Masonic, during the opening of the Chase Center in 2019 – accompanied by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony – and on “The Howard Stern Show,” among others. (On the latter, an amused Stern introduced the band as “Metallica with Avi.”)

Vinocur juggled these responsibilities while leading a very different project: his touring folk-rock group Goodnight, Texas, set to perform at the Fillmore on Friday, December 17, as part of “San Francisco Takeover, ”a series of local events hosted by thrash metal icons.

In a case where Vinocur’s two musical worlds collide, Goodnight, Texas is expected to open for Wedding Band, a side project by Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. (The show will be on the same night as the concert in the Metallica arena at the Chase Center, so Hammett and Trujillo will do double duty that day.)

“Adding us to the show will definitely make for a diverse musical evening,” Vinocur said of the poster. But at this point he’s used to his musical career with a split personality.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Vinocur was inspired to play guitar in elementary school after listening to Jimi Hendrix. He enrolled at San Francisco State University in 2005 and, through the school’s audio engineering program, landed an internship at Talking House, a recording studio in South of Market. There he meets Peter Krawiec, an engineer who occasionally works with Zach Harmon, Metallica’s equipment manager.

Krawiec brought Vinocur to Metallica headquarters one day to help with the inventory, and the young musician was struck by the warm and welcoming manner of the band members. He wanted to come back.

“I texted Zach every day, just asking if he needed any help,” Vinocur said. “Finally, he told me he had a job for me, that he was collecting material from the Guitar Center, and I didn’t look back. I kept expecting band members to say, “Who is this kid?” But they kissed me from the start.

As a studio technician, Vinocur assists engineers and producers with hardware issues. He helped Metallica record “Death Magnetic”, “Hardwired … to Self-Destruct” and their collaboration with Lou Reed titled “Lulu”. Eventually the band realized that the guy who tuned guitars, found gear, took out the trash and picked up people at the airport was a talented musician too.

While in San Francisco State, Vinocur was an early member of the San Francisco blues-rock group, the Stone Foxes; he left in 2011 to found his group Americana, Goodnight, Texas. (He and his collaborator, Patrick Dyer Wolf, named the group after the geographic midpoint between San Francisco and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Dyer was living at the time. Since then, they have given three concerts in the small hamlet in Texas with a population of less than 30 people.)

Goodnight, Texas – whose music is steeped in delta blues myth, outlaw country and Depression-era folk – has released three full studio albums, with a fourth coming in January. The group has steadily built an following in American circles, but their fan base has grown unexpectedly since that day in 2016, when Metallica singer and guitarist James Hetfield first approached Vinocur. to ask if he would accompany him on a solo appearance as part of a benefit concert at The Fillmore with Sammy Hagar.

Despite some initial nerves, Vinocur has since become accustomed to the “surreal” experience of playing with Metallica. But he doesn’t take it for granted.

“I know they don’t play a lot with other musicians, so I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to be included,” Vinocur said. “I’m just this sweet folk singer from San Francisco and I can perform with one of the greatest bands in the world.”

The fandom seems to be going both ways. In an email to The Chronicle, Hetfield described Vinocur as “an incredible multi-instrument player with a unique take on songs.”

“He helps me expand my mind when I hear his songs and when we play together,” Hetfield said. “Very grateful for him in my life.”

Vinocur remembers a time when Hetfield texted him “out of the blue, asking him for a crash course in bluegrass music.”

“He wanted to know all the bands I listen to and understand the genre better,” said Vinocur, who gladly sent Hetfield a playlist.

And in 2020, after Goodnight, the Texas song “The Railroad” featured in Netflix’s ubiquitous documentary series “Tiger King,” Metallica made Vinocur take its moment in the limelight.

“We had a Zoom meeting, and they said they had a special guest who was going to speak,” Vinocur said, “and it turned out to be me. They said to me, ‘This is the guy from ‘Tiger King’ – it’s time to say a few words, Avi, because you’re the most famous member of the band now. ‘ “

It was hyperbole, of course. But Vinocur has developed a profile in the Metallica fan universe, an experience that has been mostly positive, he said. This year, Goodnight, Texas was introduced to its largest metalhead audience yet after the band were asked to contribute to a “Of Wolf and Man” cover for “The Metallica Blacklist,” joining artists such as Miley Cyrus, Phoebe Bridgers, Weezer and My Morning Jacket for the massive 53 song tribute album.

“There were fans going, ‘You ruined it,’ which I found hilarious,” Vinocur said of the response to the cover of Goodnight, Texas.

But others enjoyed their interpretation, finding a common thread between the dark, apocryphal version of Goodnight, Texas, of folk and the more aggressive, classic sound of Metallica.

“I think a lot of people have seen that even though it’s a silent version it’s still heavy,” said Vinocur, who plans to perform at the Fillmore and then return to work to prepare Metallica for their next international tour. – FasTrak in tow.

“It was affirmative for me because that’s how I think of our group. I think you can be calm and heavy at the same time.

The alliance with Goodnight, Texas and Bastardane: 9 p.m. Friday, December 17. Exhausted. The Fillmore, 1805 Geary Blvd., SF www.concerts.livenation.com