Lars Ulrich has recently been interviewed by Howard Stern on Sirius XM. The Metallica drummer reflected on the Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins tribute shows in September, which also sparked some thoughts on Lars’ abilities as a drummer:
“Straying outside of the Metallica world is not the most comfortable thing for me. I think a big part of why we just love staying inside the Metallica universe is because there’s that safety in numbers, and we just support each other and have that thing. But playing with [Dave] Grohl and the other three Foo Fighters guys, and then at Wembley we did, with Brian Johnson, the AC/DC singer, we did an AC/DC set, and it was so much fucking fun to play.”
“For me […] playing those AC/DC songs is right in my wheelhouse. If they had said – I mean, I love Rush – [but] If they had said, ‘Come up and play ‘2112’ with Alex [Lifeson] and Geddy [Lee], I’d go, ‘I think there’s somebody more qualified to do that than me.’ But playing those AC/DC songs with the four Foo Fighters guys and Brian was just a fucking next-level magical experience. And then in L.A., a couple of weeks later, we did a Black Sabbath medley with Geezer Butler [Black Sabbath bassist] – absolutely one of the geniuses of the early days of hard rock and metal, we did a couple of Black Sabbath songs. So it was great fun to go do that.”
“Could I do it? Obviously, playing with Alex and Geddy would be incredible. […] It would be an uphill thing. It would take a lot of rehearsal, a lot of prep. ‘2112’ would probably be too much of a bite of the apple for me. But in terms of just feeling comfortable, and kind of doing the thing that exists sort of where I am, that AC/DC stuff is right in my fucking pocket. And I love that so much.”
