LARS ULRICH: METALLICA's 'WorldWired' Tour Could Last Through Early 2020

Lars Ulrich has told The Mercury News that METALLICA's "WorldWired" tour could last through early 2020.

The San Francisco Bay Area metal giants have spent the last two years touring in support of their latest album, "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct", which came out in November 2016. The band has seven U.S. shows booked in late November and early December before taking a break for the holidays and resuming the trek on January 18 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

With dates already locked in through next summer, Ulrich was asked if he is tired of touring yet. He replied: "We have the luxury, and we are very fortunate, to be able to set a touring schedule that works really well for us. We kind of set boundaries. We have a two-week rule, so that after two weeks we come home and see our families and kids and get a sense of San Francisco. So, for about a decade, we've had a really good setup in terms of how we balance all of it. It takes longer to play the same amount of dates. But the good news is that our chances for not losing our minds — or for playing all the shows, physically, mentally — are much higher, because we have a pace that we feel is at the right level for us. So, it's good. We still have to go to Australia. We still have to go to Japan. We have a couple of other things planned after Europe."

Pressed about whether there is any chance the tour will reach into 2020, Lars said: "This may just dip into the beginning of 2020."

Ulrich also talked about the overwhelmingly positive response to "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct", which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and has topped 5 million copies sold worldwide so far.

"The greatest thing about that ['Hardwired… To Self-Destruct'] is that we may have made our most successful record in 25 years in terms of reception. Obviously, this record isn't shipping as many units as records did 10 or 20 years ago. But the perception is that it's probably our most well-received record since the Black Album. So, to have that 30-plus years into your career, and to make a record that connects at that level — still — is crazy cool."

He continued: "A lot of people are really taking to the new songs. Like, we'll meet people at meet-and-greets and they'll be, like, 'My favorite song is 'Now That We're Dead',' and, 'My favorite song is 'Halo On Fire'.' This record is being received with the same appreciation as any of our other records. That's something that we didn't expect. And that's something that anyone who has been doing this as long as us should never take for granted."