LARS ULRICH Says LADY GAGA is The 'Quintessential Fifth Member' Of METALLICA

Lars Ulrich has told Rolling Stone that he hopes METALLICA's collaboration with pop superstar Lady Gaga at this past weekend's Grammy Awards was more than an one-off. "We already started fast-forwarding to the next chapter when we can do more of this," he said. "It's not one of those '20 lawyers, strategists and managers trying to force two people from two different worlds to figure out how to spend four minutes together on a national telecast.' Of any of these undertakings, this is about as organic and authentic as there's ever been one. We're just getting started."

METALLICA's appearance with Gaga at the 59th annual event in Los Angeles Sunday night (February 12) turned into something of a disaster when the Grammy sound crew did not turn frontman James Hetfield's mic on, forcing him to share the mic with Gaga after the first verse and chorus. That seemed to take the steam out of the song, although a scantily clad Gaga gamely gyrated around the stage and even dove into the audience at one point.

The performance was not helped by the other onstage dancers feebly pretending to be metalheads, and as a further humiliation, presenter Laverne Cox did not even introduce METALLICA by name. At the end of the song, a visibly angry Hetfield hurled his guitar at a road-crew member while kicking over his mic stand.

"There was a slight technical snafu, but that's not really something you can do much about," Ulrich told Rolling Stone. "You just learn to live with that side of it. It happened to Adele last year; I guess this year it was our turn."

The drummer went on to call Gaga the "quintessential perfect fifth member of this band," adding, "Her voice, her attitude, her outlook on everything is so awesome. [The performance] was so effortless and organic and she just has the spirit of hard rock and metal flowing through her veins. It comes really easy for her. There's nothing contrived; she just has this super warm, easy energy."