LARS ULRICH: 'There's Many Different Sides To METALLICA'

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich has made a video in the band's San Francisco Bay Area headquarters in which he discusses their headlining concert at Minneapolis's new U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, August 20. The group's performance is the first rock concert at the new home of the Minnesota Vikings and tickets sold out in less than ten minutes.

Said Ulrich in the clip, which was premiered at Rolling Stone: "It's pretty awesome to be able to reach such a wide array of different music fans and people, but there are a lot of METALLICA fans in a lot of places of all ages, different backgrounds — culturally, socially, economically… the whole thing. And it's really cool. So we're very happy and appreciative that anybody shows up. And the fact that we can sell fifty, fifty-five thousand tickets to a show in Minneapolis still blows our minds, or probably blows our minds more than it ever did. And so it's kind of crazy, all of that. And we also, obviously, like to think that there are many different sides to what we do musically. We never like to be pigeonholed or to be stuck in one particular thing. So there's many different sides to METALLICA."

Lars went on to say that doesn't miss playing smaller venues "because we [still] play them. I mean, it's part of what we do. We're fortunate enough to be able to play giant, big-ass festivals," he added. "We played all seven continents in one calendar year, which was pretty awesome. We do it all. It's fun to be able to just kind of mix up the experience, not only for the fans, but for ourselves."

Pandora will livestream METALLICA's headlining performance at U.S. Bank Stadium. The livestream will begin at 10 p.m. EST on Saturday, August 20. Pandora listeners can tune in the day of and catch it on replay at this location. Individual songs from the concert will also spin on Pandora.

METALLICA, who has nearly 2 billion spins on Pandora, also curated an exclusive mixtape in celebration of the show and livestream. The mixtape features songs handpicked by all of the members of the band and features an eclectic mix of all-time favorites and recent discoveries from across the spectrum of music.

"METALLICA is one of the most successful and influential rock bands in the world. Partnering with them to expand the audience for their live show is a great honor," said Tim Westergren, founder and CEO of Pandora. "It's also another illustration of the power of our platform to connect artists and fans. This is a seminal moment for live music and as a Minneapolis native myself, it's exciting to be part of the opening of the city's beautiful new stadium."

This is Pandora's third livestream of a major performance and advances Pandora's mission to help artists grow their careers. Jack White's sold-out show at Madison Square Garden was live streamed to great success and the livestream of MUMFORD AND SONS' sold-out concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion resulted in over a million station adds last year.