METALLICA: Pro-Shot Footage From Oslo Available

August 3, 2009

Official Metallica.com footage from METALLICA's July 30, 2009 concert in Oslo, Norway — including clips of pre-show meet-and-greet, tuning-room jam and the actual performance — can be viewed below.

As previously reported, ex-METALLICA guitarist Dave Mustaine claims in a new interview with Rolling Stone that the band wanted to fire co-founder and drummer Lars Ulrich after the group finished touring in 1986 — but the plan was disrupted by the death of bassist Cliff Burton in a tour bus accident. Reporter Greg Prato asks, "As far as you know, is it true that on the last METALLICA tour Cliff Burton was on before he died, the band was planning on firing Lars Ulrich at the tour's end?" Mustaine replies, "That's what Scott (Ian, ANTHRAX guitarist) told me. He said that when METALLICA got home, that James (Hetfield, frontman),Cliff and Kirk (Hammett, guitarist) were going to fire Lars."

However, Scott Ian refuted Mustaine's statement in a post on ANTHRAX's official Twitter profile, writing, "Story's not true. Little does anyone know but Lars actually owns the (METALLICA) name. Good luck ever kicking him out."

Mustaine himself was a member of METALLICA for less than two years, from 1981 to 1983, before being dismissed and replaced by Hammett. He did not play on any METALLICA albums and did not attend their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Mustaine went on to form MEGADETH. The band's 12th studio album, "Endgame", is due out in September.

No one has every seriously speculated that Ulrich could be dismissed from the band he started with Hetfield more than a quarter century ago. But he told The Pulse of Radio himself that being in a band that long has its ups and downs. "Being in METALLICA for 27 years, part of the ride is that it's got to go on these kind of ups and downs and these dynamics, and now people like you, and now people like you a little more, and now people like you a little less and now people complain about this, and now people are really excited about that . . . it's all part of the ride."

METALLICA is currently touring behind its ninth studio album, "Death Magnetic", and starts a North American run of shows in September.

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