METALLICA's LARS ULRICH: 'I'm Like An Internet Whore'

On September 29, 2009, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich was interviewed by Cindy Scull of the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas radio station 97.1 The Eagle Rocks. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On rumors that METALLICA was assembling a tour that would feature the "Big Four" of the 1980s underground thrash metal scene — itself, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX:

Ulrich: "It's taken on a life of its own, this thing. I don't know what I could possibly add to it.

"As far as I know, we haven't talked to anybody about it; we've talked about it amongst ourselves. And, obviously, because you get sort of caught up in the rumor of the whole thing, so I get asked about it four times a day in interviews.

"I wish I could give you an Eagle exclusive — 'Lars confirms...' I don't know what to tell you.

"It certainly could be fun, if everybody would be up for it; certainly we would be up for it. But it's not something that's imminent; it's not something that's being discussed for January. Everybody's got their own schedules and everybody's doing their thing, but at some point, of course, in the right situation, I think it could be super-fun.

"Listen, the guys in METALLICA certainly are all about nostalgia, all about lineage, all about making the fans understand how things, sort of, came to be, and connect the dots and all that type of stuff, so I would definitely be up for that. But I haven't made any phone calls yet. [Laughs] But we'll see what happens. I'm sure it definitely could happen one day."

(Listen to Ulrich talking about "Big Four" tour rumors by clicking on audio player below.)

On whether he had any idea what he was getting himself into when he angered many fans by waging a high-profile battle with Napster in 2000 over illegal music downloading:

Ulrich: "That was just a bad dream; that never happened. [Laughs]

"Are you familiar with the phrase compartmentalizing something? It's in a part of my brain that I can rarely access, but...

"Listen, there's no glory in any of that. We took a position and a lot of people did not agree with that position that we took. A lot of people are coming now and saying, 'You were right all along,' patting me on the shoulder, but it was still a very bizarre summer, and I don't take any glory away from it.

"We've always stood up for what we believed in, we've always stood up for kind of an impulsive need to protect METALLICA from any dissent or any people that kind of go against us — it's almost like a gang-like mentality; protect what's yours — and that caught us in some hot waters, as you're very well aware of, but still, obviously it was the right thing that we did, because we threw ourselves into it. I wish we would have been a little more prepared for what was coming, but listen, it's 10 years ago now, and I think people have sort of read the writing on the wall here and people get it.

"Contrary to popular belief, the issue was never with the Internet, the issue was never about downloading... The issue was about... Well, I'll say it a little more P.C. It was about whose decision it was. What we were standing up for was, I've got no problem giving anything away, I've got no problem with the Internet. Whose decision is it whether you wanna give it away? We feel that it should be our decision, and another company made that decision for us, and we felt that that was kind of out of line, so we went out there to seek some sort of retribution or something [Laughs] — 'C'mon, do ten push-ups for doing that.' So the whole thing got a little crazy. But we've always been totally pro... I'm like an Internet whore — I'm on the Internet way too much every day — and I have 13 iPods and whatever else. So that's not the issue. It's just about who makes the decisions. If you wanna give your stuff away, then I'll give my stuff away, but it's my decision."

(Listen to Ulrich talking about Napster and illegal music downloading by clicking on audio player below.)

Cindy Scull's entire 19-minute September 29, 2009 interview with Lars Ulrich is available for streaming in three parts below.

METALLICA has launched an iPhone application that "creates a streaming interface to your LiveMetallica account," meaning that any live show fans have downloaded from the site will automatically stream to their iPhones once they launch the app, which costs 99 cents. Fans just have to purchase the app at the iPhone store and log onto their account at LiveMetallica.com to access every gig they've downloaded, as well as a free stream of the band's latest concert. More developments and features are also on the way.

METALLICA has added single-song downloads to the LiveMetallica.com web site. Instead of buying only entire concerts, fans can pick whatever individual songs they want from any concert they choose from. Every song that the band has recorded in concert since 2004, covering a span of 269 shows, is available for 99 cents per MP3. Full shows are still $9.95 as MP3 files and $12.95 as higher-quality FLAC files.

Frontman James Hetfield told The Pulse of Radio about deciding to release individual songs, "Yeah, I think the song-per-song vs. album is kind of a long lost battle, I think. You know, people in the fast-food world we live in want what they want, and want it now, and when they're done with it, they're done with it. So yeah, it's about time, and I think it's the right move."

LiveMetallica.com was launched in March 2004 and makes downloads available for purchase of every show the band has played since then, often within hours of the gig's finale.

More than 300,000 downloads have been purchased at the site since its launch.

The "Vault" section of the site offers free downloads of shows recorded before 2004.

More shows will crop up at the site in upcoming weeks, since METALLICA just launched a new North American tour last month. The band has dates booked through mid-December.

Cindy Scull's entire 19-minute September 29, 2009 interview with Lars Ulrich (click on player below to launch audio):

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: