METALLICA's LARS ULRICH On 'Lulu': 'I'm Invigorated At How Awesome The Record Turned Out'

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich and former VELVET UNDERGROUND frontman Lou Reed last month spoke to Guardian.co.uk about METALLICA and Reed's musical collaboration "Lulu", which is due on November 1 in North America via Warner Bros. Records and one day earlier (October 31) in the rest of the world through Universal Music. The CD was co-produced by Reed, METALLICA, Hal Willner who has produced albums for Reed, Marianne Faithfull, and Laurie Anderson, among others and Greg Fidelman. Fidelman also mixed the record.

On how "Lulu" turned out:

Reed: "This has so much rage it's thrilling. I've waited for a long time to have a shot at doing something like this with the right people. I'm energized and jacked up. Sometimes I find it so emotional I have to get up and turn it off."

Hal Willner ("Lulu" co-producer): "The music is demanding on the listener, no question. I don't know what to call it but it is not background music. Lou came in with material, METALLICA brought the ticket and took the ride. They showed themselves incredibly courageous, open and not pandering. They always said something if they didn't want something a certain way and they were totally free to express themselves."

Ulrich: "I didn't expect to be involved in a process of this magnitude. I'm invigorated at how absolutely awesome the record turned out. Lou walked into the studio and about seven seconds later my head was spinning like Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist'. It was so impulsive it'll take me years to access what happened."

Reed: "When I finally heard it back, I was beyond stunned. Now I don't even associate myself with it. This is as good as my writing gets. I can't do better. I listen to it and my poor heart breaks over some of what's in it."

On the making of "Lulu":

Reed: "The moment we played together, it was like: Wow! This is really serious. My guitar on top of James and Kirk [Hammett]. The odds on that working three guitars is almost zero. It's very hard even to get that two-guitar lock. I started playing against James it was like, whuump! [presses his fist in his palm] If that hadn't happened we'd still be there "

"I'd played with them so I didn't have to go beyond that. I didn't need to ask for their biography. Whatever the thing is, it exists in the playing. Feeling is everything to me in rock to make it really happening and not degenerate into pop music. That's not to put pop down."

Ulrich: "I didn't know we were going to be so involved on a creative level. I was perfectly happy in a perverse way to be a backing band, because that's something we've never done."

"It offered us an incredible opportunity to do something that had no boundaries around it. We could concentrate on playing."

"We run parallel courses in how we relate to everything around us. That's why it seemed so effortless. We've never been part of a particular movement or adhered to a particular style people want from us. Lou and James have different writing styles, but they still come from a sense of alienation, of being on the outside looking in. They use different words: Hetfield has never yet used the word 'armpit' [in a lyric] but it's one of my favorite words on the record."

"It was an opportunity for us to rid ourselves of thought. It wasn't complicated. That's exciting for us because it may point the way for what METALLICA will do in the future."

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