METALLICA's LARS ULRICH Receives Honorary Award At Denmark's 'Carl Prisen'

On Monday, June 13, METALLICA's Lars Ulrich was awarded with the prestigious Ærespris (Honorary Award) at this year's Carl Prisen.

The Carl Prisen was founded by Danish Music Publishers' Association in 2013, named after Carl Nielsen. Prizes are awarded to composers and songwriters in 15 different categories spanning different music genres.

The award included a monetary prize of 30,000 Danish kroner (approximately $4,200), which Ulrich donated to the Danish Songwriting Academy.

This year's Carl Prisen ceremony was held at Axelborgsalen in Copenhagen and was attended by Ulrich and early METALLICA producer Flemming Ramsussen. Flemming later shared a photo of the pair at the event on social media and wrote in a caption: "Today I participated in giving out the Carl Prize 2022 to this guy!"

Ulrich was honored in part of his role in METALLICA's lawsuit against the streaming platform Napster for copyright infringement. He was also recognized for his compositional work on such classic METALLICA tracks as "Enter Sandman", "Nothing Else Matters" and "Master Of Puppets".

In May 2000, Ulrich famously delivered a literal truckload of paper to Napster Inc., listing hundreds of thousands of people who allegedly used the company's software to share unauthorized MP3s of METALLICA's songs.

METALLICA representatives compiled the more than 60,000-page list of 335,435 Napster user IDs over one weekend in response to Napster's promise to terminate the accounts of users who trade material without permission. Real names were not included in the list.

In later years, METALLICA embraced digital music: in December 2012, the band made all of its studio albums, as well as various live material, singles, remixes and collaborations, available on Spotify.

Last year, Ulrich spoke to the "Tanya's Table" podcast about his Danish upbringing and how it has shaped who he is.

"As the world spins out of control here in many ways, I feel more and more Danish and kind of embrace my Danish roots," he said. "I love America; I love living in America. It's been an incredible 30-[plus] years, close to 40 years now [since I moved to the U.S.], but the Danishness in me still flourishes, and I'm very proud and happy about that side.

"People [ask me], 'Oh, you're gonna move back [to Denmark]?' I'm, like, 'I'm very happy,'" he continued. "I'm very happy [living] in San Francisco. I love the Bay Area mentality and the creative energies that flow through all the different things — even tech here, obviously, where people are inventing the future. But I'm really more and more, I think, understanding and appreciative and understand what role my upbringing and the culture and the history and the Danish worldview plays in continuously shaping who I am."

While still living in Denmark as a teenager, Ulrich played tennis professionally and could have gone on to a career as a tennis star, but chose music instead.