Why Does METALLICA Keep Making New Albums?

Tim Virgin of 97.9 The Loop conducted an interview with METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich before the band's June 18 concert at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked what inspires METALLICA to keep making new records even though they could have easily spent the last couple of decades touring on the back of the "Black Album," Ulrich said: "Without giving you too much of the 'we're artists' and all that crap, it's a lot of fun to write songs, it's a lot of fun to create songs, it's a lot of fun to record them, it's a lot of fun to make records. And you've gotta allow yourself both sides of that coin.

"Being out on the road is obviously beyond incredible, but playing five or six new songs that we do every night and having new material, that's really cool," he continued. "We do a lot of meet-and-greets and meet all different kinds of folks.

"I've gotta tell you: Three or four days ago in Texas, there was a kid in one of the meet-and-greets; he couldn't have been more than six or eight," Lars said. "And I said, 'Blah blah blah. How're you doing? What's your favorite song?', expecting him to say 'Enter Sandman' or whatever. And he goes 'Atlas, Rise!' I'm not making that up. Six or seven year sold. I said, 'What's your favorite METALLICA song?' He didn't skip a beat — [he] just [said], 'Atlas, Rise!' So that's the reason we make records still. That's amazing — that that still happens."

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame band is touring in support of its tenth studio album, "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct", which features the current single "Now That We're Dead".

The North American leg of METALLICA's "WorldWired" trek will hit stadiums in fifteen more cities before ending in mid-August.

The next stop on the tour is Orlando, Florida on July 5.

Support on the quartet's first North American trek since 2009 is coming mainly from AVENGED SEVENFOLD and VOLBEAT, with GOJIRA taking over for the latter group for the last six shows.