Talk Is Jericho by Chris Jericho by Chris Jericho by Chris Jericho by Chris Jericho Alright, welcome to Talk Is Jericho. It is the pot of thunder and rock and roll today. It's definitely rock and roll or maybe heavy metal. Because this episode has been almost three years in the making. I've been working on landing this legendary rock and roll pioneer since the first start of Talk Is Jericho. And finally, the day has arrived. The day that never comes has come. He's here.
Lars Ulrich of Metallica is joining us today on Talk Is Jericho. Definitely the biggest rock star I've had on this show. And I guarantee this conversation was worth the wait. Talking about hardwired to self-destruct the band's new record. All of the trials and tribulations behind writing the new songs and recording the new tunes.
Tom O'Cliff Burton, the legendary Cliff Burton. One of my biggest heroes in rock and roll. A little bit about his personality, some great stories about Cliff. Metallica's chemistry. How they've managed to stay together. How Lars and James have managed not to kill each other. Their songwriting process, Lars' drumming style. How I feel he's the ringo star of heavy metal.
The early days of Metallica. And if you're looking for new bands and new music, Lars is a walking, talking, Wikipedia of factual information and trivia on the new wave of British heavy metal. The most obscure metal bands you've ever heard of. We're going to listen to some new wave of British heavy metal songs. And Lars is going to give us a rundown on these bands that I guarantee you've never heard of. I've never heard of them.
We'll also get some great tips on some of his fav obscure bands. Who to check out. And of course, you might even hear him sing a few bars. It's a Metallica interview. Unlike any other, did you expect anything else? Lars on Talk is Jericho. And we're going to jump into the fire right away. But first, we're going to jump start your fitness plans for 2017.
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Jericho. I know we're here. I can't believe we're talking about this for months. Maybe even a year or two or something like that. I remember I had a radio show on Nicky Six is channel about three years ago. And we were talking about it. And you're like, yeah, I'll do it when the new record comes out. And I was like, well, maybe like in 2020, 2022 something like that. So it finally happened. So yeah, man, what's new? Anything exciting going on?
No, it's been a nice quiet fall. Just been kind of kicking it home for the last couple of months doing nothing. You know what I was laughing at is that hard where it comes out. And it's like top three or top five or something like in 105 different countries. I can't name 30 countries. I know it's it's pretty nuts. All that stuff. I used to be really competitive. You know, like 2025 years ago. Oh my god.
You know, it's like I used to follow all that stuff and super driven now. Like when I hear stuff like that, it's more like disbelief. Right. It's kind of sit there and go like, that's just so insane. You know, now it's like, wow, it's like people still care. Can we swear? Yeah. So people still give a shit or what? You know, that the whole thing that I mean, it's like unbelievable that like 35 years into.
I mean, anything really that people still give a shit. And I think that the fact now that you know, you sort of as you get a little I mean, you have kids and you're you're not quite where I am, but you're behind me, but close maybe is that is that you know, as you get older, you sort of you just start like slowing down long enough to take it all in.
You know what I mean, but it's not just a statement about Metallica, but it's a statement about hard rock, a metal in general that it is awesome for all of us that there still are people out there that care and that give a shit and support. The hard rock metal cause when you called upon here all the time, you know, rock is dead and you've heard that for the last few years, but this year, it's like a lot like let's say the summer of 91.
When you had Metallica guns and roses van Halen and skit roll roll number one in the charts this summer, we had guns and roses doing a stadium tour. Then the biggest band in America that's not Metallica, avenge seven full puts out a new record they're getting ready to roll and you guys come out. So it actually is a pretty damn good year for heavy rock.
Yeah, I mean, you know, as much as they all want to try to shove us out to the sidelines and make metal this little niche thing that sort of exists out in disrespect land. Or whatever, you know, it's, I mean, it is obviously awesome that people all over the world and it really feels at least to me. Like it's getting more and more of a global thing as the world gets smaller as, you know, all forms of communication reaches every corner of this earth, including, you know, what we're doing now.
Right. That people really are, you know, when I sort of browse through our social media and stuff like that, I mean, we're getting tons of people from all over places that from 10 or 20 years ago that you would never expect. I mean, a lot of love from the Middle East, a lot of love from Asia, a lot of love from all kinds of, you know, places in the Latin world that, you know, maybe believe you or parakewire.
You know, I mean, I mean, not places that are sort of like on the normal scene. Yeah, you know, so there's just kids everywhere. And at least in our case, I mean, what's a total mind fog is the whole kind of that somehow the fans still remain, you know, there's as many 12 year olds and as many 15 year olds as there was 10 years ago, or 20 years ago, 30 years ago.
That's a part that blows my mind. It's not, you guys, it's not just all a bunch of dudes with seating headlines like myself who sort of, you know, joined that all who've been with us for 30 years. I mean, there's a lot that just tons of kids that, you know, I'll like check will do something on Instagram and I'll check it occasionally.
And I'll just be like, please come to so and so I've never seen you play. I'm 14 years old and seeing Metallica is like my dream come true. It's like that really still happens. It's so cool. Guys have become an evergreen band much like the stones, as we mentioned, or if you're talking about like, you know, kids will wear a beetle shirt or or remones, or there's a lot of like T-Rex shirts. I don't think people really know what T-Rex even is.
You find Metallica is in that category now along with guns and roses and a couple of the bands to where you guys will be just as relevant 10 years from now as you were 20 years earlier. It's pretty crazy. Who would have thought I know right? Who would have thought that's the one question I'm again a lot this fall. A bunch of skids. What would you, yeah, what were your 18 year old say to your 52 year old self? I go fucking, you know, what happened to all the hair bro.
I'm just saying, you know, you know, I mean, but you know, everybody's always trying to come up with some strange angle, but you know, the fact that we're all here. And still, and like I said, that the community still gives a shit. It just feels like it's hitting and a much it resonates much more than it used to. Because you know, back 20, 30 years ago, we were always in such a hurry. It's like you never slowed down long enough to take the love in, you know.
Do you appreciate that more than I was what you're saying? Yeah, I mean, definitely. I mean, I literally like we were doing the day hard work came out a couple two, three weeks ago, we're in London and we didn't in store. We haven't done an in store for a long time. I mean, it's not, we're doing a lot of in stores. I mean, it's not something that happens a lot. And I was just sitting there and I guess I don't know what couple two, three hundred kids came through.
And you know, they always want to like, in these things, it's always about the numbers. How many people do you get through? It's like, you know what, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to shake every fucking hand. I'm going to look them in the eye. I'm going to say hello. I'm going to have a fucking moment and just appreciate that some person, somebody, a human being came from all over England came from, they came from Poland, they came from France.
They were like, basically from all over Europe, coming to, you know, Central London to stand in line for hours to meet our sorry asses. And just have a second, you know, it's not just about writing on a record. It's about having a moment, you know what I mean? And I just took it all in. I just sat there and connected with each one of these people and had like 30 seconds or whatever.
And it just was really cool and just, yes, you definitely take it much more. And I mean 30 years ago, it was like, there's got another beer. It was like, where's the 10s? Yeah, you know, you know, I mean, that's it's time, you know. You can tell that though, even I watched some of the stuff when you guys did that record story, anything at Rasputins, which was probably, I'm assuming it was up in the Bay Area close to where you guys came in the scene. Literally in the backyard.
Backyard. 10 minutes from where we started. And then after you went to where the Metallica house used to be, and you were talking about all the old boys were there, and you know, a mum and exodus guys or whatever, dads and stuff. But you must have been a cool experience to kind of go back to this time zone, time frame, time machine to that point in your life when you were just starting house Metallica 30 years back.
It was fucking so real. I mean, it was, we were in that house for about three years. So when Hetfield and I in Mustaine, through our shit in a truck and drove up North to have Clifjohn, the band, you know, James and I ended up in that house with a guy named Mark Whitaker, who was sort of the fifth member, kind of the manager, the sound man.
But Stain ended up staying at Clifjertens Grandmas house in a room at, at Burton's Grandmas house down by where Burton was with Cliff was down in Castor Valley. But so we were back in that house for the first time in 30 years. And that house is literally like the size of this booth we're in. And the fact that that was like my home for three or four years. I mean, all the songs on right, the lighting and master puppets were written in that house and that garage out in the back.
A garage is not there sadly unfortunately. It's got this got dismantled and you know, and Hetfield was like, we should have bought that garage, put it inside our studio. Just build it like a replica of it inside the studio and like write songs in there, you know, for all times. Actually the Cavern Club actually exists in a museum.
Exactly. You guys could have done the same thing. But we were in that backyard and we had everybody from the Johnny Z's, all the people who have been just so helpful all through our career came and people from Europe and old record company people and tour managers and all the GM Ambo's of the world and how it, how it all hell knows. And you know, everybody just came and supported and we were in that bad party for three, four, five. I didn't want it to end. Yeah. Yeah.
I was just like, fuck, this is so cool. And you know, the house is now sort of it's still the same house and you know, but it's been repainted. There's, you know, you know, the picture on the picture on the inside of master puppets that's taken on that couch. And that, you know, we're all the Chinese food. Yeah. All that. Those health and pictures. Chinese food is taken in the kitchen.
Our friend, Skicci, you know, Rich Birch, who was Skicci, who sort of the protagonist for the song Master puppets. He was a guy that he would sleep over on the couch. He would, he lived down the street and he would come and just beasing hang in our house all the time. And he would crash on the couch. And then he would wake up and chop his breakfast on a mirror that's written about. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's you were in that space. Like that's where that couch that Skicci would crash on.
And chop his breakfast on the mirror every morning and you know, sort of get going. I mean, it was crazy being back in that same space. I was just in Mexico City last weekend. And I think we were text each other. You were just flying a Copenhagen and I was in Mexico City. And long be known, long be hold unbeknownst to me.
The hotel we were staying in right next door was the hotel I lived in in 93 to 95 when I was living in Mexico. And I literally could have thrown a stone hadn't been there in 20 some odd years, 25 years, whatever went in there. And like you said, same thing, same dining room, same restaurant, same front desk. And it just sat there. And all of these memories came flooding in.
Of the people that have passed on a good friend of mine 80 Graham and we sat here. We got drunk. He yelled at me. We got in a fight. Did you when you're at that same thing when you're thinking a lot of a cliff, Burton and some experiences. Yeah, I'm just trying to take it all in. I mean, I wasn't in. I mean, the difference between you and I in that situation when I was in that house.
There was 200 other people with me, who were constantly going, hey, how you doing? I haven't seen you in 20 years, which was super cool. It wasn't a sort of like, I didn't get a chance to sort of like stand there and reflect. But the people that own the house now, this family that literally like owns houses in the East Bay, they're like, anytime. And I think that they've sort of the houses become a little bit of a for the few sort of people that come to explore music history in the Bay.
Those people that stop at 32, 31, 32 cause and go, that's it. That's where the boys, you know, wrote lightning and puppets and stayed for all those years. So they were super nice. Anytime you want to come back and hang up. So maybe one day I'll go back and reflect a little bit. You know, it was a pretty crazy couple hours. There was a lot of there was a lot of energy. I didn't have a kind of a quiet second to myself.
But obviously Cliff is, I mean, not sounding cheesy about it. I mean, he's part of our journey and always will be part of our journey. And even if we don't sort of sit and think about him like every day, what would Cliff was here now? What would he say? You know, any of that. I mean, he's just just part of our DNA. He's part of our being. He's part of our story and always will be.
And so it's always fun to sort of include him in these things, whether it's super sort of even if it's just circumstantial. You know, I mean, he's just, he's part of the ride. He's almost become a mythical, mythical entity. But you know, also, I mean, just circle back to that. I mean, his dad, right? His dad will outlive all of us, including Keith Richards. He literally, his dad is the sweetest man on this plan. And I mean, and so inspirational to have around.
And he comes to all these things and Ray must be, I mean, he's got to be pushing 90. And he is clear as, this is whatever something that's super clear. There is a roundabout. He is exactly about a sharp. I mean, he is right there with it. There's no anything. And he just likes to be included. And just the fact that he's there always brings Cliff also and not just Cliff, but this old family is mom and, you know,
a brother that passed on and there was some tragedies in that family. And you know, Ray kind of brings that energy back into our fold. And it's just super cool to always have a little. Just quickly, tell me a little bit about Cliff. I've always kind of been a little bit obsessed with him because I was a huge fan of his. And when the, you know, when he passed away, I was, you know, really devastated because I was a bass player.
And of course, one, one millionth as good as Cliff Burton. But I learned from the Bell Tolls, at least a cheap version of it, and learn how to play, you know, for horsemen and that sort of thing. Like, it's a little insight on the personality of the guy. He was very, um, have you ever crossed paths with Jim Martin from Faith No More? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Jim Martin and Puffy, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike Borden, who obviously went on to Ozzy and Sam's absolutely.
So the three of them were kind of best friends growing up in down in Castor Valley Hayward, which is kind of the one part of the East Bay. People used to kind of joke a little more kind of like redneck and stuff. It's obviously in a very progressive area. Hayward and Castor Valley had a little bit of a rep as kind of more that kind of stuff. Right.
And so they had, you know, if you've ever been around Jim Martin, they all had the same kind of personalities. They were always kind of very contrary. They were almost in character. They were often fiercely independent, fiercely kind of just their own kind of thing. And lights are sort of push buttons and be a little sort of shocking is but like contrary, and just kind of say things that were like a little out of line and so on.
And there was a guy, you know, Jim's brother, Lou Martin, who was a dear friend for many years. I don't see him that much now. But, you know, they were all, you know, they had a place a couple hours north of San Francisco where they would all go like a cabin where clips ashes are scattered now. Where they would go like, you know, shoot guns and go duck hunting and all this stuff. And stuff from we've all done, you know, been part of that whole thing.
So Cliff was very, he was into a lot of different musical. I mean, he was into everything from, you know, which has been talked about, like, you know, the Leonard Skinner, it's the ZZ Top. R.A.M. or R.A.M. You know, like Simon Garfong, he was into all kinds of classical stuff. He was, you know, he was still in college when we met him. And he was, you know, and not saying good or bad or whatever. He was also probably the one that, I think in those years, he missed home more than any of the rest.
When you're on the road, yeah, he would always like, for instance, when we were in Denmark recording lightning and puppets. He went home when he wasn't doing his base parts because he liked to be, he was kind of more of a home body. Especially Hitfield and I were much more kind of independent and much more adaptable to sort of, you know, Cliff was a little, remember the first, you know, few months were around Europe.
Like, what do you mean there's no Mexican food, you know, like, you know, I understand, you know, what do you mean you can't get breakfast, you know, 24, you know, it was like he was very sort of used to certain sort of Americanisms, you know, whatever.
And had a hard time sort of, you want it breakfast, whatever you want it. He wanted, he wanted as Mexican food every day. He wanted beer and Mexican food. He was like very kind of, he wasn't sort of, okay, let's just, yeah, let's just, yeah, let's just make it up. Make it up as we go along. He was a little more like, okay, fuck it. I'm done with my base parts. I'm going back to Castro Valley to get some Mexican food. Yeah.
So he was a little bit more sort of traditional in his sort of worldview or whatever. But, um, I'd say when I think of him, I just think mostly of how totally unique he was. I've never met anybody that was remotely like him and he was fiercely protective of his own sort of individuality. Often to the point of, you could argue off to the point of sort of like overkill.
You know what I mean, or just became sort of like, you know, don't fuck with me. Okay, check this out, check that out. You know, I was like, you know, and that was just cliff. But if you look at him too, though, at the time frame, like, okay, now everybody has their own look, but you're talking about 1983, 94, we all had a metal look. You had heavy metal, you had bangs, tight jeans, the high tops. He wore bell bottoms. He had one length hair, lots of flannel.
Yeah, he didn't get it. Nobody had that. I don't know. He was just, and that was like I say, a little bit of that kind of red thing. I don't want to make too much of that part, but there was a little bit more, you know, obviously, you know, San Francisco at that time was still incredibly progressive and incredibly sort of worldly and big pockets around Northern California that was still very sort of traditional and a little more kind of rural.
And so Cliff was very, that he came from that pocket and he was fiercely protective of that, you know. Talk is Jericho. All right, let's talk about Cliff Burden. And I want to ask you another question about him. What did he teach you guys as musicians and songwriters? He was the one, I mean, if you listen to the difference, you know, with an analytical mind about sort of like the difference between Kill'em All and Ride the Lightning.
Obviously, there was this huge, you know, the energy still was there and the heaviness was still there or more heaviness, but the pallet, you know, I guess the pallets, the right word, the pallet was expanded.
You know, so we never experienced experiment, excuse me, with like harmonies, you know, melodies. So if you take things like, you say like from the belt, it was like, you know, that melody, if you take, I don't know, like, fate of black, you know, that riff, the outro, super melodic kind of.
That was all the stuff that he sort of brought to the table, the intro of Fight Fire, that was more or less his, you know, so there was this whole other thing that came from like the whole classical upbringing that he had.
He studied classical music and he was, you know, could sit there and talk to you about Bach and sit and talk to you about Beethoven and, you know, check, I don't check, I don't check, Oscar, whatever, but you sit there, I mean, look, you know, 1981 James Headfield, I didn't sit there and like, you know, I mean, you know, classical, classical endeavors, you know, I mean, we're a little more narrow minded now, outlook, you know, I mean, at all.
Cliff just had a really, he loved the energy, he loved the aggression, but there were a few things, I think, you know, I don't think it was a big fan of some of the more, you know, I don't want to say anything bad about anyone. I don't think it was, I don't think it was like a big fan of like Iron Maiden and I don't think he was a big fan of the sort of the stuff that got power metal.
The whole that got very sort of pompous over, not saying Iron Maiden's, but you know what I mean, sort of like, you call it beerstein rocker, it looks like you're like, yeah, you know, yeah, we love heavy metal. Yeah, he wasn't a big fan of that. I remember early on when we started like traveling on the tour bus and stuff, I put on some like Maidenism, this and he was like, he didn't like get up out of the seat and start like banging up and down like before.
I'd play some Maiden, I'd play some Diamond Hit, I'd play some, and then he'd put on, you know, the Rio Grande Mud or DiGuelo or he'd put on like some yes album I'd never heard of or something else. I was like, oh, he'd sit there and fly the flag for sort of like a Jethro Tull or he'd put on, you know, like one man he loved with his police.
Oh, yeah, wow, loved, you know, so he always play the police. So his whole net was just really wide and was sort of completely unencumbered by, you know, how it was supposed to be if you're in a metal band, you know, which obviously James and I hadn't quite graduated to at that time, you know.
This is just one last thing with Cliff, it's interesting because I always hear people that were with the young, sure you get all the time, or you know, the Metallica was only good for the first year records and if Cliff Burton was still alive, they never would have done the blackout, they never would have done load.
And I always tell them I disagree with that because it seems like the melody and the collecticism of Cliff would want to do something different in that way that you guys didn't change shit around. Do you feel, do you feel that? I've kind of taught myself to, it's just like I don't even go there, right? I just anytime in interviews where the conversation steers towards what would have happened.
Cliff still, well, here's the new sunshine. Cliff is not here. So it's this is the way history played out. Do you know what I mean? And so I don't, I just think from from what your time, what his attitude and his mind said he would like to shake up the shit. Cliff hands down was the one that was the most musically at that time, the most musically varying.
And so, you know, anybody that sits in and goes Cliff, one of them done that Cliff, one of them done. I mean, it's just a non-starred conversation because we don't know. Now, if you're taking an inner sand man, right? So you sit there and it's a great riff and it's a great this and we're doing this kind of good. And we tried a lot of different stuff with new stead and you know this and that. And then it was sort of like, okay, you know, at the end of the day, just thumbing like.
Cliff streams. Yeah. Doing the Cliff Williams straight eight notes, Roger Glover smoke on the water. It just works for the song. So I don't think Cliff would have said, fuck you, I'm not doing that. His thing was just what's best for the song. What's what's the bigger picture? Right. You know, so this kind of fake elitism about like, you know, this person would have done. How do you you don't know that? And and I just to me.
What would happen if you hadn't done this? What would happen to this? What would it be? Okay. Well, so here's the history up until I walked into the sound booth with you. You know, the only thing we can change is what happens when we walk out of the sound booth, you know, whether we go down the hall or go left. I mean, do you know what I mean? And it's just I just the way I I am as a person. I'm just not a. You know, what we'll look back. Yeah, I agree.
It doesn't do anything because history is and it's not even for it's not even, you know, some people sit there and go like everything happens for a reason. I'm not one of those sort of it's spiritual and there's some sort of energy. I'm just I'm much more practical. This is how it played out. And that's really the end of it. So you and I can sit here and watch the dead and played out that way, but it's I guess it's sort of it's the way I guess I've.
I mean, if you really want to go deep, it's probably the way I've sort of insulated myself in the last 30, 35 years. People sit there and throw all kinds of shit at Metallica, you know, who's the acoustic guitars and fades of black. You got that. You got that. You got that. Oh, I mean, dude, I mean, people have been throwing shit at us for 35 years. And so, you know, the only way to deal with it is to kind of just basically just ignore it. Yeah.
Fix it in yourself. And so there's a side of me that can weather any one of those arguments because I just I've taught myself to have a deflect off. But especially in this day and age where everybody has an opinion, everyone can go online. The proof is in the putting of the success and all the things that are happening with Metallica and talking about hardware. And there's something you mentioned a couple of seconds ago. What's best for the song?
And I have a theory about your drumming, which to me on this record, I said a lot of my friends, Lars, the star of the show on this record. I'm not just saying that because you're sitting here. Text about it a couple of times. You did it. I still like to hear that. If James is your James is your James. You know, verse of the spine. What I really appreciate about your drumming now, and always specifically now, as I always say, Lars is the Ringo star of heavy metal drumming.
And what I mean by that is that Ringo always played the exact right parts for the song. Maybe he could have done some more flash. Maybe he could have laid back, but he always played the best part for the song and it fit perfectly. I find that you in this day and age, the last 10 years of Metallica, last two through records. You really do have that vibe where you played what's perfect for the song. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of been my MO for most of Metallica's career.
There was a year or two because things started so quickly. And we were just literally half an hour after we started. We were in San Francisco and then Johnny Z called them on these coasts and then we were making a record. I mean, it just moved quickly. So quickly. And when we came back from ride to lightning, it was like, wow. And we had a little bit of time. And at that time, you know, like a month or two was like an eternity. It's like, what am I going to do now for a whole month?
You know, and so both Kirk went back to taking guitar lessons from Setsuiani. And I went back and I thought I could, I'd never really taken lessons. And I never planned because you wanted to be in Diamondhead and Motorhead. And I didn't, it was like, well, you have to learn to play the instruments. I mean, it was almost like karaoke in the beginning. I just wanted to be in a karaoke heavy metal band, you know, sitting bash along to that's what Hitfield and I did.
We just sat and played along to Diamondhead and Play along. Yeah, sitting then all of a sudden it was like, wow, this is getting real. It sort of wasn't really intended that way. And so, you know, I never really taken lessons. So I took some lessons from one of Setsuiani's guys, super cool guy. And until Kirk, you know, took lessons and we were sort of, you know, playing a little bit of catch up.
And so I went through a period that probably culminated in the Justice album where I felt sort of compelled to try to show ability. It was like, you know, and listen, when you got Dave Lombardo and Charlie Binance, you know, breathing down your back. I mean, it was like, okay, I got to try it. I tried to step it up a little bit and try to do my own thing and do all this crazy shit. The part on one that Double Kick on One is very intricate. Yeah, well, thank you.
And a lot of those things were actually written on the, because we start, you know, I would come up with drum riffs and drum ideas that hit Phil Bordright riffs, you know, riffs judge it. Like the Justice for all doom, but dumb, boom, you know, all that stuff. But I was very, I was trying really hard to push the drums kind of into the foreground.
And then after like a year or two of that, I was like, okay, seriously, it's like, you know, just do you think chill out, support the riffs, do what's best for the song. So since around, I guess the late 80s. So I guess it's been like 25 years now. The only thing that's really interested me is just doing the best thing for the song and sitting and doing, you know, the kind of the Phil Rudd, the one that's more in the floor, when it calls for that, that's really what I love to do.
And just to be able to make James's riffs swing and to make it kind of bounce and to do all that type of stuff. I just sort of turned a corner where I just stopped being interested in trying to do, you know, 32, 30, I don't even know how to do it. Paradil, standing upside down, you know, backwards, fucking Lombardo style. It's like Liddell and Bartow, B. Lombardo. And I'll kind of just do my own thing. But everybody goes through periods, you know, of that kind of thing.
And I got mine out of my system pretty early. And like I said for the last 25, 30 years or whatever, it's just been more about making it swing. And that's what I'm happy to do. And then people can kind of say what they want. And we've heard that before, that one, just like download or something where you didn't play or couldn't play or the hell happened. They had Lombardo come in, they had Joy-Jurors and come in.
If you listen to those bootlegs, it's like, it's not great. It's not Metallica, you know. Thank you for saying that. I have to say that, lying in a hospital room in Hamburg, Germany, while Dave Lombardo was up on stage, that was not one of the life's most fun moments. Do I still have a gig? It's like, okay. I was on the phone with James. It's like James, you know, if I leave now, I can, you know, I'll find a plane.
I'll be there in a couple hours. It's like James was like, just get some chill time, stay in bed, do your thing. You need to recover, recuperate and get whatever it is that's going on like out of your body. And I'll see you in two days or James, man, I'm coming. Don't leave me. We just sick or something? I have some kind of aerr. It all just caught up to me. I think I had a, you know, when you kind of... I've been there before.
When, you know, when you've been burning the candle for both ends for a few months and your body just goes... Yeah, okay. Just stop in your tracks and lay the fuck down. Chill the fuck out. I'll get back to you in a couple days. I had that one time I woke up in the morning with giant, you know, coalsores in your mouth. I had like 20 coalsores in my mouth. And I was like, well, I can't even breathe and you can't eat and you can't swallow.
And I went to the doctor and he's like, dude, you need to get off the merry go round right now. And I was like, but what's he's just... There's no reason for this. It's just your body telling you that you got too much shit going on. So there you go, right? There you go. But when you talk about being on the phone with James, you guys are so close. And I've been watching a lot of the behind the scenes stuff from Hardwire, but you guys writing songs together and that sort of thing.
It's very interesting to me that the process, because you and James basically write the majority of most of the songs, but he's playing the riffs and you're more like directing and ideas. And it's almost like you're producing, but also chopping things together. What's that kind of always been? It's been like that, Bayesies since the beginning. It's like he writes, he's insane riffs. And then I try to find sort of ways to... I guess it's almost like a puzzle.
It's like you just move one piece here and this piece here and that will work well with that. And it's always been that, you know, the ranging, connecting the dots, producing. I mean, that's like... And when we're just doing our thing, we don't wear those hats. He'll, hey, try this kind of drum beat. I'll say, why don't you go to a different note on the last thing or resolve it over here? Or, why don't you play instead of playing, you know, three in one, why don't you play two in two?
Or why don't you instead of gallop in the right hand and try to do a straight downpicking order? I mean, there's no boundaries. There's no walls. It's not, you know, he's the guitar player on the drummer. I mean, we're just two people trying to create a piece of music together. Whether it was Bob Rock or whether it was Fleming or whether it was Rick Rubin or whether it was now Greg Fittelman. We have like a language and some words for things. We use the word guy a lot.
Take that guy and then put that guy or the peelers in there. What's a tail? A tail is... You have a riff and the tail is the back of the riff. It's like, okay, why don't you take the double of the tail or go... We'll say stuff like A, B, A, B instead of A, A, A, B or whatever. You know, just like... And our producers will always sit there and go like, what the hell are they talking about, you know? But we have this kind of instinct thing.
And that's kind of just the way that we've always been doing it. The only difference now is that there's 37 cameras running all the time. And, you know, it's sort of like you're just trying to let people, you know, it's kind of fun to share. And obviously now with all this stuff, you share and you let people in. It's what we do. And it's kind of... I mean, we've always loved letting, you know, have the door open and kind of let people into. But now you have the ability.
So people see kind of how we connect it. But it's really no... If people sat around when we were writing the lightening or even kill them all or any of that stuff, it was basically the same thing. You know, I wanted to connect that guy to that guy and put that one over here and double the tail and, you know, try to go... The one I like that I use with my band is that that's stock. That's a stock. It's just like average. Yeah, we used to... I think stock was the stock as a thing in the...
In some kind of monster. Yeah, yeah. When I'm sitting there going, that's really stock. You just get got all mad. We don't want stock. Yeah, but just to see that relationship because you're talking about bands with the two guys, Len and McCartney, Joe Perry and Steve Tyler, Mick and Keith and those Lars and James, Paul and Gene, you guys have stayed together as have KISS, AS have... Not too many bands on the stones, but most bands have broken up at some point in time.
You guys never did that no matter Rocky Waters or whatever. That's a pretty cool thing to be able to say. I got to say that it's a very cool thing to say and it obviously is something that as you get older, you appreciate, but two things. It doesn't get any easier as you get older. First of all, second of all.
I mean, in the wake of that then is the fact that I would say we put more time and effort and resources into making that side of it work because if you don't find the right balances, you know, it's fine. You're in your 20s, you're 19 years old, whatever, you're in your 20s, you're even in your 30s.
On the other side of kids, on the other side of all those ups and downs and relationships and watching your kids and, you know, the whole thing and, you know, whether you sort of need to do this and a lot of type of stuff. If it doesn't function and if you don't sort of sit there and find a way for the ecosystem to sort of live and breathe and how everybody has to be able to sort of come and go and everybody's needs and I have this need and this guy has this need and he's got to go through this.
And there's a kind of a calendar that lives like in this calendar that lives somewhere deep in the balls of this thing. And I mean, if you could see, it's like, you know, large out, you know, school holiday, James out, so on. So, you know, it's like, you know, the reason that it works now still is because we sort of we flipped it. And instead of Metallica being the priority now, everything outside of the Metallica is the priority, right?
And I mean, obviously families and kids and life and then Metallica sort of finds its way into all those empty spaces in there. Does that make sense? And that's kind of what's been sort of the, I guess like post some kind of monster meltdown. That's kind of what we, that's kind of sort of where organically drifted towards an order for it to work.
So everybody's got these needs and these kind of things that in order for it to function, we have to be respectful of this and that and so on and so forth. And you sort of learned that sitting there and going like, why is he doing that? And then in the last few minutes, we've got a Greg and Shreveport Louisiana or whatever. It's like, you just, it's got to, you can't even go there. The minute, it's empathy. It's like, okay, fine, you need to do that. Peace. Done, right?
Something else, it'll keep moving forward or if you take it into the, that's the practical side. If you take it into the creative side, it's like, you're working on something that's like, that's really cool. I really like that. Like the other guy goes, it's not really working for me like 20 years ago, come on man, we're gonna fucking make it work. Come on. Fuck yeah, it's fucking awesome. Come on, you know, now it's like, okay, but doesn't work for you, doesn't work for you.
We have more material and more riffs and more fucking ideas that will ever know what to do with. Right. So it's like, okay, fine, fuck it. There's another idea. It's not worth fighting about. It's not worth arguing, it's not worth belittling the other person, it's not worth. It just, we've learned to sort of stuff, you know, we don't even, you know, like, we don't even like, you know, like, it doesn't even get out of the starting gate. I got you, yeah. It just gets buried.
Okay, fine, we'll just move on. And we've sort of conditioned ourselves to do that. And that's what makes Metallica function now is this incredible internal leniency for everybody's needs. And I think we have a good balance. Now we've sort of conquered that in the last sort of post, it settled down and found a way to sort of function around St. Anger. And then post St. Anger when we came back to it and started death magnetic, that's where it really showed itself functioning.
So it's been close to 10 years now. And internally we have like the best vibe we've ever had in this band. Now the only unknown is this shoulder, the shoulders, the knees, the neck, the backs, the wrist and all that. That's if nothing happens there, God damn it, look at you man. God damn it. Mr. Pumpkratnama, I'm a blood flowin' through me. Talking about Laura, I'm excited. But you know what I mean? It's like if we, if all this stuff stays functioning, we can go on forever.
That's something that's uncharted waters to mention the stones early and they're still rockin' at 73 and still doing great. You know Charlie's still playing drums but it's a lot different between you know satisfaction and dire's eve or spit out the bone or something like that. We've never seen a thrash metal band in the mid 50s going on to 60, 65, 70. There was nobody, there was nobody in front of us. Right. It all depends basically on how you feel I guess as the machine of the band.
Yeah, I mean like I've said a couple times in the last few months and when I went to desert. Desert trip, you know, it's like the stones are great, young's great. Everybody's great. Wait a minute, all the drummers are in their 20s and 30s, right? What's wrong with this picture? Charlie's the only one. Yeah, Charlie's the only OG. All the rest of them all. Spring chickens out there, fuckin' rockin' along. And you know, it's like wait a minute, how come there's not six drummers in their mid 70s?
Right. So Charlie is, you know, but obviously in the world jazz, there's a lot of jazz drummers from the beginning. The jazz drummers from the Elven Jones, just you know, a lot of dudes were max Roach, you know, were playing well into their 70s. I mean, some of those cats even into the 80s. But obviously it was all wrist.
I mean nothing, you know, their whole bodies were more or less at a standstill and everything was in the wrists, which is what a lot of the, the inpaces and you know, a lot of those guys, you know, now, you know, as it kind of gone into the Phil Rudd thing. And I mean, if you watch Phil Rudd, if you watch like the Paris 79 thing, I mean, he's fuckin' yeah, yeah, yeah. Whole body. The cat, the dude, the dude. The weight that goes into it and the whole kind of, you know what I mean?
And so we'll have to see. I mean, I saw Sabbath a couple months ago now and Giza, Aussie, Tony, they've never been better. But it's Tommy back there. I don't know how old Tommy is, but for 35. But you know what I mean? Yeah. That's the, it's the unknown, you know. So I just don't know what's gonna happen. So we put a lot of, again, resources and time into a workout. If not every day, then close to every day.
We got a couple guys, you know, that are sort of with us that take care of, and you know about this stuff, you know, about stretching us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, a whole, I mean, it's getting very athletic. Sure. You know, it's like, it's like, massage tables and strange oils and fuckin'... No more chopping your breakfast on a mirror and beers. Not all that stuff. Thank you very much. But even just, I was always, you know, a little bit back in the day.
I was like, we're hanging out in James and everybody there just in their clothes. And it's like, now we gotta play. I gotta put my little silly shorts on. That's what fuckin' drum. I always felt a little self-conscious about it. And I'm gonna put my little Nike and running shorts on them. They're all got their metal out, you know. You're tight jeans. Right, you know. And nowadays it's like, you know, like we're up in Toronto, like a couple weeks ago. And like, we'll just show up at Soundcheck.
We don't do a lot of Soundcheck. But occasionally we do a Soundcheck. It's like, we show up at Soundcheck. We said, we're gonna work on some of the new songs, because we haven't had a chance to practice them. So let's start practicing Halo on Fire and some of those soundcheck, right? And we get down on the venue and everybody just runs up on stage. And within like 12 seconds in the venue, the three of them are up there on stage playing Halo on Fire.
I'm down in the dressing room getting the saws, getting stretched, getting fucking worked on, like, I'm about to check. You know what I mean? And it's like, it's kind of pathetic, you know what I mean? But it's like, it's what's gotta happen. I gotta do 15 minutes. I gotta get my shoulder and my elbow and my wrist worked on. Because I don't wanna fucking chance it and go up and start playing cold and all of a sudden I pull something. Right.
But lying down there and it's like, fuck, I hope nobody gets up there and plays those songs. Of David Lombard is running around. Exactly. But so it's kind of, you know, but it's just the way it is. You know, Headfield now has to do his, you know, when he does like gigs and stuff, he goes into like the bathroom and does 10 minutes of all that stuff and whatever. So everybody's got like versions of that, Kirk does all his yoga and all that type of stuff.
But it's just, it's part of, it's part of the drill now. In 2016 and again, I worked really well with the whole kind of, just you have to accept it. Accept the things you can't change and change the things that you sort of can, you know, alter, but no, we're not gonna fuck with that stuff. So it is what it is, like I said, it's like kind of a sports team, but we accept it. All right. Sitting here with Lars Ulrich and let me ask you a question, man.
Have you ever, just as a fan, tried to play along with Let There Be Rock, like just air drumming or on your set? I mean, have you ever followed along when he said, he does that live? That's insane. I'll tell you one story. So I met Coachella last year. And so I met Coachella and so Chris. Yeah, Chris laid. So Chris just got the gig and it's their first show. And I hope Chris doesn't mind me saying this. I'm like, saying anything. I shouldn't be saying it's kind of been night.
But he's basically, he just got the gig, didn't fill whatever, you know, that didn't work out. And so there's Chris. And I was like, they're playing Coachella. And I'm standing backstage talking to him. And they were going off on stage. And he's like, you know, how you doing? How you feel? It's like, we haven't really rehearsed much. I'm like, I'm gonna relate to that. We don't rehearse very much either. And do you guys play like that? We don't rehearse very much either.
And do you guys play like a couple warm-up shows or anything? Wow, Coachella is your first show. I said, when was the last time they hadn't played ACDSC. I hadn't played in like six years. Right. First of all, okay. Second of all, Chris hadn't played with them in like 20 years or whatever. It's like, wow, that's really brave. And so they go up and he's up there fucking jamming away doing his thing. Oh my god, Chris. How awesome, Shannon, talk about a guy who's in his 60s. He's crazy.
Yeah. But they get back off stage and I walk back in the restaurant. Chris, that was amazing, dude. You fucking, and so he told me, and I hope I'm not saying any state secrets here, but this is kind of funny. And this is all meant as nothing but love. But he told me that he didn't know that Angus was going to go out on that platform. So in, let there be right, which is fucking quarter notes. Is there any drummer? Exactly. Any drummer. I mean, this is like a drummer's biggest nightmare.
Yeah. It's basically playing those fucking quarter notes up at this tempo. Eight minutes. Right. Eight minutes. I mean, that's fucking, that's a whole pass. Fucking Angus went out on that platform during the guitar solo and let there be rock. And did the whole thing with confetti and the whole guitar solo on that platform. Yeah. And it rises up like 15 minutes. And I'm just sitting going fucking Chris is back there playing let there be rock playing.
And he said, is there occasionally he went to half notes? Like no, I think I may have spotted that Chris, but fucking God bless you. And you know, hats off for keeping that going. I mean, that's any drummer of slug. That's what I always love when people go. It's easy. Easy drums are easy. It's like you guys, that's way harder than doing a thrash metal drums. You know, how here it comes.
No, but I mean, listen, playing highway to hell and making it swing the way that it swings in those first 16 bars is as hard as any insert super progressive metal band, you know, 20 minute upside down drummer guy doing something, you know, with four arms or whatever. It's as hard. So, you know, enough with all that stuff. I mean, Phil, Phil Rudd is the unsung heroes. You keep looking out there. What's going on with that? They're giving me the, uh, rock. They're giving you the evil eye.
Yeah, the evil eye. We just get started. You know, with a few more questions, we got to get more of this. One question I have to ask. And this is a great story that we share on the new record you have Murder One, which is written about our mutual friend, Lemmy, one of the best guys ever. Gotta tell, tell the story, but when we were at the Whiskey at his birthday party last year, and they're having this great big party form and everybody's hanging around.
And they have this big tribute to Lemmy on the screen. All these dignitaries and great guys are saying much to Lemmy is their friend and their fan. And they love him so much. He's sitting in a basically a throne. And remember what he was doing while this whole thing was going on? He was reading. He was reading a book. Yeah. But that's Lemmy. That sums it up, right? Yeah, man. That's Lemmy in a nutshell. I mean, first of all, and I think we have talked about this.
I mean, he was, unfortunately, obviously much sicker than anybody really knew at the time. You know, it was like, I don't like to say anything that could be perceived as disrespectful. But there was a lot of love that went into putting that Lemmy tribute together. But I think it was a lot about the people that were putting it together. I don't think this is just me personally. And again, I say it for the 100th time, I don't mean this disrespectfully to anybody.
But I don't think Lemmy really cared that much. You know, I think it was, but I think it was important for everybody else to do it for it. And I think the one thing that I noticed over those days at the party and all that stuff is that there's very few people in our world that bring people together at the level. You know, so I mean, to me, it was like, Class Region, you know what I mean?
It was like, there aren't a lot of people that can gather so many different musicians and players and personalities from the world of hard rock as Lemmy. So I think it was great that we could all be in a room together. But I don't think he really cared that much, you know. And that was just his sort of personality. I don't think that wasn't the diss at the people that put it together. And he was sick. And I hadn't seen him. I saw him at Glastonbury, like four or five months earlier.
And I had a really nice time with him backstage. It was just me and him, 15, 20 minutes, laughing, telling stories. But I could tell then he was frail. And so, you know, at the whiskey thing, I had five or ten minutes with him. And he was just not great. But I don't think anybody knew that he was, I mean, this was two weeks before. It was just before. And it was kind of crazy.
But obviously, fiercely independent and fiercely kind of just in his own world, he had earned every right to be, you know. I must feel like once he found out that he was really sick, he almost wheeled himself to like, I'm not going to do this. Because he died like the next day. You know what I mean? I think I'm just like, let go. Yeah, I think that's what I think that's what I think people can, I think as you get older, I think you can, you know, if you want to, you can sort of check out.
Sure, sure. That's what he did. I went to his house about a year before that to do high on my show. And I couldn't believe they said, go over to his house. And this was not the one behind the rainbow. It was a new place that he had with all the stuff on the wall. Every single metal and knife and bullet and gun and flag and all of his mobile two memorabilia. And we sat there and talked for a couple of hours and they asked me if I wanted some vodka.
So sure, because he couldn't drink whiskey anymore. But he says, I'm just drinking vodka instead. And it's like, okay, you're livernos the difference, I guess. And then he asked me if I wanted to cigarette. I haven't had a cigarette in 20 years, but let me offer me a cigarette. I'll have one. So we sat there and smoked cigarettes and talked about faulty towers and drank whiskey at four in the afternoon. It was like, it's a pretty cool, let me experience. Fuck yeah. That's great.
Oh, that's great. A couple last questions. One of my favorite moments and something that was completely never been done before, something that Lars loves to, something that never been done before. It's pretty crazy is when you guys did the 30th anniversary at the Fillmore in San Francisco. And you guys did four nights and 80 songs with 77 different songs. Yeah, we only played, we only saw the only song we played more than once for Seeker Destroyer. How in the fuck did you guys do that?
That was a pretty naughty week. Yeah, that was a pretty naughty week. It wasn't really intended. It wasn't like, let's do four nights and play four. Sort of it morphed into that. But that was a, that was, that was a fun week. I mean, fuck the amount of people that came through the door and being able to do stuff with everybody from Gary Washington's to Ozzy and Gees or to the Glenn Danzigs to the Dave Mustangs to, you know, Lou Reed. And then Biff was there and Bob was there.
Yeah, Bob Rock and Kid Rock and John Bush and the Merceville Vate guys. And everybody were leaving out. You know, I mean, it was, it was an insane apocalyptic. I mean, it was, it was an insane, insane undertaking.
And it just sort of morphed into that. I mean, it, listen, this is one of the best weeks of my life and to be able to, I mean, if you take, I think like on Wednesday night, I mean, we went from, I think we went from, I think on Wednesday night, we had, let's say you had Kid Rock doing the Seagrissong, he had Mary Ann Faithful, I mean, Rock Royalty, yeah, fucking doing memory remains. You had Lou Reed doing a couple of the things we did together.
And then Merceful Faith, we fucking King Diamond Hang Sherman, Michael Denner and Timmy Hansen. Timmy Hansen, yeah. I mean, talk about covering a lot of, yeah, you know what I mean? So to be able to do that kind of shit and just sit there and somehow help anchor that or steer that. Or whatever was crazy and doing the sound checks and the rehearsals. People would come out to HQ and do rehearsals and stuff. And it was a great week. Everything was taped, a video tape recorded, filmed or whatever.
So one day, it will probably start. But no band has ever done that before. That's what I loved about it. It's the first time that's ever been that way. Well, thank you. That wasn't the intention. It was just a celebration of it. But that's you guys. That's what you do. How much rehearsal do you have to do for a song like To Live Is To Die? Never played. It's almost 30 years for animals. Man, dude, we fucking, if you know how much of that shit we fucking wing. I'm sure. I'm unbelievable.
I mean, the fact that we most of the time land in the same fucking place together always just blows my mind. I mean, we're just sitting there looking at each other. I mean, we did have, so we have these sort of monitors who were, were wedges as James calls him or whatever. And there's lyrics and there's sort of, I'd have something with, you know, four X eight X, you know, eight times. I mean, some of that shit just gets to be a blur after a while.
So the guy that was running all that stuff, all those little cheap things or whatever. I mean, he was a lot of trust in him. And for that week, you got a big bonus at the end of the week. Sure, I'm sure. But man, it's just fun. I mean, it's the same thing when we go on tour. I mean, we, on the death magnetic tour, I think we, we hit somewhere between 60 and 70 songs that we could more or less play.
Not necessarily at the moment's notice, but I could put, I think probably around 60 songs I could put in the set list that night. And then we would run them. We have kind of a studio tuning room backstage where we, you know, doing stuff like that. So we'd run, I disappear or some freight in the sand. You know, that kind of stuff. Yeah, you know, you run it once or twice and just sort of brush up on it.
I'd say there's probably, I'd say maybe 40 songs that we could probably play more or less without having to, you know, brush up. But sometimes you just got to remember like, where does it start? You know, especially I think for James, it's like, just, if you're the first node, it's like, where's the position on the neck where it starts? You know, it's like that kind of stuff. What's the count off?
You know, if you're just, if you get through the first two seconds, and off of your okay, it's just like connecting the first, you know, it's like an actor as long as you remember your first line. The rest comes through. Exactly. Which of your favorite songs to play live after all these years? I think one of the sort of stand by, the one to go to favorites that I always just love playing sanitarium.
There's something about where that sits and how I interact with it every time I've never played it the same way twice. And I just feel like I can always do a lot of crazy shit in that song. Sanford True is one of my favorites. It's one of those songs where I feel really free. There's some of the songs like take like you said, freight insanity. I mean, that's all up here. It's like literally, it's mad.
Yeah, it's like what's the next part? What's the next part? What's the next part? What's the next part? What's the next part? I made it through without fucking it up. I saw like Sanford True or a song like those are completely just physical. It's just you jump in and you never have to really think. Yeah, it's just you lose yourself in the moment. And those are the super fun songs to play. Those are the ones that sort of come to mind.
Harvesters kind of like that. I guess to a degree. Obviously, Siege and destroy. I mean, a couple of those. If you see a song like a whip lash or a trap under, I still play that sometimes. Is that one of those ones where you got it? All right, Lars, here we go. I know whip. Trapped is a little more challenging because there's a lot of double bass in that. That's got a. Okay. Flex.
Whip lash is pretty cool. Fairly straightforward. Like motor breath. That that's one we can tell you like anytime. Hit the lights and hit four horsemen. I noticed you play a lot now with your snare. You use a lot of fills using your snare drum rather than the rack, Thompson, all that stuff. That's another thing we talked about earlier about being kind of a ring go ask type vibe. You enjoy doing your fills on the snare. It's like bird.
Clive bird. Yeah. A lot of that comes from Clive bird. He was so underappreciated. Great call. Yeah. You know, those. The snare rolls in howl, be thy name. You know the outro battle. They all they sounded so heavy, it was like rolls on the on the snare drum. They just sound punchier. So you go up to the to the toms and it just gets a little thoughtier or little it's just not as aggro. It's like.
It's just it's like air drumming. Yeah. It's like it's a word that we use a lot. It's like it's an air drum moment. You just you know so you take howled be thy name or some of those songs. Like number of the beast or I mean, Clive. He does a lot of snares. Yeah. You know, just super long scarrows. It's that's kind of. And also Duncan Scott, who was a drummer in diamond hit. He used to do a lot of kind of just super simple snare drums.
And then people again, the counters are upside down, peridials and bullet. But okay, fine. But it doesn't really sound that great. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. So it's. But a lot of that just comes from from from Clive Burr. Are you going to do a lot of the new songs live? I hope to play every one of the new songs. People have people have taken to the new record way more than we expected. And I'm actually hearing a lot of people say.
So we've been doing these underplays as we call them and obviously we're more shows. You know, we're playing one here a couple days at the fondant. We did one up in Toronto, which was super fun. A couple of ways ago. And we did a you know, the Vans joint in London. And you know, we're playing like three new songs. You like play more new songs. That's not something that you're open for. That's right. People like play the old shit. Now people like play more new songs.
It's like, you know, well, we haven't had any time to rehearse them. So we're sort of when we start up in January, I mean, we did one thing on Death Magnetic that we've never done before on any Metallica tour ever. On Death Magnetic, we played all 10 songs from the Death Magnetic album on the subsequent tour. We've never done that on any album ever. We've played all the songs from some of the albums, but not on the tour, not on the following tour.
So it looks like shock horror that we may actually rehearse for a couple of days in January before we go to Korea and learn the rest of these bad boys so we can play them because there's so much demand. And obviously, eight years later, we want to get to all those new songs and play them. And I think that a lot of these new songs, some of the Death Magnetic stuff worked very well. Sinide. That's great.
Broken Beaton's scar worked well all night, man, long. That's quite an undertaking line. I mean, there's a lot of talk about freight and insanity and kind of shit. By the time you got into some of the songs, like the Judas Kiss and so on, it got a little too introverted and a little too cerebral.
But I think a lot of these songs on this new album are going to work maybe even better in a live situation because they're a little more about like the vibe and the groove and some of the songs are a little simpler. And I think that a lot of them are promising for for for live stable. So I mean, we're three into it now. Atlas Hardware and Moth and Moth and those three are people of dig in the.
It's it's as you know, especially in hard rock, there's a little bit of a strange relationship with new material. That's great. Now get to the fucking old shit. And I'm telling you, I've started hearing a little bit of like, it was great to see you at the opera house. Why didn't you play more than three new songs? It's like never heard that before. I mean, that's that's a good problem to have spit out the bone man. That's the one.
Yeah, dude, I fucking I played that for my my old, my middle son in the car a couple two, three weeks ago when it right when it came out and he just looked at me. And there was this long pregnant pause. It goes, that's really cool that how you going to play that live. Last question, who's your favorite obscure new wave of British heavy metal band? And do you consider deaf leopard to be a new wave of British heavy metal band?
Well, certainly originally deaf leopard were definitely part of that whole thing. And if you go back to the really early shit like, you know, overture and everything on the first record, even the old singles, you know, there's a song.
There's a B side of one of the early singles called ride into the sun and one of the greats on the rerecorded later, but the OG version. I mean, they were definitely, I mean, they were at the very, very front of it. So absolutely would never hear them say that though. I don't think. That's fine. I mean, I have nothing but respect for those guys, but obviously they they they were the first guy to sort of depart from that, you know, with Montlang on the first album in 81.
And then the way they broke American so that's fine. It's not a right or wrong contest. You said, do I consider deaf leopard to be part of it for me. They were part of it, but they also dissipated out of it fairly quickly because by the time high and dry. I didn't love that record. It got a little the pop sensibility. I just wasn't ready to sort of embrace out of the time. But the obscure bands. I say that depends depends how obscure you want to get the problem.
The problem with the more obscure bands is that when you get down to the really the third tier, a lot of them didn't do more than a single or two. So there's not that much material from them. So if you take a band, there's a band called nighttime flyer. Okay, they had a song called heavy metal rules. I mean, it is one of the great anthems. I mean, it's, you know, it's silly, but heavy kind of an endemic. I don't think anybody ever heard the more from these guys in this one single.
So I don't know if there's anybody listening that has gone anything more on nighttime flyer. Shout out to nighttime flyer. Right. You know, there was. Because some of this stuff has dated itself. And then there's some of the stuff that still holds up pretty well. I find Raven was like that from I loved Raven in 8586. Listen back to it now. It's still cool, but it is a little bit dated. Maybe the production song styles. Maybe the song. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, there was.
Like there's a band called Trespass or Trespass as they say in England, who had a couple of songs on the second metal from mother's album. There's one song called Stormchild and a song called one of these days. I mean, one of these days in a pre-Mitalika band that I had gone with Lloyd Grant, who ended up doing all the solos on the very early versions of hit the lights.
And we didn't get. We played that Trespass song one of these days, which was available. Like I said, on Metal for Mothers 2. It's pretty obscure stuff. Now there was a band called Hollow Ground that had a four cut EP that had a song called Fight with the Devil that got some really, really heavy riffing in it.
Kind of that mid tempo, the stuff that that we not heavy as in Sabbath heavy, but more kind of diamond head, the helpless, kind of the mid tempo, the stuff that we do on like ride the lightning and master puppets. Most kind of things. You know them all. I do know them all. It's hard sometimes just to get put on the spot. But Jaguar. I mean, Jaguar put out a couple of records.
You know, there's the first song Backstreet Woman, you know. I mean, that's that's some fucking next level shit. There was a song called The Dutch Connection. They were one of the greats. But they were when he say obscure. I mean, they made an album. Yeah, that's pretty obscure too. Right. But still, but there were, but there were a couple of bands that just, you know, they like that a single. I mean, by the time you started, there's a band called Silver Wing. It can take, take Silver Wing.
They had a song called Rock and Roll of Four Little Words. Okay. I mean, okay. Seriously. So we just fucking find Silver Wing. They only had, they only had one song that was on a compilation album called New Electric Warriors.
I mean, it's where I don't have my classes. I can type S-I-L-V-E-R-G. And it's not even Silver. It's Silver. No, it was Silver Wing. Okay. We're both Silver Wing right now. Rock. Okay. Silver Wing Rock Band. Let's see what we got here. Rock and Roll of Four Little Words, dude. Okay. I guarantee this is the first time anybody's ever played this on the radio. Okay.
This, I love this song. And Jeff Barton, who was the kind of the main guy at Sounds & Coang, he championed this band. Just listen to this riff. Is that kind of a crash in Burring Island right now? Yeah, it's just kind of like a little bit of an insult that happened. But wait till you hear this riff. Total basic, but banging heavy metal. Listen. And then the lyrics, Rock and Roll of Four Little Words, that's the chorus. Listen. It's kind of like an early pre-sale. Yeah.
You're leaving me nothing, bro. Nothing else is in there in the cell. Listen to someone, anyone. This is the chorus. Listen. Everyone's doing the same. Rock and Roll of Four Little Words. Listen to this guitar solo that comes in before the second verse. Oh, you said text. Listen. That is like the Wabem defined right there, that mid-temple, like you say Judas Priest, kind of shocking guitars. You know what I mean?
It's reminded me of something else, too, and I can't place it. A lot of bands from that era kind of sounded like that. So I mean, talk about it. One song. They didn't even have a single. There was no B sign. About a million people just heard that song telling you so that there goes a silver wing reunion is happening. This has been great, man. I know you lots of stuff to do. I have to do a part two of just talking about a man.
I could sit and talk to you all day. This is so awesome. Just having a conversation. You know how we said six months ago we're going to do this? Let's do another handshake. Let's do this again. We will for sure. Absolutely. Thank you so much, man. Thanks for having me. I'm happy for you, too. Did you guys have been killing it and improwdying it? Thanks for all the support.
And thanks to Silverwing for Rock and Rolls of Four Little Words. Damn fucking right. Not only is it a four little word, Rock and Roll are four little words and plural boys and girls. There you go. Over now. All right. Thanks to Lars Ulrich. I got a man. I'm so excited. What a great interview. Lars texted me afterwards and said they did a great time doing this interview. I hope you had a great time. Listen to it.
It was a huge coup for us to get Lars here on Talk is Jericho. And remember Metallica's 2017 World Tour in support of the new hardwired self-destruct album continues in January. They're going to South Korea and China. They're headlining Rock on the range in the United States and May and the North American Tour is coming this summer. It's going to be huge. Trust me when I tell you that. Keep an eye on Metallica.com or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all at Metallica.
Thanks to Lars for taking the time for all of us on Talk is Jericho. Had a great time. Got some good tips on obscure metal bands. So Silverwing. I need a Silverwing t-shirt or a hollow ground t-shirt Jaguar. I look forward to having them back. You heard it here Lars wants to do it again. I think he had a great time as well. It's always been very cool to me. I'm a big fan of Lars. Love Metallica. One of my favorite bands. I've got the end justice for all Justice Lady tattooed on my arm.
It's always cool to when you meet your heroes and they're good guys. They're known Lars for years. I want to thank him for doing Talk is Jericho. And I'm going to give you some more information in the voice of Lars. Because as you know from the Jim Brewer show, I do a great Lars imitation. So, all right. Beyond the darkness premiered on the Jericho Network at Podcast One on Monday.
It's a tremendous first episode all about the Black Eyed Kids. Talk about creepy, scary fun. Dave Schrader and Tim Dennis delivered a heck of an episode. And if you're into the paranormal ghosts, aliens and UFOs, then this is the best podcast for you. They're releasing new episodes every Monday. So get to iTunes, hit the subscribe button, leave them a five star rating and a couple of comments.
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All three of us are massive music fans talking a full on in-depth musical discussion first concerts favorite bands the Beatles Metallica meeting our musical heroes so much more as the power of music with Seth and Sammy on talk is Jericho this Friday the last show before Christmas is present to you.
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