METALLICA's LARS ULRICH Talks 'Guitar Hero'

March 21, 2009

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich recently spoke to Blender.com about "Guitar Hero: Metallica" (out March 29),which features 28 songs spanning the hard rockers' entire career, plus 21 tracks by the likes of MOTÖRHEAD, LYNYRD SKYNYRD and MASTODON. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Blender.com: How did you decide the list of songs? Were there any fights between the four of you?

Lars Ulrich: No fights. It really wasn't that difficult to put together. Since we're pretty much equally proud of the whole journey — there's not a particular era that's extra-nauseating to think back on — we tried to pretty evenly represent all the different phases of METALLICA, from "Kill 'Em All" all the way through "Death Magnetic". There are some hits — it's difficult for me to say that word with a straight face; putting the word hit and METALLICA together is always awkward. So there are a few of the well-known toe-tappers, plus a few shredder songs, a few deeper album cuts and some cover stuff. The only thing that got a little hairy toward the end was the master tapes for "Kill 'Em All" were nowhere to be found. So we looked at a couple of options. Number one: Do we rerecord the songs? I believe that's what AEROSMITH did for some of their stuff that was missing. Or you can use live versions. But lo and behold, the master tapes for "Kill 'Em All" were located in a basement in New Jersey — sort of a ninth-inning type of thing — and three tracks from "Kill 'Em All" were included. Turns out the masters were in the basement of our first manager, Johny Zazula.

Blender.com: Which of the game's songs do you consider a sentimental favorite?

Lars Ulrich: "Hit the Lights", because it was the first song that me and James sort of did together — it appeared on the "Metal Massacre" compilation album back in the day. "Hit the Lights" reminds me of the garage in Norwalk, California, at 13004 Curtis & King Rd. That was where James Hetfield and [original bassist] Ron McGovney shared a house together and METALLICA came to life in 1982. We spent our time drinking Schnapps and Goldschläger and cheap beer, eating crappy food and putting all these early songs together. The house was unceremoniously demolished 10 to 15 years ago to make way for the fuckin' 110 freeway.

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