METALLICA's LARS ULRICH Names Drummer He Is Listening To Right Now

During an appearance on the latest episode of "The Metallica Report", the recently launched podcast offering weekly insider updates on all things METALLICA, Lars Ulrich was asked which drummers he is listening to right now. The METALLICA co-founder responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm going through a BLUE ÖYSTER CULT phase right now. What happens to me is I get into different stuff of different artists at different times, and right now my go-to early BLUE ÖYSTER CULT record has been 'Secret Treaties' [1974] for years, and I just, in the last week or two, have been digging into 'Tyranny And Mutation' [1973], which has got 'Hot Rails To Hell', '7 Screaming Diz-Busters', 'The Red & The Black'. So I'll have to say Albert Bouchard, who's the drummer and one of the primary songwriters in BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, and he actually sings lead on a bunch of the songs. He was actually one of the first singing drummers. So my tip to you would be go check out some of the early BLUE ÖYSTER CULT records. Get into a little 'Tyranny And Mutation'. But the fallback early BLUE ÖYSTER CULT album is always 'Secret Treaties' with 'ME 262', 'Dominance And Submission', 'Career Of Evil', 'Harvester Of Eyes', 'Subhuman'."

Back in 2016, Ulrich, who has gotten a lot of flak over the years from people who accused him of being a poor drummer, told the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast that he went through a period in the mid-1980s "that probably culminated in the '[…And] Justice [For All]' album where I felt sort of compelled to try to show ability."

According to Lars, part of the reason for him feeling insecure about his abilities was the increased competition from some of his peers.

"Listen, when you've got Dave Lombardo and Charlie Benante breathing down your back, it was, like, 'Okay, I've gotta…' I tried to step it up a little bit and tried to do my own thing and do all this crazy shit," he said. "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? Just do your thing. 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."

Asked in a 2008 interview with U.K.'s Rhythm magazine if he was troubled by the fact that he's gotten a lot of flak over the years from people who accused him of being a poor drummer, Lars said: "It used to, back in the day — and I spent a lot of time overcompensating for that on the early records. But then you wake up one day and you're like, whatever. It hasn't bothered me for [many] years. I'm no Joey Jordison, I'm no Mike Portnoy, and I have nothing but love and respect and admiration for all those guys. When I hear some of the young dudes, they blow my mind with what they can do with their feet and stuff — but it's not something that makes me go, 'I need to feel better about myself so I'm gonna learn how to do what they do with my feet.' I'm not a particularly accomplished drummer but I am very, very, very good at understanding the role of the drums next to James Hetfield's rhythm guitar. I guarantee you I'm the best guy in the world for that, and that's enough for me!"

Ulrich stated about his playing ability in a 2012 interview with DRUM! magazine: "I usually feel like I've regressed. [Laughs] I'm like, 'Why can't I do that anymore?'" He continued: "I can't say that I necessarily sit down to practice, like, 'I'm going to play and practice so I can get better.' What happens is that I just sit down and kind of play to just more stay in shape."

Ulrich added: "You know, METALLICA was up to two or three months off [in 2011], and I would sit down, I have an iPod next to my drums so I can play along to all kind of crazy stuff, and try to see if I can land in the same zip code of some of that stuff occasionally. But I can't say that I sit down to necessarily practice to sort of get better. For most of my stuff, it's about listening and about interpreting stuff that I'm listening to. So all the kind of sitting down and, you know, 'Now I'm going to do thirty-second-note paradiddles standing on my head — you know what I mean? I don't do that kind of stuff so much. For me it's more about the regimen of staying in shape, running every day, eating healthy, you know, being on top of that side of it."