Kotaku
Rolling Stone magazine caught up with Metallica last week at their Record Store Day signing event in California, where they interviewed drummer Lars Ulrich, demonstrating the sort of hard-hitting interview questions that have made Rolling Stone a shining example of everything good about pop culture journalism.
You signed a lot of Guitar Hero controllers. Is that cool?In response, I'd imagine Ulrich propped his leg up on a table and scratched his chin thoughtfully, pondering the level of coolness he'd experienced on that day.
It's fucking way cool.Whoa. You just don't get that deep with People magazine...people. Then Lars went on to ruin the illusion by making a valid, heartwarming point.
Our kids love playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It's awesome. There's something really positive coming out of video games. It's so cool to sit there and have your kids talk to you about Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and Soundgarden.Wow, he's right. That is fucking way cool.
Lars Ulrich: "We've Always Been Fiercely Independent and Controlling" [Rolling Stone via videogaming247]
Comments
They're not drunken Ulrich signatures.
They're worthless.
In a way though, after you've been in a heavy metal band for some 20 years, you kind of gain the right to say that your "Fucking Way Cool"
More power to 'em. At least he appreciates the good that gaming can do.
Lars Ulrich is a Danish pimple on Metallica's ass, but the man tells it like it is :P
Guy still sucks.
But I'm glad he was chill during the signing.
napster bad tshirts good.. i lost all respect of metallica after that fiasco.
If James told me to kill GH in RockBand's name I'd do it.
but seriously guys. stop signing and get to releasing your full catalog on Rock Band ok. Damage Inc. Needs to be experienced in my house!
Its good to see that someone in the music industry approves of rock band. Even through there isnt any correlation between playing that actual instrument and learning to play Rock Band and Guitar Hero at least serve as a potential gateway to learn the real stuff.
For starters, I'm a huge Metallica fan.
But, I do agree. I think gaming has become something way way different than what we experienced as kids. I have been playing games since Atari and love it. I have my first child on the way and I hope to get him into games as well and be able to play games like these with him.
There's just something about him that makes him unlikable to me, sorry to offend all the Metallica fanboys, I do like Metallica, just not him. Has anyone seen their documentary (I've forgotten the name) when Lars is arguing with Mr. Hetfield and saying that he feels like he's been ignored and Kirk is trying to say he's felt like that for years but no one listens to him....good times, I laughed hard at that
He's right, It's awesome that other people in my generation aside from me like Soundgarden and the Stones, and the Who.
He only likes it because he gets royalty checks from it.
@ChoZ3nWon:
Once again, people bringing up the napster incident, because they don't know exactly what went down. In an interview with Lars, he himself said he had no problem with services such as Napster, his problem was with the fact that one of their songs was being distributed via Napster that hadn't even been released yet. He said "Download it, share it, burn it, whatever, but at least wait until we are done making it first".
Everyone hears a jaded version of what happened and says "oh Metallica sucks because they shut down napster". Lars just happen to the be the front runner against them. Did you stop listening to the over 150 other bands involved in the case?
He only likes it cause he does everything for money.
he got paid to say all that and got paid to sign all of that.
greedy SoB
@Capp: No but I <3 bands like radiohead and NIN who are not corporate scumbags :(
even if the style of music no longer appeals to me, the fact of what the artist is doing does.
Only time he was ever cool was in that parody flash video a long while back (I was in high school, so... 8 years ago?). I'll never forget the term "tablescrap pilfering grabasses."
i wanna have Lars' babies
I love pre-90s Metallica. But this doesn't change the fact that Lars Ulrich is a douche.
@Derigor:
Yes..I always knew I liked you.(wait,that sounds weird)
the napster fiasco didnt make metallica sale out they were doing that before hand, napster was just the nail in the bands coffin. the only good metallica was kill em' all through and justice for all
All Danish people are awesome, but Lars is ONLY awesome because he's Danish.
HEY GUISE LETS IGNORE THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS POST AND ARGUE ABOUT WHICH METALLICA ALBUM IS THE BEST ONE!
metallica died with cliff in the bus, and they haven't been a metal band since And Justice.
@Sasquatch:
@stryker1800:
Agreed.
Rest in peach Cliff Burton.
I dislike him for reasons not related to Napster, but I agree with him. It's always positive when the young'uns learn about Deep Purple.
fuck Metallica and fuck Lars Ulrich.
@stryker1800: Yeah, in a nutshell, that's about it.
Although, it would be extreme hilarity to watch someone belt out "Of Wolf and Man" in RB. Cheesy to the max!
The only guy in Metallica who isn't a complete fucking dork is James Hetfield. And even he used to be a pimply-faced little shmuck. Any one of them could be sitting in front of a computer playing World of Warcraft 24 hours a day and you'd never know the fucking difference.
Plus, Lars is going bald. Karma for calling his fans thieves.
I feel bad for Kirk, dude looks like he's a terrified puppy whenever the "big boys" in the band start arguing. Jason was the smart one, he saw the writing on the wall and got the hell out of there. That said, Robert is the coolest guy in the band now since he usually looks genuinely happy to be there.
Word association...
Lars = Lame
James = Iconic
Jason = Respect
Kirk = Wuss
Robert = Energy
Cliff = Legend
@Dauragon C. Mikado: what's there to argue? it's obviously Master of Puppets! ם׃
Lars is a pompous ass. He's just a greedy little bastard with short man syndrome.
Dragonforce are coming to my Uni for a gig this year, Ill be taking my Guitar faceplate and a silver pen, want Herman Li and Sam's sigs on it.
@badasscat:
Or possibly it's just genetics making him go bald?
@aequitus: Then fuck you, my good man.
Anywa, he makes a valid point. Kids today dunno what truly good rock, or metal is. Thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, it's become "a fad" once more. So thank you games, for revitalizing a music genre.
@ChoZ3nWon:
I can't read Lars' comments without thinking hearing his voice in the flash movies.
@tsukihimeblood: amen to that
@Ashurahori: the only good metal now a days is out of europe and even then its few and far between the shitty bands...like dragonforce for instance is a terrible powermetal band but hammersfall and kamelot are freaking awesome. then you have extreme metal which is an acquired taste anyways
Lars is the biggest fucking piece of hypocrite shit out there.
Except for the fact nobody cares about Metallica anymore and they've gotta make money somehow, I very much doubt he would have allowed anything Metallica related into GH in the first place.
@Capp:
While that may true, still doesn't stop Lars from being a total douche/prick.
@Capp: He wasn't against Napster because people were downloading unfinished Metallica songs. You don't appear in front of a Senate Judiciary Committee for a handful of unfinished songs. You should read his testimony from that hearing... it's not just about a song or two they hadn't finished. It never was.
Ulrich chose to be the squeaky wheel... an annoyingly shrill squeaky wheel at that. So he has to accept everything that comes with that role, including losing fans.
It's amusing that in his Senate hearing testimony, he mentions how important album sales are for the lesser known artist... I wonder, if he was so concerned about the average musician, how he can reconcile his support of Guitar Hero. A game that only promotes the more popular bands.
Values are subjective, I suppose.
Lot of butt hurt folks here who got sad that they can't download free music anymore... boohoo
@Kyle81: dont know about you but i still acquire free music for me its about the band selling out to make more money.
@furiku:
Sorry, -thinking.
I for one am not going to shit on Lars Ulrich, his band have made some great music (some 0o the best music) and even if their later albums were not up the the standard of their other albums, they're still a far cry better than a lot of the other shit that's polluting the metal airwaves. And regardless of whether Ulrich is a douche or not, he makes a great point, anything that can get kids away from listening to shit like My Chemical Romance and into proper rock and metal is great.
@DoubleOh187:
Right. The downloading of the unfinished songs is what sparked it. He happen to be listening to the radio on the way to the recording session when he heard the song they were currently working on.
This is what sparked his interest in persuing it.
I followed the case and read all about it as it was happening and since then.
I understand both sides of the case.
Plus, its not like it stopped anything. There are dozens of other p2p programs out there you can get it from.
Where there's a will, there's a way around it. :)
Lars Ulrich is a douchebag. He's been irrelevant for almost a decade and a half now.
I think what everyone here is forgetting is it's not about the people who make or play the music.
In my oppinion, it's Lars's life, so what if he does and says what he wants. that's his right to.
I personally am not going to stop loving good music because I don't agree with the person playing it.
Who gives a crap if Lars is a Jerk, the music he plays is still amazing.
FAIL!!!!!!
Why is a drummer signing guitars? Oh, and death to the Napster killer.
How did unfinished songs get out on the interweb anyway? Oh thats right someone would have to steal it.
Get pissed at them and not the rest of the world.
Or was it "unfinished" because it sucked? <3desu
Wow, I've had nothing but hate for Lars since about 1988 but he is right. Little kids listening to Deep Purple and Soundgarden IS fucking cool.
@m3lkor:
Cliff died before "And Justice For All".