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GINA VIVINETTOMetallica drummer Lars Ulrich chats about group therapy, Napster and parenthood.
It wasn't just Metallica fans who flocked to theaters last summer to catch Some Kind of Monster. The critically acclaimed documentary, which chronicled, the heavy metal band's heated sessions with a group therapist while making 2003's St. Anger, got regular folks interested in the feud between singer-guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich as well as Hetfield's struggle with sobriety, and the band's search to replace its bassist.
Calling from a tour stop in London, Ontario, Ulrich answers 10 Pressing Questions about collecting art, splitting with his wife Skylar and how cool it is to wear clogs.
(1) You collect modern art and had a very intellectual upbringing. Do you get frustrated, running with guys who maybe don't know who (late painter) Jean-Michel Basquiat is? It's not that you get frustrated, you just go seek things out that inspire you. Quite a few years ago, 15 years ago, I needed something away from Metallica . . . .
The art became one thing that was my own, it wasn't something I shared with anybody. I didn't have any baggage with it. I didn't have to consider anybody else's viewpoints. It became this great thing - and it still is - where I can truly be independent and truly be free of having to consider anybody else.
(2) Tell me about having kids. Everything I just described is about the 10 years before my first child was born. Obviously, now that I have kids, it's finding a way . . . to exist within the triangle of family, band and personal obsession. Their names? I have two boys, Myles, 6, and Layne, 3.
Are you and Skylar still together? No, we're not. What happened? What happened was, you end up being one of those 50 percent of marriages that end up not working. It's weird being part of that statistic because when you're married, you never think that's going to happen to you. For reasons that aren't particularly anyone's business, it just ended up that way. It's been that way for pretty much the whole year.
(3) I've asked a lot of musicians whether they consider themselves entertainers or artists. I'm shocked when some don't have an answer. No, I can say that I don't consider myself an entertainer at all. As I get older, and see the world through questioning eyes, I see it in gray more and more. But if I had to give you a black-and-white answer, no, I don't see myself as an entertainer. Calling yourself an "artist," now, that gets difficult because . . .
Because it sounds pretentious? Yeah, it sounds pretentious. I would say I see myself as a musician and a band member. Reluctantly I would put the word "artist" in there, if pressured.
We keep the entertainment element, the commerce element at bay by turning our backs to it and keeping very insular. Of course we care about what our fans want, and we have a wonderful relationship with our fans because we don't cater to anybody or suck up to anybody, including them.
So, from that point of view, we are definitely artistes (laughs).
(4) How important is your dad's (jazz musician Torbin Ulrich) opinion? In the documentary you play him unfinished St. Anger tracks. Obviously, I respect his opinion a lot. It doesn't make or break anything that we're doing, but he sometimes lets me know when I'm phoning it in. He lets me know when something can be a little deeper, a little richer, when something can have a little more substance. How hard are you on yourself? Very hard, very hard. And, I'm very hard on the people around me, which is even worse.
(5) The whole band underwent therapy as a unit. Would you, or do you, undergo therapy as an individual? Well, during that process, we did both, collective and individual therapy. We did a lot of stuff that dealt with our relationships and with our families. After the film, it was very important for us to test that all out on our own.
I can report that we are doing very well out here now on our own. We really don't speak to (therapist) Phil (Towle) anymore. We talk to him every once in a while as a friend, but we have pretty much taken that way of working together and molded it to our own thing on the road. Is your relationship with James still good? Yeah. I would say it's the best it's ever been because there's nobody holding our hand through it now. We just got out of the sandbox in kindergarten and we are managing to play very well together (laughs). We have found a way to function together, coexist, be respectful. He's not the first person I call in the morning to see if he wants to go to breakfast (laughs), but we have found a way to make work what we share, which is Metallica and a love of music, and a love for this nomadic lifestyle.
(6) Your drumming is so complex. Tell me your influences. There are so many different guys, two groups of people, the ones you grew up with and the ones who are meaningful to you now. The ones I grew up with were guys like Ian Paice, who was the drummer for Deep Purple, John Coughlan of Status Quo and Phil Taylor from Motorhead.
There's also (John Coltrane's drummer) Elvin Jones. And (Led Zeppelin drummer) John Bonham - he's a guy who I respect and admire, but isn't somebody who I particularly am influenced by.
(7) Do you have any pets? No, I don't really have any pets (laughs). I was trying to come up with a silly answer for you, but I couldn't. I don't have any pets, not the kind you're talking about, anyway.
(8) I understand you've relaxed your stance on downloading since the Napster brouhaha. I don't think "relaxed" is the way of putting it. I don't know that it's changed much. If I heard myself say today what I said four years ago, it's not radically different.
I'm completely supportive of downloading. I'm completely pro-downloading. I realize that's the future, but on whose terms? That's the question, and that got lost for those three months back in 2000. Nobody ever got to the second part of the equation. It was either you were for it or against it.
For me, it was never about pro or antidownloading. It was never about the Internet or money or any of that. . . . Control was all I was interested in. Who decides, you know? Does the band decide, the artists? The Internet providers? The software suppliers? The record companies, Web sites?
I have no problem giving away my music for free if I decide it. But, if someone else decides it, I don't like it.
(9) I live next door to an older couple who, like you, are from Denmark. Dutch people all seem to hang wooden clogs outside their door. Do you have clogs hanging around your house?(Laughs.) Yeah, about two or three years ago, when I became so comfortable about who I was and who I am, I actually took them off my wall and started wearing them on my feet. For real, wooden clogs? Yeah! I'm serious. What you're talking about are the antique clogs. In my right hand, right now, I'm holding a clog. The bottom of it is wooden. It's not a super antique one. It was bought at like a Kmart or something (laughs). They are really comfortable. What's the tradition, does it mean something to hang them up outside the door? If it does, I don't know the answer. Maybe there were few ornaments that the peasants could hang on the wall, back in the day.
(10) Describe Lars Ulrich's perfect meal. The perfect meal, for me, is always about the company you're in. It can be a five-course meal at French Laundry in California, which is considered the best restaurant in the world, or it can be down at Taco Bell. It's all about the company and the mood.
Gina Vivinetto can be reached at 727 893-8565 or gina@sptimes.com
PREVIEW: Metallica performs with Godsmack, 7:30 p.m. Friday at the St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. $56.75-$76.75. (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.