True Confessions: Lars Ulrich’s Secret Drumming Origins

If anything stood out in my memory from when I watched A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica, well it was Bob Rock’s story about the band he recorded that went to jail for anarchy for blowing up a hydro sub station or something. But the other moment that I remember fondly is the story of Jamez first meeting Larz and laughingly wondering if he was actually a drummer when his multi-colored kit fell apart. So hearing Lars finally describe that drumset in this video was worth the price of entry for me–especially since this is the internet so the price of entry is free.

No surprise, he goes all fanboy when talking how he had to cold call Neil Peart. Would wouldn’t? But there is a neat origin story regarding how Lars ditched a couple rack toms after jamming on Sean Kinney from Alice in Chains’ kit. It got me wondering if, especially considering the friendship that bloomed between the two bands, AIC were likely what Metallica had in mind when they wrote the Load records. They were hip and “alternative” but still basically metal, and just a little bit country. They just missed the part where Layne Staley never wrote lyrics about super fast racing cars.