LARS ULRICH On LADY GAGA: ‘I Knew She Was A Metal Chick At Heart’

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich was recently interviewed by Entertainment Weekly where he spoke about how the band’s Grammy performance with Lady Gaga came about.

He said: “[The Grammys] always encourage you to do cool, crazy collaborations. We thought some of the songs on the new album lent themselves well to a female co-conspirator. I was at a dinner party at my buddy’s house a couple months ago and she was there. We ended up sitting and talking about her old metal days in Jersey and the Lower East Side. I knew she was a metal chick at heart, but I didn’t know how deep her metal roots were. Her relationship with Metallica goes way back — like deep album cuts on the early couple records. We’re sitting there and I took a shot. I said, “Listen, we’ve been invited to do the Grammys again, come sing with us, it would be so much fun. I think this is the right fit.” She just said, “Yes.” She didn’t have to like, “Oh let me just check with my team” or “Let me call my 17 managers.” There was none of that stuff. She’s so open and so authentic. She makes all the decisions herself and she’s so talented and she’s so eager. And she blew up the f—ing Super Bowl!”

Asked if he realized that the James’ mic had cut out or did he find out after the performance, he said: “When I couldn’t hear his vocals in the first verse, I knew there was an issue. But in the heat of the moment, you don’t quite know where the issue is — it’s very difficult to troubleshoot. We just had to battle through it and keep going, which is what we did. It’s live television, this stuff happens. This year it happened to us, last year it happened to Adele. In the context of the bigger issues that face humanity, I think we’ll all be OK. I think, in some ways, the fact that James and her were singing out of her mic, there was another level of intimacy that was created. I’m totally happy.”

https://youtu.be/fbAhfWPmGWM