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| Metallica at Glastonbury: 'If anybody has anything to say, it’s a two-fingered salute and take that with ya' | Metallica at Glastonbury: 'If anybody has anything to say, it’s a two-fingered salute and take that with ya' |
| (4 months later) | |
| Lars Ulrich has, by his own admission, been to “a fair few” festivals since he helped form Metallica in 1981. A Glastonbury slot, however, was a prize he’d had his eye on for a while. Last October, he told MTV: "We've been fortunate enough to play every other festival on this planet numerous times, so Glastonbury is the only one that's eluding us." He added that if founder Michael Eavis wanted to make the call, "we're in the Yellow Pages and ready to go!" Now that Eavis has finally picked up the phone, we spoke to Ulrich about how he was gearing up for the Pyramid stage. | Lars Ulrich has, by his own admission, been to “a fair few” festivals since he helped form Metallica in 1981. A Glastonbury slot, however, was a prize he’d had his eye on for a while. Last October, he told MTV: "We've been fortunate enough to play every other festival on this planet numerous times, so Glastonbury is the only one that's eluding us." He added that if founder Michael Eavis wanted to make the call, "we're in the Yellow Pages and ready to go!" Now that Eavis has finally picked up the phone, we spoke to Ulrich about how he was gearing up for the Pyramid stage. |
| Some people have suggested that Glastonbury-goers might not be very familiar with Metallica’s work. How will you win over the doubters? | Some people have suggested that Glastonbury-goers might not be very familiar with Metallica’s work. How will you win over the doubters? |
| Listen, we just go out and do what we do. Isn’t it wonderful, 33 years in, to be able to place yourself in situations where that’s even a distinct possibility that you actually have to go and, like you say, win people over? I don’t know if the competitive fire burns with quite the same spark as it did 20 years ago, so I don’t know if we’re as concerned about that stuff as we used to be. But obviously, playing to any people who may not be overly familiar with what you’re doing is always interesting. Right now [my reaction] is one of jubilation and ecstasy and appreciation for being given a chance to be invited to the hallowed grounds of Glastonbury. So I’m not really looking at anything other than, fuck yeah, here we come! | |
| The one thing we’ve figured out along the way is that Metallica have a tendency to get some fairly strong opinions out of people – which is a great thing, because nobody seems to just be neutral and dismissive. Everybody’s always got an opinion about what we do, or what we’re playing, or what we had for breakfast, or whatever. That’s something you find the good in, because it means that people care. And it’s better to have people care than not have anybody care. So we’ll find the good in all of it, thank you very much for asking! | |
| Will you play more of a "by request" spot at Glastonbury, as with your headline spot at Sonisphere festival? Or will you do more of a straight hits set? | |
| It will be a straightforward set. With Glastonbury, we figured since all the people had bought the tickets and it’s our first visit to the sacred, hallowed Glastonbury grounds that maybe we would be better off if I took charge of the setlist, like I have in the past, and write what I considered to be the most suitable setlist … | |
| Will you play much new stuff? You have said you are deep into writing for the next album. | |
| We played a new song every night [on tour] in Latin America, and that was a lot of fun. And that’s definitely what we’re planning on doing in Europe. Whether it’ll be the same new song from Latin America [The Lords of Summer] or not, I don’t know yet. We still have about three weeks to tinker around and see what else we come up with. | |
| Reading on mobile? Click here to view Lords of Summer video | Reading on mobile? Click here to view Lords of Summer video |
| For those who haven’t seen Metallica live before, what can they expect from the show? | |
| Well, it’s sort of … what we do. If you’re playing to 75,000 people you wanna make sure it resonates with the audience. We’ve never relied on too much stage stuff, but obviously it’s nice to have some things with you that provide a bit of a spectacle. I like to think we have the right balance between size and projection, [so] it doesn’t end up being too … Spinal Tap or whatever. We got more into lasers the last few years. Lasers are a lot of fun. Ultimately, it’s just about making a muddy field and 75,000 people feel as intimate as possible. | |
| Are you planning any covers or collaborations? At the Grammys, you played with classical pianist Lang Lang. | Are you planning any covers or collaborations? At the Grammys, you played with classical pianist Lang Lang. |
| Playing covers is always a part of what we do. I put covers in almost every night. In terms of collaborations, we’ll have to see what we end up doing with that and who else is around. I haven’t had a chance to really sink my teeth into who else is playing. If there’s people around that we know … I dunno if Lang Lang’s gonna be around. | Playing covers is always a part of what we do. I put covers in almost every night. In terms of collaborations, we’ll have to see what we end up doing with that and who else is around. I haven’t had a chance to really sink my teeth into who else is playing. If there’s people around that we know … I dunno if Lang Lang’s gonna be around. |
| Dolly Parton’s there. | Dolly Parton’s there. |
| Dolly Parton? Listen, bring it on! From Metallica to Lang Lang to Dolly Parton in one easy move, right? We’ll have to see who else is loitering in their wellies there and take it from there. | Dolly Parton? Listen, bring it on! From Metallica to Lang Lang to Dolly Parton in one easy move, right? We’ll have to see who else is loitering in their wellies there and take it from there. |
| Metal seems like the last musical tribe that’s always separated from the others and kept for the metal festivals only. It must be good to have someone say, "Yeah, you can headline Glastonbury – you’re Metallica." | Metal seems like the last musical tribe that’s always separated from the others and kept for the metal festivals only. It must be good to have someone say, "Yeah, you can headline Glastonbury – you’re Metallica." |
| What I can tell you is that travelling all over the world, playing to people who’ve never experienced what you do before, what you realise is that people just appreciate music. People don’t sit there and break it into genres or categories, or put boundaries around it, or definitions. Obviously, in countries that have had access to music and infrastructures that support music for decades – probably England more so than almost anywhere else – you’re dealing with kind of the opposite of that. First and foremost, we fly the flag for music, and beyond that, if people wanna break it down into whatever, I don’t have a problem with them doing that. But when I sit there and scroll through my iPod, I don’t categorise [it] like, "Now I’m gonna listen to some jazz, now I’m gonna listen to some this …" | What I can tell you is that travelling all over the world, playing to people who’ve never experienced what you do before, what you realise is that people just appreciate music. People don’t sit there and break it into genres or categories, or put boundaries around it, or definitions. Obviously, in countries that have had access to music and infrastructures that support music for decades – probably England more so than almost anywhere else – you’re dealing with kind of the opposite of that. First and foremost, we fly the flag for music, and beyond that, if people wanna break it down into whatever, I don’t have a problem with them doing that. But when I sit there and scroll through my iPod, I don’t categorise [it] like, "Now I’m gonna listen to some jazz, now I’m gonna listen to some this …" |
| In England, when you’ve had decades of weekly music press, where at one point you had four weekly magazines – you had Melody Maker, the New Musical Express, you had Sounds and Record Mirror – if you have that kind of scene, that kind of culture, there is a need to put deeper definitions into some of the stuff. I’m not knocking it. I’m just saying there’s a history in England maybe of these kind of definitions, more so than in other places. | In England, when you’ve had decades of weekly music press, where at one point you had four weekly magazines – you had Melody Maker, the New Musical Express, you had Sounds and Record Mirror – if you have that kind of scene, that kind of culture, there is a need to put deeper definitions into some of the stuff. I’m not knocking it. I’m just saying there’s a history in England maybe of these kind of definitions, more so than in other places. |
| So, getting a chance to play Glastonbury and representing the first harder rock band is obviously a huge honour. And we are aware that there may be a few people in a few of the tents who’ll sit there and go, "What the fuck is Metallica doing at our festival?" And it’s OK. Like I said earlier, Metallica have a tendency to get opinions out of people. I’m proud that we’re the first ones in, and I’m pretty sure that 99.9% of the people will be very appreciative of the fact. | |
| Reading on mobile? Click here to view Master of Puppets video | Reading on mobile? Click here to view Master of Puppets video |
| In England, there’s a history with [Download festival at] Donington maybe being a little bit more of a rock thing, and with Sonisphere. But look at Reading. It started out first as a folk festival. Then in the late 70s and through most of the 80s it was primarily a very hard-rock festival. And now Reading and Leeds has found a place where it seems to be a great balancing act between rock and alternative and different stuff. I don’t know – I’m not the guy that really has the pulse on that type of thing so much, because what we do in Metallica is preach unity – without sounding too corny about it. We preach unity, and we have always championed breaking down musical barriers and boundaries. But I am aware of the fact that in England some people dismiss hard rock as something that’s lesser-than, or it’s not as valuable, or it’s not as important [as other genres]. And I’m not even going to get into talking about that. That’s just plain silly. | |
| Over the decades, hard rock sometimes hasn’t done itself any favours by embracing cliches and some sexism and short-sightedness. But that’s not necessarily limited to hard rock. I mean, I think you can turn over any musical stone and find different versions of cliches and narrow-mindedness, so it is what it is. But for better or worse, we’re coming! And we’re pretty fucking excited about it. If anybody has anything to say, then it’s a two-fingered salute and take that with ya. | Over the decades, hard rock sometimes hasn’t done itself any favours by embracing cliches and some sexism and short-sightedness. But that’s not necessarily limited to hard rock. I mean, I think you can turn over any musical stone and find different versions of cliches and narrow-mindedness, so it is what it is. But for better or worse, we’re coming! And we’re pretty fucking excited about it. If anybody has anything to say, then it’s a two-fingered salute and take that with ya. |
| • Metallica confirmed as final headliner for Glastonbury 2014• The Glastonbury 2014 lineup so far | • Metallica confirmed as final headliner for Glastonbury 2014• The Glastonbury 2014 lineup so far |
| • The Guardian is Glastonbury's media partner | • The Guardian is Glastonbury's media partner |
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