Lars Ulrich is the permanent drummer of Metallica

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Lars Ulrich is one of today's most famous drummers. Since 1981, he has been the permanent drummer for the cult rock band Metallica, which he co-founded with James Hetfield. The group is still active today, continuing to delight fans around the world with concert tours and new albums.

Childhood

On December 26, 1963, in the Danish city of Gentofte, the son of Lars was born in the family of the famous tennis player and music critic Torben Ulrich. For several generations, the Ulrich family had been professional tennis players, and Torben, although he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, decided to devote his free time to music and independently mastered such instruments as the saxophone, clarinet and flute. In addition, the craving for art helped him start painting paintings, which then began to be exhibited in art galleries and were in demand. It was the versatile creative personality of his father that helped the future Metallica drummer become what he became.

Father since childhoodinstilled in the boy an interest in music. At the age of nine, Lars managed to get to a Deep Purple concert, which young Ulrich was very shocked by. He began to search and collect CDs from this and other hard rock bands. His father wanted Lars, like everyone in their family, to devote his life to sports, and from an early age he gave his son to the tennis team, in which the boy managed to achieve good results and become one of the best players in Denmark among young men.

First drum set

For Lars Ulrich's tenth birthday, his grandmother decided to give him a drum kit. On the same day, the boy decided to create his own group, and on the advice of his father to take a few drum lessons first, he replied that he was “born for this, and will learn in a few days.”

Six years later, Torben Ulrich moved with his family to the town of New Port Beach near Los Angeles so that Lars could attend tennis school. But the young man did not want this and called the new place of study "prison". All his free time he listened to hard rock and played on a new drum kit, which, however, like the previous one, was far from professional.

Choice

Still not knowing what would be his main occupation in life, at the age of 17, Lars bought tickets to the London performance of Diamond Head and traveled to England on his own. His trip was ill-conceived, and he did not know where to spend the night after the port. However, by a happy coincidence, he managed to go backstage and personally meet with the band members. After explaining his situation, he asked them to help, and they readily agreed,taking him on his concert tour, ending just in Florida. Lars Ulrich still maintains warm relations with the band and occasionally helps them mix songs.

Having returned from that trip with his favorite band, Ulrich decided that music was his calling. A year later, he met James Hetfield, and six months later they founded Metallica, in which Hetfield became the vocalist and guitarist, and Lars Ulrich was the drummer.

Metallica

Already after the release of the first album, "Metallica" became very popular, and Ulrich began to be called one of the best drummers in thrash metal and a pioneer in fast rhythms. With each new album, his playing technique became more and more complex.

Despite this, Lars Ulrich was criticized more often than other members of the group. Even ardent Metallica fans have repeatedly focused on his mistakes during the game. According to the results of one Internet poll, Ulrich took the honorable first line in the list of "Most Overrated Drummers". Most likely, the changes in his playing are noticeable for this reason: he sought to refute the opinion that Lars Ulrich is a bad drummer.

For all the criticism he has received, he continues to be one of the most famous drummers. Most of the fans are grateful to him for his contribution to the creation of Metallica, because without Lars they would never have heard their songs, which have already become cult.