Speaking with METALLICA's own fanzine, So What!, Lars Ulrich addressed his concern over criticisms he has faced over his drum playing for nearly 30 years. Danish-born Lars shared, "Unlike years ago, I basically don't read any of the interviews that the other guys [in METALLICA] do. 20 or 30 years ago, we would all sit and fucking read every page of Kerrang! and every page of Circus magazine, see what so-and-so's saying and what the other band members were saying, what James [Hetfield, METALLICA guitarist/vocalist] was saying about this and that. Now there's just none of that. I also don't really read what people say about METALLICA."
Ulrich continued, "I'll say that occasionally, once every six months or something like that, it's kind of fun to go through the trolling section just because of the ridiculousness of all of it, but it's not something that I do regularly anymore, 20 years ago, it would've been, 'Oh, my God, somebody said something bad,' or, 'That person said a nasty comment in the comments section,' or whatever. Now, none of that really means anything to me."
When Steffan Chirazi, interviewer for So What!, stated his frustration and boredom with people bringing up the Napster debacle, Ulrich responded; "But I'm so over — I'm literally immune to it. We just did a bunch of interviews, and sometimes, if I am being interviewed by a journalist who is also a fan, they'll say, 'When people say Lars Ulrich is a shitty drummer, I defend you.' Which is cool, but I've got to tell you, 20 years later, 30 years later, it just doesn't register anymore. I am so comfortable with who I am, I'm so comfortable with who METALLICA is, I'm so comfortable with our place in all of it. I've got an incredible wife, three great kids, my dad and [his partner] Molly, incredible friends, and lots of cool acquaintances. It's all good. I've got nothing left to prove, so it just doesn't register anymore."
Lars would go on in the interview to posit the difficulties of coming up in a scene that featured other A-list drummers that are still widely regarded as some of the most influential musicians on earth. A list that saw Lars Ulrich close to the top for decades. "Listen, when you've got Dave Lombardo and Charlie Benante breathing down your back, it was, like, 'Okay, I've gotta…' I tried to step it up a little bit and tried to do my own thing and do all this crazy shit," Lars continued, "I was trying really hard to push the drums kind of into the foreground. And then, after like a year or two of that, I was, like, 'Okay. Seriously? Just do your thing. Chill out. Support the riffs. Do what's best for the song.' So since around I guess the late '80s — so I guess it's been, like, 25 years now — the only thing that's really interested me is just doing the best thing for the song."
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Written by Steve Knudsen
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