Lars Ulrich

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Lars Ulrich
Lars Ulrich performing live in 2004
Background information
Born	December 26, 1963 (age 43)
Origin	Born Gentofte, Denmark Resides USA
Genre(s)	Heavy metal Thrash metal Hard rock
Instrument(s)	Drums
Years active	1981 - present
Associated acts	Metallica
Website	Official Metallica website

Lars Ulrich (born December 26, 1963) is the drummer and co-founder of Metallica. He was born in Gentofte, Denmark to an upper middle-class family. A tennis prodigy in his youth, Ulrich moved to Los Angeles, California at age seventeen to pursue his training. After publishing an advertisement in a local Los Angeles newspaper called The Recycler, he met James Hetfield and created Metallica.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Napster controversy
2 Personal life
3 Equipment
4 Trivia
5 References
- 5.1 Books
- 5.2 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Biography

Lars' father, Torben Ulrich, who was an acclaimed tennis pro from the late 1940s into the early 1980s, was also a musician, playing jazz with such giants as Stan Getz and Miles Davis; another jazz legend, Dexter Gordon, was Ulrich's godfather. He had a jazz club in which Ulrich spent a lot of time as a child. In February 1973, Torben Ulrich obtained five passes for five of his friends to a Deep Purple concert that was being held in the same Copenhagen stadium as one of his tournaments. When it was discovered that one of the friends could not go, their ticket was handed over to the nine year-old Ulrich. The young Ulrich found himself mesmerized by the performance, buying the band's Fireball album the very next day. The concert and the album had a considerable impact on Ulrich, inspiring his entrance into the world of rock and roll and later on, heavy metal. As a result of his newfound interest in music, he received his first drum kit at the age of thirteen, a Ludwig.

In 1981, Ulrich met James Hetfield in Downey, California and formed the thrash metal band Metallica. Ulrich's early work with Metallica led him to be dubbed as one of the thrash metal scene's drumming greats. He became known for his pioneering fast thrash drum beats and techniques featuring on many of Metallica's early songs, such as "Metal Militia" (from Kill 'Em All), "Fight Fire with Fire" (Ride the Lightning), "Dyers Eve" (...And Justice for All), and "Battery" (Master of Puppets). He has since been considerably influential due to both the popularity of his band and his interesting drum techniques and styles such as the machine-gun double bass in the song "One" (...And Justice For All) and the pounding opening of "Enter Sandman" (Metallica).

[edit] Napster controversy

In 2000, Ulrich faced criticism^[1] when he was one of the first artists to take direct action against Napster. In July 2000, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee after Metallica's entire catalogue was found to be freely available for download on the service. There was mass outcry from Napster users. No one ended up getting sued for copyright infringement, and the case was settled out-of-court.

[edit] Personal life

Ulrich has been married twice. His first marriage, to Debbie, an English woman, ended around 1990 during the making of Metallica.^{[citation needed]} In March 2004, Ulrich separated from Skylar Satenstein (an emergency medicine physician), to whom he was previously married for seven years and had two sons, Myles (b. August 5, 1998) and Layne (b. May 6, 2001).

Ulrich is dating actress Connie Nielsen and they are expecting their first child, due in early summer 2007.^[2]

[edit] Equipment

Main article: Lars Ulrich's equipment

Ulrich is an endorser of Tama drums, Zildjian cymbals and Remo drumheads. He is rarely, if ever, seen without these brands onstage. He has, however, been known to use a mixture of brands when recording in the studio, including Ludwig drums, Gretsch drums and Sabian cymbals. Ulrich was an endorsee of Calato Regal Tip drumsticks, but changed to Easton Ahead in 1994.

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.

In 2005 a band called Beatallica (a band that mixed lyrics and riffs from The Beatles and Metallica) received a cease-and-desist order from Sony (who hold a lot of the rights to the music of the Beatles). In support of Beatallica, Ulrich asked Metallica's attorney, Peter Paterno, to help Beatallica. Since then beatallica.com has been online.

For many years Ulrich has been an avid scuba diver, to the extent that he has been known to read scuba diving magazines during solo breaks between songs while touring.^{[citation needed]}

Ulrich played the drums with Mercyful Fate for the re-recording of the song "Return of the Vampire" on In the Shadows.^{[citation needed]}

On Linkin Park's live CD/DVD Live in Texas, during "From the Inside", Ulrich appears on stage wearing pink bunny ears and Hulk Hands and proceeds to mess with the band for a few brief seconds. In the ending credits on the DVD, he is credited as the "Green-Fisted Bunnyman".

His name is mentioned in "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2006 single "Don't Download This Song", in reference to Ulrich's anti-Napster stance.

Johnny Crass also made a few mentions of Ulrich in the song "Internet Sandman", a parody of Metallica's song "Enter Sandman".

Ulrich is a huge fan of popular British rock band Oasis and has become acquainted with them over the years. In November 2006, Canadian music magazine Exclaim! published an interview with Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher. Gallagher makes several references to Ulrich and is quoted as saying, "Lars Ulrich? Although he’s a fookin’ geezer and I do love him, he’s a strange character. A strange, strange man."^[3]

Lars recently played the drums at the Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy Tour 2006 for a one-off appearance on one of their closing songs, playing "Out Ta Get Me".^[4]

Ulrich was featured in an episode of South Park in which the children are taught not to download illegally because millionaires like Ulrich do not get paid. Ulrich is seen crying because he had to wait a few extra months before he was able to afford a gold plated shark tank to sit by his pool.

Lars was mentioned in an episode of My Name is Earl in which Earl and Joy went to a Metallica concert for their honeymoon. Lars's actual signature is used when Joy has her pregnant belly signed.

Lars has had nipple piercing done on both of his nipples, as shown in the Until it Sleeps video.

[edit] References

[edit] Books

Steffan Chirazi and Metallica (2004). So What!: The Good, The Mad, and The Ugly. Broadway. ISBN 0767918819.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

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