Metallica’s Lars Ulrich Defends Polarizing Collaboration Album 

Metallica’s Lars Ulrich Defends Polarizing Collaboration Album 

Metallica and Lou Reed performed together at the 2009 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in New York. The performance ended up leading to an often-criticized collaboration between Reed and the band, 2011’s “Lulu.” 

The album featured lengthy tracks of Reed’s spoken-word poetry and lyrics combined with free-form Metallica jam sessions. 

In Reed’s newly released posthumous book, “The Art Of The Straight Line: My Tai Chi,” Ulrich defended the collaboration. 

“What the f*ck is it about ‘Lulu’ that it got that kind of reaction?” he said. “I can’t quite figure it out, but years later, it’s aged extremely well. It sounds like a motherf*cker still. So I can only put the reaction down to ignorance … It took our fans to a place I wish they would go more often. Maybe it would be a better time to release it now with what’s going on outside in the world, the chaos. I don’t know, but I am very proud of this record.”

“James (Hetfield) and I would be figuring out ways through a piece of music and then Lou would look over and go, ‘That’s it. I’m not doing another f*cking take of that.’ That’s not the way we usually worked, but it was so beautiful and great, the whole thing.”

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has also previously defended the record. “Even when all my friends are shaking their heads and looking at me going, ‘Bro, what were you thinking?’” Hammett told the Marin Independent Journal. 

“It was a real accomplishment as far I was concerned,” he continued. “We were there to help Lou Reed fulfill his vision, and I think we did that 100 percent. This was not a Metallica album and it was not a Lou Reed album. It was Lou Reed and Metallica together, doing something completely different.”

Hammett continued: “It’s not for everyone. But ‘Junior Dad’, I think, is one of the best things we’ve ever been associated with, in terms of real art and literature and music coming together. That, to me, is a real accomplishment, just as much as ‘Ride The Lightning’ is.”

B.J. LISKO
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