Lars Ulrich

Birthday

Dec 26, 1963

Birthplace

Gentofte, Denmark

Bio: The oft-seen and heard dynamo of Metallica, when it comes to arranging all mattersfrom songs to business, Lars is always at the epicenter. Indeed, constant activityhas been a hallmark of Ulrich's life. As a child he saw his father Torben run asmall jazz club in Copenhagen (sax player Dexter Gordon is Lars' Godfather) beforefollowing the family on the professional… More Bio: The oft-seen and heard dynamo of Metallica, when it comes to arranging all mattersfrom songs to business, Lars is always at the epicenter. Indeed, constant activityhas been a hallmark of Ulrich's life. As a child he saw his father Torben run asmall jazz club in Copenhagen (sax player Dexter Gordon is Lars' Godfather) beforefollowing the family on the professional tennis circuit where Torben became anestablished figure.
Lars was nearly 10 when the sounds of Richie Blackmore and Deep Purple blew hislittle socks off at one of the first gigs he ever attended. It began a theme whichhas been recurrent in his life -obsession with a band- and having bought the'Fireball' album, he began a Deep Purple love affair which continues to this day. At13 his grandmother bought him his first drum kit, yet percussion vyed with tennisfor priority. When the family moved to Newport Beach, CA in the late '70's, theseeds of priority scattered themselves in his field: girls, rock'n'roll and theoccasional funny cigarette were all keys in turning Lars from the wooden raquet tofull metal racket. He got so excited about metal music that he jammed a bit with ayoung lad called James Hetfield before taking a teenage trip to England during Juneof 1981 to see his newly beloved Diamond Head. He thus managed to finagle livingwith them for a while before returning to So Cal and the tape-trading he enjoyedwith the likes of Metal Blade Records Brian Slagel. Slagel was looking for bands to record cuts for an album he would release on thelabel (their first release). Lars got a slot but had no band. Remembering theless-than-awesome yet energetic jams with young Hetfield, Lars called him up andtold him about the album. James listened. And thus was Metallica conceived. These days, some 80-odd million albums worldwide later, Metallica might haveundergone enormous collective and individual changes, but the essence of Ulrichremains. He's also, inrecent years, become even more comfortable saying exactly what he believes inregardless of the consequences (as evidenced by his willingness to be the bandspokesperson on the Napster issue).