"Lars Ulrich"

What did the ocean say to the beach?

Nice.

Okay. That's pretty good, yeah.

You want one last one?

Yeah. Yep, please.

Where do you learn to make a banana split?

I don't know. Where?

Sunday school. Oh, that's good.

Oh, man, that's good.

Welcome to Smartless, everybody.

Welcome, everyone. Smart.

Less.

Smart.

Less.

Smart.

Less.

I've been watching all these interviews with William Friedkin, who directed movies that we can't name, but...

Oh, yeah.

Amazing interviews.

Are we celebrating a life lost?

Yeah, we are. And he was a tremendous artist. And just one of the funny things, I just read this thing, talking about going to this... Speaking to these students, and this student said, I'm about to shoot my student film. What format should I shoot it in?

Is that true? William said that?

True story.

He directed a scary movie that I can't watch today because it's so scary.

Hey, Sean. I know we talk about this a lot, but it's enough.

All right?

From me? From my mouth? What?

No. You being in New York.

I know. It's so dumb.

Can we have a date? Now, I'm sure this is going to air past the day because I feel like we're close. How much longer?

Three weeks, 21 shows.

Sean, I got sent a picture yesterday from somebody whom you do not know, my friend Elizabeth. And she sent me a photo. Her partner sent a photo of her. She didn't want to leave her seat. And he took a photo because she was at your show in the balcony.

That's so nice.

True story. Yeah. That was two nights ago.

I mean, that's so sweet. Please tell her thank you. And wait, two things, though. One is Scotty being stuck here, Jay, to your point, treated me to a helicopter ride the other day.

Will? Yeah.

Hopefully he wasn't flying.

No, he was not flying. Okay. And we flew so close because we haven't left or done anything in six months. Literally, apartment theater, apartment theater. And so we flew around.

So Scotty just said, hey, let's go, take a helicopter trip around the city.

Yeah, because we haven't done anything.

Just to do something. Just to take a look.

That sounds great.

Yeah. Have you ever done that?

No, I would love to. Now, I'm a little, I'm not a huge fan of helicopters. I love their mobility, their flexibility and all that stuff. But, you know, there's zero glide potential.

Yeah, it's the glide. It's the glide.

What do you mean? What do you mean glide?

Well, I mean, it's sort of a, it's fool's comfort anyway to think, you know, the plane has glide potential if the engines go to shit.

Well, that guy told me that. The guy's like, because I'm like, what's the plan? He's like, oh, no.

That's how you started the trip?

We were in the air. And I talked about it. I shouldn't have, because it freaked me out. He goes, look, if the engines fail and they won't, he goes, you just glide down to the bottom. It's got like that potential.

The helicopter does.

The helicopter?

What kind of helicopter were we on? Did it have a bunch of wings on it? I don't know. Or a bunch of birds attached to it?

Have you ever seen a sack of potatoes dropped? It just falls, man.

Yeah, I mean, there's some physics and, yeah. So, anyway, I mean, listen. I don't think that's how. any of us, none of our listeners, none of us, that's not how we're going.

No. No. I know what you mean. When the thing took off, and, you know, it wobbles when it takes off left to right, left to right. Yeah.

You're going to choke on a wonton one day. And that's how you're going to go.

It's like, Scotty, I can get one more in here.

Give it to me.

And that'll be it for you.

Just the word wonton is so funny.

Are you kidding? That sounds pretty. He's going to choke on the fucking heel of a loaf of wonder.

He's like, well, it's still bread.

I'll just have the heel.

Load it up.

Do you ever make bread balls where you take the center of the white bread and you just ball it up with something? Look at it. It's a bread meatball.

I collect heels. I just make heels. All my sandwiches are from heels of loaves of bread.

We ate tortillas. Just a tortilla.

No shit. Well, it's 9 a.m., so that makes sense. Hey, listen.

You're the one who told Paul Simon to go down to Africa and do Graceland, right? You're like, hey, have you explored these sounds?

But I've been into, you know, we've had a lot of great musicians on the show, and I've been a friend of them all, whether it's from sort of new wave, or, you know, whatever, to classic rock and roll, to, you know, I don't know, just everything. Think about it. And today's guest is such a representative of an entire genre of music that they kind of inspired so many musicians, and not just of their genre, but of all genres. It's so rare when somebody from one genre is able to inspire people across all types of music.

You got Madonna.

Unbelievable. This person is,

He's from Denmark?

Yeah. I mean, nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, multiple MTV Movie Video Awards.

Good Lord.

No way. Lars.

And now the high-tech reveal. See if I can do this. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

No way, though.

Also known as, hi, my name is Breadballs. I like that. Breadballs.

Breadballs.

Breadballs, hi. Breadballs.

Oh, my God.

Or otherwise known as Michael Cooper's best friend. How's Cooper?

Yes, that's right. Michael Cooper. He's texting me as we're speaking, and he's texting you.

You know, now, Michael Cooper's got one of these ailments that I think affects a lot of people on the texting thing.

Tell us who Michael is.

He's a friend of yours. Michael Cooper's, a guy I used to work with. Sure. And now he's working with fancier folks than me. But he uses the send button as a period when he texts people.

That's, yes, that's 23 texts showing up at one time is a normal five minutes from Michael Cooper. But they're all sent with love.

I know.

And kisses. I love them. And pictures of himself driving. How many pictures of Michael Cooper do you have of him driving?

Driving, showing off a watch or a new hairstyle or a new set of glasses. You know, I'm not on – I didn't sign up for the Cooper fan letter. I love him, though.

As long as you have an iPhone and a text message thread with him, you're in that fan club.

I love him.

I just want to say one thing, and I'm sure you guys have heard this before, but you don't need guests on your show. Just the seven-minute banter there before the reveal, that's plenty.

It's all dumbness.

I've taken some potential Metallica titles away from this. I think Breadballs is the one to beat. I like Zero Glide Potential a lot. That sounds more like an album title.

That's a great hard rock title. It's like, well, they did it before. It's called Led Zeppelin.

Zero Glide Potential. Yeah, there's a lot of bad jokes in there that we should shy away from. And then the last thing I would say also, is it Madonna? I like that one too.

She's the merrier of all genres.

Dude, Lars, thank you for doing this, man. Nice to meet you. It's so great to have you.

Right back at you.

And I had the good fortune of hanging out just a couple times with Lars a few years ago through mutual friends.

That's right.

And I've always, and of course I didn't want to, you know, drill you with it at the time and embarrass you. I've always been such a fan of Metallica and your music. And one of the things that I did not know, and I guess a lot of hardcore Metallica fans did know this, was I didn't know that you actually moved to the States just to play tennis. I knew that you were a tennis player and that you were a competitive tennis player. But I didn't know that that was.

The whole purpose was to, so my father, I grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark, as you guys circled.

And you were born there?

Born, yeah. Born and raised in Copenhagen. And my dad was a professional tennis player. And I come from a family of tennis players. So his brother was one of the other greats in the country.

No way. And you moved because of tennis? Is that what you mean?

Yes, absolutely. Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy, which at the time, by the way, was revolutionary. It was like the real place where a lot of these famous young tennis, dedicated tennis players went, right? It was like the first of its kind. Am I right, Lars?

And it was also a transitional time in tennis where, you know, up till the mid-70s to the late-70s, the best tennis players all over the world were the ones that had the most talent. But as it shifted in the late-70s, the best tennis players ended up becoming the ones that worked the hardest at it and played, you know, six, eight hours a day and doing drills and worked in the weight room and all this type of stuff. There was a seismic shift in the whole setup. And I went the first year to Nick Bolletieri's. And then, after that, we moved out to Southern California, ended up in Newport Beach, where I was going to attend Colonel Del Mar High School with my dad's friend, the tennis great from Australia, Roy Emerson, his son, Anthony.

Wow. But wait, so Lars, you make this, I mean, and you sort of, you talk about it very openly and the fact that, yeah, I knew that you had this, this come from this dynasty, this Danish tennis dynastic family. And then you move to, you go to Nick Bolletieri and then you come to Southern California. Like you say, in one afternoon, like all of a sudden, what they put, you try out, they put out the list for the tennis team. You're not on it.

Yeah. I mean, you know, I've heard myself obviously tell that story 9,000 times. So it gets shorter and shorter and becomes more of a soundbite, but it is pretty much what happened. Music was always hovering and music was my escape away from the discipline of tennis. And I'd been playing both guitar and drums in Denmark.

Did you teach yourself to play guitar and drums, or were you doing it like through?

In school, in Denmark, in school.

What, what language do they speak in Denmark?

They speak Danish.

Can I talk to you for a second?

Sorry, Lars.

Just come over here for one second.

So sorry, dude.

And you still speak it?

Yes, I still speak Danish. I am still totally Danish. I am 100% Danish.

Your mic's going out.

I still want to be Danish. You're going over a canyon. I'm still proudly, you know, there's only 5 million of us, and we keep it, we keep it loud and proud. And I'm still a Danish citizen, actually, and still travel on my Danish passport.

Wow, that's so cool.

Now, so, so, then, so did you learn these two instruments in, in school? It wasn't a, it wasn't a music school, was it? Or it was just a.

No, no, it was just Danish public school.

Pick an elective, and, you know, band was one of them, and you gravitated towards those two instruments. It was that, that simple?

Ish. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was, you know, my dad, my dad's passion away from tennis was also music. So I grew up in a very, you know, musically rich household. You know, there was a lot of, you know, all the jazz greats from, you know, Miles Davis to Coltrane, to Charlie Parker, to Dexter Gordon.

Was there a particular band or drummer or guitarist that, that got you to want to, you know, jump into those, those two instruments? Or was it just.

When I was, I started going to concerts in Denmark early. I was nine years old when I went to see Deep Purple. And over the next couple of years, like 74, 75, I saw bands like The Sweet and Slade, and Status Quo, and Kiss came to Denmark in 76.. And then it started grabbing, you know, going into Thin, Lizzy and Rainbow and so on. But Deep Purple was my first real music experience and has always been the North Star for me.

What about drummers? Who were the drummers that you were like, yes.

Ian Pace from Deep Purple, the guy with the round glasses who was just insane driving Deep Purple. I gravitated towards also Phil Rudd from ACDC, who's obviously very different than Ian Pace. But he was a huge, huge inspiration.

How did it go over with your family? You say it was a big tennis family. I'm assuming that there wasn't a lot of hard rock happening in the car on the way back and forth to the courts. How did they feel about that?

There wasn't a lot of anything happening in the car because I biked to school starting in second grade.

But that big sort of career pivot for you and lifestyle pivot for you, were they cool with that?

Yeah, my dad was very, was very forgiving with all that. Like I said before, he was, his passion was music. He actually wrote about jazz music for some Danish publications. And at that time, excuse me, in the 50s and 60s, especially Copenhagen, but Stockholm to a degree. And obviously Paris were just the European, you know, havens for American jazz music.

Growing up to like, kind of to Jason's point, like, were you, your parents, because I always thought like when I, we lived, we grew up in a super small house. And I was always playing piano, practicing piano. And it drove everybody crazy because it was so tiny. How in the world, like Jason and Will, what if your kids, just like, dad, I want to play drums. I mean, that going on in the house constantly.

We got the electric, we got the electric ones now with the headset. Yeah, with the headset. Yeah.

That's true.

No, we didn't have that back in the day. Right, Lars?

They didn't have those back in the day. No, we, I had a room down in the basement where I had a little music room where I had my records and my record player. And I got a drum kit, a small piece together drum kit down and I could bash away down in the basement and do my thing down there without pissing off too many of us.

That's so good.

I can't imagine that going through the house all the time. I mean, it's great that you did it and everybody does it.

Now, Lars, you know, us soft, you know, actors, you know, we fantasize about life on the, you know, you're pretty soft too. You know, hard rock, you know, traveling and touring and having all that fun and what you look so good, so healthy, so not like. you've been on the road in like, arguably the biggest rock and roll band ever for years and years and years. Has the touring changed now in the past decade or so, such that you don't look like death warmed over it? Like, how does it all work now?

Another good title.

It's not 30 beers.

It's just 15..

Yeah, it's a protein shake, right? Some mindfulness.

Yeah. You know, the short answer is yes. You know, we just played a couple of shows out at MetLife Stadium on Friday and Sunday here in New York, where I'm checking in from, and we're on our way up to Montreal in a couple of days. So right now, we're playing every Friday and Sunday. for the rest of the summer.

You still play tennis?

I still do play tennis, yeah. I love playing tennis, and I love sports, and I love being engaged. And I work out. They have me chained to a Peloton most of the time when I'm not doing podcasts or playing rock shows. And so I do work out a lot.

That's just so amazing to me.

And, you know, you gotta – we got a lot of that fun stuff out of the way. And I can access a good part of those memories when I want to. Some of them live really far back there, behind doors that are hard to open and probably shouldn't be opened. But nowadays, you know, I'm knocking on the door of 60 here later this year. And the only way to play shows like we just did out at MetLife Stadium here is to be in the best shape you can be.

I bet it does. And I bet you can't imagine – I bet you're – speaking about your younger selves, I bet your 17-year-old self. when you met James Hetfield and you guys formed Metallica, I couldn't imagine that all these years later, you guys would still be fucking rocking out and going and playing stadiums around the world.

It's pretty – yeah, it's pretty crazy. We just – we've been playing – so I looked into it the other day. So we've played out at – it used to be called Giant Stadium. Now you have to say MetLife, so you don't – because you get into a whole divisive conversation between the Giants and the Jets. You don't want to do that around here.

That's amazing.

So that's not a, hey, look how great big Metallica is or whatever. That's about the music scene. That's about post-COVID. people want to come out and live again. That's about hard rock still.

But they're not coming out for everybody. You deserve some credit for the longevity and the relevance and the quality of the music and your relationship with your fans and all of that stuff. Your mental health, right? Because if you guys were a disaster, people would probably get turned off by you if there was a bunch of infighting and all of that garbage. So you've kept it all together.

Thank you. Very cool. I appreciate that. But I think a significant part of what drives us to this day is that we're kind of led by the mantra of our best. days are still ahead of us.

And we will be right back.

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You know, I want to kind of get into a little bit about you and James. Because you guys met at such a young age. Talking about like the, you know, and that you seem to still have by virtue of what you just said. You still have this like drive to, like create something new, and you're still excited about that creative process. What was it about that when you guys met at such a young age with coming from such different backgrounds?

Yeah, because before you answer that, just to piggyback on that, I think it's fascinating what Will just said. That at such a young age, you found somebody else that wanted to take it as serious as you did. What are the odds of that? Yeah. You know?

And every time people ask me that question, I always have to throw in that the energy of the universe is a big part of it. Because, you know, like you're saying, the two of us finding each other, you know, what we had in common. There were so many things we didn't have in common. But what we had in common was that we were both sort of loners. We were both – we weren't like outcasts in that sense, or like the awkward weirdos.

But what's interesting about that, Lars, is that you guys were making whatever you want to call it, hard rock, heavy metal. You guys were making music that was really driving it and it was not necessarily mainstream. And then I think about – I think I probably went three or four records in. By the time you guys made Metallica, which a lot of people called the black album, by the time you guys made Metallica, you really broke through to the mainstream. You had a few hits that were kind of leading up to it, but then the black album really broke through.

I think you have to put the record companies in there when you answer that question. So the record companies at that time were the gateway to everything. So the record companies – it's like the analogy I've said many times is that you walk into a restaurant and you can have anything that you want in the restaurant as long as it's on the menu. And so the record companies were the purveyors of the menu. And so the record companies were only signing things that they thought would appeal to a large group of people.

Right. And, like you said lyrically, Sean, and I don't know, Lars, if you heard me before you came on, I quoted your song, One. And I said, take my breath as I pray for death. or God, please take me.

I did. I didn't write that one down as a potential, but I have the other ones.

Well, you already have that song. That song already exists as a hit.

It's still hard to beat bread bowls.

But that song is like, I mean, you think about you guys that, I mean, that song, specifically, is about a guy who's basically in a coma, right? He's kind of paralyzed, or what's the deal with that? Like, nobody was writing songs about that.

We spent a lot of time, we spent a lot of time sort of wondering what, you know, different mental states. And so at one point we were talking about what would it be like if you couldn't speak, see or hear, and you had no arms or legs, but you were just a living conscious. What would that feel like? What would go on inside you if you were just a living conscious? And then we found out about Dalton Trumbo's story of Johnny got his gun.

Something more than Frankie goes to Hollywood with the lasers.

Way to go, JB.

I mean, we're all dancing all around it. Did you miss videos at all?

We still make videos we made for our new album. Now it's actually the opposite for the last two records we put out. We've made videos for every song on them, because now so many people hear albums on YouTube. So you want to have a video that you've made yourself for every song on your album, rather than having somebody else make them. So we've made videos for every song on the last album that just came out a few months ago.

I love that. I remember a long, long time ago. I don't remember the year.

Just guess. This is when your dad left.

This is the year your dad left.

No. Do you have a question for my dad, Lars?

Learn to drive and just light up the rear, pause attraction and go.

No, I have a question.

You know, just like Metallica may turn professional one day, you guys should do this.

No,

That's right.

You're the only band who's played on all seven continents.

That's right. It was sort of by chance. It was not something that we set out to do.

Well, I don't think one would.

No, but it's not like you sit there and go, hey, what should we do this year? Let's play all seven continents. We were playing in Latin America. We were playing in Europe. We were playing in North America.

Was it cold?

Well, it was. So it was December, which is their June, which is their high summer. And it wasn't as cold and it wasn't as frigid, and it wasn't as sort of otherworldly as you would expect it to be.

How do your hands work?

But we were down there for a couple of four or five days. We stayed on a on an icebreaker and we stayed with all the contest winners and all our crew were all on this icebreaker together, which was super fun. And then we played on a Chilean research base and we played in a tent. And you guys know what silent disco is?

It's weird. Last summer I was in New York and I saw these kids late night and they're all on the steps of this church at like midnight on a Friday night. And everybody's moving and nobody's saying a word. And I realized they've all got headphones on. They're all jamming and they're all dancing to the song.

So the only thing you can hear in the room are the lead vocals and the drums. Other than that, all the amplified instruments are going through the headphones. So it was. it was definitely a mindfuck to be down there. A lot of fun.

Well, I want to go back to James just for one second. Just talk about collaboration and sort of sharing power and creativity. and, you know, not just with him, but with the rest of the band mates. I mean, you guys have been together and so successful and so harmonious, no pun intended, for so long. Is there a secret sauce to that?

Yeah, I would say the probably the word compromise. Sure. You've got to learn to compromise. You've got to learn to know when to lead and you've got to learn when to step back. James and I have been obviously in the band since the beginning.

I was going to ask you about that, about about family. I mean, you guys must have had some very supportive and flexible families throughout all.

Yeah, but we've also steered it in the direction of trying to keep all that, you know, as together as possible. I'm sure it's. I'm sure it's the same with you guys. But, you know, in our world, it takes a few years before you realize that you actually have a say in some of this. Yeah.

Well, we're lucky, because we started doing. certainly we started doing this thing in our 50s. And as we've done and we've we've talked about, maybe, you know, we went on and we did a short tour a couple years ago and we're talking about doing another one. But everything that we do, we always do with the understanding that, like, everybody's got stuff. And if you, if somebody's got stuff, we never challenge it in that same way either, because we know what life's like, and it's kids and it's thing.

Favorite color?

Who came up? No, I was going to.

You ever forgot a line on stage?

I know that Sean was leading a favorite appetizer on the chin chin menu. No, no, no. What was what's your favorite dipping sauce? came up with Metallica? No, Metallica.

The name? Yeah, man.

Because we're taking Metallica.

I'll hang on to the Metallica for you. And so I've been forgiven that, thankfully, a long time ago. And Ron is still a good friend. It's cool.

It's a fucking, it's a rad. name, Metallica.

It feels good on my tongue. So, Lars, this is the standard. Oh, I'm sure you're done.

Hey, Sean.

Sorry to subject you to my dumb question here, but it's my favorite answer.

God, again, Lars, we're so signature.

We've got a city to play in. Isn't it? cold playing without your top on?

Reach the noxers.

Why is your hat always backwards? What's going on?

You don't want to see what lives under here, trust me. Or what doesn't live under there.

I want to know the craziest tour story, like fan weirdness. Something that went wrong on stage or during a set. Or like you got to have something that just was like, oh, God, the worst one of all was blank.

Well, we're very lucky. I'll answer both. We're very lucky in that we have an incredible group of people that follow us pretty much wherever we go. We actually started selling tickets to them on the last tour. We have something called the Black Ticket.

What's that Black Ticket running, Lars? Yeah.

The Black Ticket. Well, I know people, if you're interested, Jason, and you want to come out, it runs.

It's got to be some kind of a break on it, right? 800..

Oh, there's a big break. Yeah, there's a big break.

That's nothing.

For all those shows?

We try to be as fan friendly as possible.

It's like a ski pass.

How much did he say?

800 bucks. You can see all the shows in the entire tour. No fucking way. Now, they don't get to jump on the plane.

They don't get to jump on the plane, no.

I'm going to buy it for all of us. Fuck, Lars, I'm going to get you one too. You know what, though? I wish I'd had that. You know, I saw you guys.

It's very, very passionate.

Yeah, just stuff that your eyeballs have seen. from your position. You get to see the whole band in front of you and then all of the people in the crowd.

Dude, I'm telling you, it's bizarre. It was fucking intense.

The images you have in your head must be incredible.

But also now I'll tell you, I'll circle back to the question that Shani was asking earlier and I'll give you a variation on what you just said about seeing all the people in front of me.

That's great. I love that.

That is so great.

And so, so what did you finish? the rest on the other drum set? The rest of the show on the other?

Eventually with enough crowbars and determination that the drums ended up on stage where they belonged.

Oh, that's good.

We'll be right back.

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Are you excited by anybody right now that you're comfortable saying that has sort of the same kind of early ambition that you guys had to sort of be a little left or a little right of what is being embraced, you know, that's sort of real mainstream? You guys are really courageous by kind of pushing the envelope. Is there somebody in music right now that you're excited about their courage?

I mean, there's a lot of great people in garages and in bedrooms all over, obviously making records on their computers now that don't need to go into studios and do the whole spiel that everybody had to do 20, 30 years ago. They don't have to rely on record companies. I think an artist like Billie Eilish, you know, what her and her brother did a couple years ago with those first records that were made at home on the computers is crazy cool and is so, it sort of epitomizes, you know, the shift of you need a record contract and you need half a million bucks to go into a proper studio and make a record now. And, you know, they made those first couple of records just at home on their computers. and that to me, sort of is indicative of the possibilities.

Let's do it. Jesus, why are we not doing this already? Why are we not doing this already? Why are we not doing this right fucking now, Lawrence? Do we want to break the internet or not?

What are we doing? Well, speak a little bit more about that, about the record industry and stuff. Not to get sort of in the weeds about all that, but, you know, obviously there's been a big change in the record industry where...

Streaming, et cetera.

Yeah, and you're not really selling albums as much as more kind of a la carte kind of songs that are downloaded on streaming services. And then the bands really make their money, correct me if I'm wrong, from touring now. And so I'm assuming that the bands, if they want to make money, they got to be on the road more. Are you guys on the road, more? You guys don't need to make money, but how are you feeling about the way the business is sort of balanced right now as far as being out versus selling albums, staying home, and the ratio of that?

Well, obviously it's changed quite a bit. And in your guys' industry, some of the same things that we were dealing with 20 years ago are happening. Yeah. You know, I mean, big picture, and I know this may sound like a little bit of a cop-out, I'm just happy that fucking anybody cares about what we're doing and shows up to see us play and still stream or buy or steal our records or whatever. The engagement itself, I think, is the triumph and the victory.

Do you feel like when you go and you make a record, like your new record, 72 Seasons, that you guys made, that came out this year and that you're touring, I think you're touring this year on, right? Yep. On the new record.

Yep.

When you make that new record, when you guys have conversations about it coming out, are you guys like, or I don't know, the record company or whoever, it's such a different approach because you're not going to the record stores, it's not sending out vinyl or it's not sending out CDs, or it's not sending out, it's like, load up the streamer, or does that play at all into it?

I mean, the key thing, you know, as an artist, I think, when you write songs, and it's the same with you guys, you want to start a conversation, you want people to engage, you want people to hear your music, how they hear it, I guess,

as people. Sure, and I love, by the way, I love that you didn't say exceptionally lucky, you said fortunate because you're not lucky, it wasn't luck that you guys got here, you guys are talented, but you do recognize the force.

He also has not, we're at minute 1590, he hasn't said storyteller.

I know, it's true, it's true, he has not said storyteller.

Wait, wait, Lars.

I have a list of words here, not to say on podcast, that's number seven.

Lars, if we got a hold of your personal music device, whatever it is that you use when you're like working out or when you're cycling or doing whatever, what's on there? What do you listen, what gets you going? What do you like to listen to? currently? I don't mean of all time, necessarily.

It's very varied, obviously. I'll still circle those Deep Purple records from 50 years ago that I...

Is there a genre you're not a fan of?

No, I mean, I listen to everything from rock music to jazz music, to reggae, to pop.

Remember that?

Run away, turn away,

run away, turn away. Yeah, we were listening to. We love Bronski Beat. I was pumping some Bronski Beat and some That's wild.

Jimmy Somerville.

Yeah, Jimmy Somerville. Love him. Beat boy, beat boy, hit that perfect beat boy.

No way you listen to that.

We were listening to The Happy Mondays.

We were listening to.

Stone Roses.

Tristan, my melon man, you know you speak, so Oh, Stone Roses. Fools go.

I love Stone Roses.

I listen to that. So it's a lot of varied, a lot of varied stuff all the time.

Dude, Lars, we're in the same.

What about listening to a full album and like since?

Yeah, did anybody do that?

People don't. Yeah, people don't really buy albums as much as they used to. They're sort of pulling down kind of a single song here, a la carte, there, whereas, like Pink Floyd, The Wall comes to mind, where there's a whole through line, a thread, a continuity, a thematic that goes throughout the whole album, because bands knew that people would potentially buy an entire album instead of a single. You're saying that they're telling a story? You're saying that.

they're telling a story?

I'm all around it, but I'm not going to say it.

You were so close to it, dude.

But like, do you think that that will ever kind of happen again where there's like a, like a rock opera? that's kind of.

Ooh, like Tommy?

Yeah, from beginning to end, Probably not.

and not in the classic sense that you're saying it. I mean, there's a great band who we've had play with us the last couple years called Greta Van Fleet.

Oh, I love that. Those guys are great.

And they have a they still write longer songs. They, you know, appeal to a very young audience and they still do like crazy long guitar solos. They're really, really great songwriters.

They're very dramatic. They're very theatrical, those kids, man.

Yes. They're cool. Super cool. We've had them with us playing a special guest for the last couple years to a lot of shows. But I don't think that Yeah, but let me.

but let me tell you something to Jason's, to Jason's idea is good, because here's the thing in Hamilton, the musical Hamilton, it's rapping. Everybody raps. Right. It's like, what? A musical that rap?

Do a musical. What about a musical, Lars?

That's what I'm saying.

Hard rock musical?

Let's make some news right now.

I love the reaction on his face.

No, I can see his face. That's it, yes. Guys, we've got it. There. it is.

Lars, let me ask you this

Is that what we're looking for here, an exclusive? Is that what we're doing?

No, we're not. We're not getting into musicals. Sean, for once, just one guest, just leave him out of musicals.

Yeah, stop getting everyone on the board, Sean.

Nobody wants to fucking. Nobody likes musicals.

Lars doesn't like cats.

I know. He doesn't.

Listen, I saw Hamilton. I saw O.G. Hamilton. O.G., O.G., and was as blown away as everybody else and subsequently saw it, what, four times? Yeah.

Amazing. One of the most talented people.

on this planet. Oh, talent. Hands down. I went back later that night and, just, like, Googled and YouTubed as much as I could. That clip where he's in the White House, like five, six years earlier.

Yeah.

And then he did, like, he did, the first five minutes of it afterwards. That's right. Oh, no way. He got, like, standing ovation.

Yeah, he's a genius. Lin's a genius.

Fucking, have you never seen that clip, Jason?

No, I'm gonna check that out. You gotta check it out.

It's just a piano and him rapping.

Oh, that's great.

Or something like that, yeah.

Really fucking crazy.

Yeah, he's a mega-talent. He's a mega-talent. And guess what?

I'll tell you what. Let's meet, I'll meet you halfway. Okay. I'll meet you halfway. My sense is this is going well.

Yes! Lovely.

I love this. I love this recording.

If you'll have me back, even just for five minutes, then we can make it an exclusive.

You're the fourth host. You're the fourth, Beatle.

Right now. Lars, I want you, when we go on tour, if we go on tour, we're talking about going overseas. If we go on tour again...

We'd love for Metallica to open for us.

Well, to open with us. Simultaneously. You can four lead into it, man. Wow. It was going great till then.

We can get into, I read about William Friedkin also this morning or yesterday. R.I.P. I understand the no mentioning of the great films that he made, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I did read about the...

So people know, it's because of the strike, we can't mention them. Just so Tracy knows. Yeah.

No, I'm right there with you.

Lars, listen, he was another genius too. Again, I don't want to embarrass you, but you're a genius, man. You've made so much great music for so long. Such a fan.

You're a nice guy. You're such a great dude. That's the big deal.

You're so patient.

You don't have to be, and you are.

You have such a great vibe, and you're such a great dude. It was such a pleasure meeting you all those years ago and having you on here.

Well, right back at you.

Talking to you, man.

Yeah, I feel like I've known you.

Continued success, dude.

Well, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Get back out of here, we'll go hang out with Coop.

Come on.

Let's do it.

He's going to cover himself back up again. This thing is, I'm sitting up in my publicist's office here down in Tribeca, and I walked in and was handed this piece of paper. I go, wow, this is high tech. Yeah, high tech.

Here we go. No limits here.

We are top of the heap over here at Smart List.

Thank you for saying yes.

to this, buddy. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being your pick, Will. I enjoyed the time a couple years ago in France, and it's great to see you guys. Sean, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.

Good luck on the rest of the tour.

When we have musical news, we'll break it with you guys.

I love it.

You're the first.

Thank you, Lars. Thanks, buddy. See you soon.

Bye.

Wow. That was a great get, Willie.

Yeah.

You know. what's interesting about him is I wasn't one to run out and buy Metallica. Obviously, I like their songs and know a lot of them, and was a fan of them growing up, too. But it's rare that the drummer is as famous as the band. That's true.

Who else? Phil Collins?

Phil Collins.

But Lars and James started the band, right? So they formed it together. So you had guitarist and drummer. It's like wham.

I guess.

I guess.

That might be the first connection there. Yeah.

So.

Which one would Andrew Ridgely be?

I guess. He would be Lars.

Huh. Okay. Let's get Lars back on the floor.

And by the way, let's get James on here real quick, too. You know what I mean?

James, that makes you George.

So.

I guess.

No, he was very, very cool.

He's so cool. He's such a cool dude and he does have such a great vibe, and he's so. I don't know. I just love the way you can really access everything. When you ask him a question and he can really access it, and he's so sort of concise and he's so quick.

Yes, I like that. he's open to sharing anything.

Yeah.

I love that.

That's the key to keeping a little group together is just don't be a dick. Yeah. Okay?

100%.

You see me looking at you, Sean and Will?

No, he's looking in the mirror.

You're looking in the mirror.

No, I'm not looking at my square.

I'm looking at your square. You're a dick.

Well, let's go see. I can't believe we missed them at MetLife or whatever.

I think it's a great idea if they open for us.

But we should.

Maybe we should just wait until they come a little closer.

I can't believe you asked Metallica.

It's so great. No, he was offering. I'm pretty sure he was offering to open for us. Yeah, let's wait until they get a little closer to Los Angeles.

I know, but they are because they're on tour for their record 72 season. It would be great to go. We should definitely go see them in Los Angeles.

That'd be so fun.

That'd be fun.

I would love to see them.

I'm going to go see Tay Tay tomorrow night.

Are you?

I think that's what, isn't that what kids are calling her?