Ahead of Metalica's headlining Saturday-night set at Outside Lands this year, drummer Lars Ulrich held a conference call with reporters to talk about Metallica's preparations for the festival. Answering questions from numerous media outlets, Ulrich spoke about his love for the Outside Lands festival, his plans for the next Metallica record, and the thrill of playing to a hometown crowd. Check out his thoughts below -- and once again, let us implore you to catch Metallica if you're headed for the big Golden Gate Park festival this year.
On going to Outside Lands whenever possible
As a Bay area resident and as a music fan, going to see the Outside Lands Festival every year -- it's a huge thing for, for not only me, but for my family. So getting a chance to play it and to sort of headline it or whatever, is obviously a huge thing for us. And it was just a matter of time, I guess -- maybe I can say that without being too sure of myself. But listen, if I'm not going to play, I'm going to go, so either way I'm going to involved in it somehow and I'm going to take my kids and it probably will be the concert highlight of their year.
On last year's 30th Anniversary concerts in S.F.
I think that being back in San Francisco and celebrating our 30th anniversary -- which we did with the full week of shows at the Fillmore in December -- in some way, it feels kind of like, almost like the encore of that. Playing a week at the Fillmore and then getting a chance to play out Outside Lands six months later, is a huge way to just sort of continue our longstanding love affair with "All Things San Francisco."
On the next Metallica record
Every time (James Hetfield) picks up a guitar, there's some brilliant riff that comes out of him, and I try to make sure that they're all recorded and try to do my best to keep up with them and try to put some drums in behind them. And so... Pretty much when we're done with the [upcoming 3-D] movie and with Outside Lands, which we should all be ramped up by early September, we're going to basically just concentrate on new music and another Metallica record will be the priority after that.
On the joy and chaos of hometown shows
The big thing with any San Francisco shows is always managing the guest list and all the people that come out of the woodwork and all of sudden are your best friends and it's like, I love every minute of it. There's no greater time to see all your best friends at these gigs. Golden Gate Park is [an] awesome, awesome setting. I mean, it is a phenomenal setting. The organization that they put into it, the whole thing with the food, the wine, the tent, the whole vibe there is so fucking next level that you know, all we've got to do is just show up and make sure that we're firing on all 24 cylinders. Finding inspiration to play hometown shows is never difficult, and we're always fired up.
On playing Golden Gate Park for the frst time
We've played Kansas State, we've played, what it is called, the Sweet AT&T the site where the Giants played. We've obviously played Oakland. We've played every indoor building and every club and theatee and so on. We've never played in the Golden Gate Park ... so it's another privilege. Obviously, any chance of playing in Golden Gate Park, which has been the site of many legendary gigs over the decades, it's obviously a super cool thing. We rearranged the whole summer schedule just for this.
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