Lars Ulrich claims the fan reaction to ‘Lulu’ was ignorant
In an excerpt from a new Lou Reed book, Lars Ulrich from Metallica brought up the negative reception towards their collaborative effort with Reed on Lulu. After receiving an intense backlash from their fans, Ulrich claimed that their reaction was ignorant.
“I can’t quite figure it out, but years later, it’s aged extremely well. It sounds like a motherfucker 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,” he said. “Maybe it would be a better time to release it now with what’s going on outside in the world, the chaos”.
The album featured Reed reciting poetry over Metallica’s instrumentation, with words taken from plays by German playwright Frank Wedekind. In discussing their collaboration, Ulrich claimed the experience put Metallica out of their comfort zone, explaining: “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 fucking take of that.’ That’s not the way we usually worked, but it was so beautiful and great, the whole thing.” Reed would pass away two years after its release, making it the final album released in his lifetime.
Apart from fan reception, Reed’s longtime friend David Bowie remained a fan of the album, as Reed’s widow Laurie Anderson remembers: “After Lou’s death, David Bowie made a big point of saying to me, ‘Listen, this is Lou’s greatest work. This is his masterpiece. Just wait, it will be like Berlin. It will take everyone a while to catch up”.
While the album divided both fanbases, Ulrich had tremendous respect for Reed not compromising his vision. He said: “He never tried to apologise or excuse all the different things that lived inside him. I don’t think I’ve ever met a person that was so unapologetic for what he was saying and how he was”.
In other Metallica news, the band recently released a new single ‘If Darkness Had a Son‘ in preparation for their latest album 72 Seasons. The new project is scheduled for release on April 14th.
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