Metallica’s Lars Ulrich didn’t feel “qualified” to play with Rush at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert
Lars Ulrich, the drummer of legendary metal outfit Metallica, has discussed his appearance at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts in London and Los Angeles earlier in 2022, confessing that he didn’t feel “qualified” to perform with Rush.
According to the drummer, he felt far more comfortable performing with ACDC’s Brian Johnson on ‘Back in Black’ and ‘Let There Be Rock’. He also had no qualms taking on ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Supernaut” with Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler.
Both of those performances took place during the first tribute concert at London’s Wembley Stadium on September 3rd. Discussing the event on The Howard Stern Show, Ulrich explained: “Dave Grohl called me three or four months ago and asked me if I would partake in the Taylor Hawkins tribute shows at Wembley and at the LA Forum, and, obviously, before he was done explaining it, I just said, ‘Yes, Dave. I’ll be there. Just tell me what you want and I’ll show up with bells and whistles on.”
The drummer added: “Straying outside of the Metallica world is not the most comfortable thing. I think a big part of why we just love staying inside the Metallica universe is because there’s that safety in numbers, and we just support each other and have that thing.”
Ulrich clarified that he had “so much fucking fun” performing the AC/DC and Black Sabbath songs, mainly because they happened to be “right in [his] wheelhouse”. However, he didn’t feel prepared to perform with Rush. “I mean, I love Rush,” he said, “[but] If they had said, ‘Come up and play ‘2112’ with Alex [Lifeson] and Geddy [Lee], I’d go, ‘I think there’s somebody more qualified to do that than me.’”
Elaborating, Ulrich said: “Could I do it? Obviously, playing with Alex and Geddy would be incredible… Chad Smith played and Dave played a couple of songs [with Lifeson and Lee]. It would be an uphill thing. It would take a lot of rehearsal, a lot of prep. ‘2112’ would probably be too much of a bite of the apple for me.”
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