Lars Ulrich: Music Pirate

03/03/09 5:34pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Here's one for the irony column: Lars Ulrich recently became a music pirate when he downloaded a Metallica album.

Ulrich told VH1's Eddie Trunk that he downloaded a copy of Metallica's Death Magnetic — and not using a legitimate avenue like iTunes.

"I sat there myself and downloaded Death Magnetic from the internet just to try it," Ulrich said about stealing his own music. "I was like, 'Wow, this is how it works.' I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download Death Magnetic for free, it's me.

"I sat there one night at my house with about six of my friends and a bottle of wine. And what was [the file sharing site] called? We found it — this was two or three days after [Death Magnetic] leaked. I was like, 'You know what? I've gotta try this.'

"So we sat there, and 30 minutes later, I had Death Magnetic on my computer. It was kind of bizarre."

Ulrich was a strong opponent of illegal downloading when Metallica sued the Napster file-sharing program in 2000 because it allowed people to illegally download the band's music. Ulrich later said he regrets the whole thing and told Blabbermouth.net that he can't watch the Napster scenes in the Some Kind Of Monster Metallica documentary.

"I felt kind of ambushed by the whole thing because I didn't really know enough about what we were getting ourselves into when we jumped. We didn't know enough about the kind of grassroots thing, and what had been going on the last couple months in the country as this whole new phenomenon was going on. We were just so stuck in our controlling ways of wanting to control everything that had to do with Metallica.

"So we were caught off guard and we had a little bit of a rougher landing on that one than on other times when we just blindly leap. But you know, I'm still proud of the fact that we did leap... and I took a lot of hits and it was difficult."

Metallica are on the road in support of Death Magnetic, and you can see them here:

March 3 Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England @ Metro Radio Arena
March 5 Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis
March 7-8 Stockholm, Sweden @ Globen
March 25 Birmingham, England @ LG NEC Arena
March 26 Glasgow, Scotland @ Scottish Exhibition And Conference Centre
March 28 London, England @ O2 Arena
March 30 Rotterdam, Netherlands @ Ahoy
April 1-2 Paris, France @ Palais Omnisport De Bercy
May 6 Munich, Germany @ Olympiahalle
May 7 Leipzig, Germany @ Leipzig Arena
May 9 Stuttgart, Germany @ Schleyerhalle
May 11 Frankfurt, Germany @ Festhalle
May 12 Hamburg, Germany @ Colorline Arena
May 14 Vienna, Austria @ Stadthalle
May 16 Oberhausen, Germany @ Kopi-Arena
May 17 Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
June 14-15 Helsinki, Finland @ Hartwall Arena
June 17 Oslo, Norway @ Spektrum
June 19 Nickelsdorf, Germany @ Novarock Festival
June 20 Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Goffert Park (Sonisphere)
June 22 Milan, Italy @ Datch Forum
June 24 Rome, Italy @ Palalottomatica
July 4 Hockenheim, Germany @ Hockenheim Ring (Sonisphere)
July 5 Werchter, Belgium @ Rock Werchter
July 7 Nimes, France @ Festival De Nimes
July 9 Lisbon, Portugal @ Optimus Alive! 09
July 11 Barcelona, Spain @ The Forum (Sonisphere)
July 13-14 Madrid, Spain @ Palacio De Deportes
July 16 Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion
July 18 Hultsfred, Sweden @ Folkets Park (Sonisphere)
July 20, 22-23 Copenhagen, Denmark @ Copenhagen Forum
July 25 Pori, Finland @ Kirjurinluoto (Sonisphere)
July 27-28 Copenhagen, Denmark @ Copenhagen Forum
July 30 Oslo, Norway @ Spektrum
Aug. 1 Dublin, Ireland @ Fairyhouse Racecourse
Aug. 2 Stevenage, England @ Knebworth House (Sonisphere)