Metallica Without Lars

Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian released an autobiography about his life and, in one area of the book, he describes what I call a bombshell. He describes how James, Kirk, and Cliff had decided that they were going to fire drummer Lars Ulrich after their European tour. Ultimately, I am certainly glad that James, Kirk, and Cliff did not fire Lars. This was being discussed when the band was on a tour of Europe and it was the same tour on which Cliff Burton was killed in that black ice bus accident. You can read more about it here: http://loudwire.com/scott-ian-recalls-metallica-discuss-firing-lars-ulrich/

When I first read this, I was surprised. As I've described in other posts, from what I know of his personality through interviews and videos is that Lars embodies a lot of the qualities in a man that I want to have. I admire his charisma and his attitude. He has always come across as a dude I would like to talk to. In recent years, James Hetfield has also moved up in my mental ranking of who I want to be. The fact that he is now sober weighs heavily into my thoughts when I think about Hetfield.

Selfishly, I think about how if Ulrich had been fired, it's quite possible that "And Justice for All" wouldn't have been recorded. "Justice" is my all-time favorite Metallica release. I won't repeat what I know I've covered in previous blog posts about this album. It's just the thought of not ever hearing that release is quite an interesting "What If?" scenario.

When I say "What If? scenario, I'm referring to a comic book I remember reading as a kid. It was a Marvel comic book and I had issue #1 of the series, as described here. The gist of the comic book series is spelled out in this synopsis:
In this landmark first issue we are greeted by Uatu the Watcher, who explains to the readers that there exists a number of alternate realities. In each alternate reality, there is a divergence from what what has happened and what could have happened. 
Because I read this when I was young, I think it left a huge impact upon the way I think. I do think about alternate realities. I'm very interested in the ideas that surround how the choices I made or the actions I did or did not do have shaped my life.

On this subject, I often reflect upon what I know must have happened, but I don't know the specific date or time. I remember, when I was very young, I went to a program in Pierce Park (near Pierce Elementary School) called Tot Lot. I remember I went with Gary Hatfield and Tom McElmeel. I remember that we walked home from our neighborhood to the park. I also remember that, one time, Gary and Tom started running. I began running too, but I grew tired and stopped. I often ponder, "What if I wouldn't have given up, at that moment that I stopped running, and found a place within me to push through thinking 'I can't keep running' and instead, to keep running." I think about that moment in time in relation to when I was out for basketball in elementary school and junior high to when I was out for swimming in high school. There were times when I was tired and perhaps of that early moment on the way home from Tot Lot, when I stopped running, I gave up and didn't push myself. Certainly, I can say that was true with swimming and when I reflect upon that epoch in my life, I just wonder what my life could have been like if I hadn't given up. What if my brain worked in such a way that quitting because I was tired just didn't exist? What if quitting when I was tired wasn't a choice, to me, in the sense that it would never cross my mind.

To bring this back to Lars and Metallica, hearing Lars Ulrich's drumming on "And Justice for All" has always been held up on a pedestal in my mind as one of the defining moments as a drummer. After hearing songs like "And Justice for All" and "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" and (of course) "Dyer's Eve," I remember practicing drums more and more in my parent's basement. It wasn't that I wanted to play the drum parts I heard, but it was such a paradigm shift. I was deep in the bowels of Ratt, Dokken, Poison, and other less technical music so hearing Ulrich's performance was very different from those bands.

It wasn't that I was interested in playing double bass or having a double bass pedal. I remember experimenting with a second bass drum, but no matter how often I tried, I didn't like having to sit with my legs so far apart. It just never really felt comfortable. What interested me more was the way the drums and the rhythm guitar meshed together, especially during Kirk Hammett's guitar solos. It still is one of my favorite parts of a song when either the rhythm guitar or bass lock in with the drums during a guitar solo. I have always liked Pantera's "Walk" as an example of the bass and drums locking in "under" a guitar solo.

Wow, what a rambling post. I've gone from Metallica to Spider-Man joining the Fantastic Four, to running home from Tot Lot to athletics and back to Metallica. That's the way my mind works.