‘That Metal Show’ Recap: Metallica’s Lars Ulrich Talks ‘Lulu’

Lars Ulrich appeared on last night's episode of 'That Metal Show,' and hands down, he is this season's "big get," and quite possibly the "big get" of the entire series! Ulrich was engaging, interesting and incredibly chatty and revealed lots of tidbits about the music he loves, and of course, about his own band.

To start, the Metallica drummer spoke about his respect for the MIA-from-metal guitarist Richie Blackmore, saying that the Deep Purple song 'A' 200'  from 'Burn' houses the best guitar solo ever recorded.

He also shed some light about Metallica's famed instrumentals, saying he can't choose a favorite. "I can't pick," he said. "We just dragged out 'The Call of Ktulu.'And the last couple summers, we've played 'Orion.' We haven't played the one on 'Justice.'" He sang the melody, but couldn't recall the title without an audience member assist. (It's 'To Live Is to Die,' if you're keeping score at home!) He finished: "We gave it a shot in rehearsals. We're sure it'll rear its head again." Ulrich also said that the 'Death Magnetic' instrumental 'Suicide & Redemption' houses some of he best playing that James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett have ever done.

Ulrich also revealed that his longtime partner-in-crime Hetfield "can write 10 riffs while tuning his guitar, so there is a rule in Metallica that every time James picks up a guitar, we have to record it."

The hot topic of 'Lulu,' the band's collab with Lou Reed, came up. Ulrich revealed that after jamming during Hall of Fame-related activities with Reed, he walked away and Reed called out, "Let's do a record together one day." Sure enough, Reed called a few days later, and 'Lulu' is upon us!

Ulrich effectively summed up 'Lulu, calling it "jammy," "one-take" and "free-form." He also said that whenever Metallica go outside the box, it invigorates them to come back inside that same box, and he hopes that the band's fans will, if nothing else, respect what they did with this project. He also said it's more of  a Lou Reed release, since he wrote all of the lyrics and birthed and designed the concept.

Wrestler/Fozzy singer/metal fan Chris Jericho also showed up to try and 'Stump the Trunk,' asking what was the first metal record Ulrich bought. He got it right-- it was Deep Purple's 'Fireball.'

Sammy Hagar also came out during this segment, to which Ulrich asked, "Why do two guys from the 415 have to connect in the 310?"