Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is the latest subject of Classic Rock’ magazine’s The Soundtrack Of My Life feature, and the Dane has nominated former Oasis bandleader Noel Gallagher as his favourite songwriter of all time.
“The hardest thing in the world – trust me, we know this first hand – is to write a simple song,” says Ulrich. “And the shorter and simpler, the harder it is. Those great Oasis songs – Wonderwall, Live Forever, Supersonic – if you hear Noel do them by himself, just guitar and voice, it’s pretty incredible what those songs break down to when you’re that naked and that vulnerable.”
This isn’t the first time that Ulrich has spoken oh his love for Oasis. In 2014 the drummer told The Guardian that “Oasis have been the soundtrack to my life for the last 20 years.”
“In 1994 I was browsing through an issue of a magazine called Select, and there was a story about a band from England, with some unusual looking fellows, that I’d never heard of. I skimmed across the article, and was quite amused by the fact that every other word was either ‘fuck’ or ‘cunt’.
“It reeked of attitude and not giving a fuck, which at the time – at the height of the ‘shoegazing I can’t handle being a rockstar’ attitudes that were becoming mainstream – was very refreshing.
“A few weeks later I was driving in my car, listening to radio station Live 105 here in San Francisco, when a song came on unlike any I had ever heard before. The attitude, the aloofness, and the not-giving-a-fuck vibes were pouring out of the speakers.
“It was Oasis and the Supersonic single. Thus began a long and very rewarding relationship with a sound, an approach and a way of looking at the world that has had a huge impact on me and helped shape who I am today – for whatever that’s worth.”
In Classic Rock’s The Soundtrack Of My Life feature, Ulrich nominates late AC/DC frontman Bon Scott as his favourite singer ever, and selects former Deep Purple man Ritchie Blackmore as his ultimate guitar hero. “I think he was the best guitar player of that generation,” says Ulrich, “and for me, the epitome of the guitar hero.”
For a deeper dive into the artists and records who changed Ulrich’s life, pick up the new issue of Classic Rock when it goes on sale on October 13.
As his band near their 40th anniversary, the drummer recently told Metal Hammer that Metallica are “just getting started.”
“We still have our best years ahead of us,” he says.
