The group in question was responsible for changing the life trajectory of the Metallica drummer, who as a child was trained to be a professional tennis player
Every musician who has established himself in rock has been a fan at one time — and, why not, continues to be so even after becoming famous. In case of Lars Ulrichthere was a band from the 1970s that he was obsessed with.
The drummer of Metallica was a great fan of Deep Purple. In a 2012 interview with Classic Rockthe musician remembered the first occasion he saw the group live, which at the time had its classical formation: Ian Gillan (vocal), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Roger Glover (low), Jon Lord (keyboards) and Ian Paice (battery).
In those times, Ulrich liked groups like Slade, Sweet It is Status quo, also adept at rock, but with a not so heavy sound. Upon meeting the “extreme” Purple, the 9-year-old boy — who was trained to follow in his father’s footsteps as a professional tennis player — simply went crazy. Initially, he says:
“There was a tennis tournament at KB Hallen [em Copenhague, Dinamarca] which started on Monday morning and Deep Purple played there the night before. For some reason, they invited all the tennis players to watch the show. My father [Torben Ulrich, ex-tenista profissional] called me. It was early 1973 and Purple was promoting the album Who Do We Think We Are.”
The show took place decades ago, but the drummer, at the time of the interview, still remembered several details.
“I remember Ritchie Blackmore throwing his guitar at the lighting rig, rubbing it against the speakers and playing with his ass. Jon Lord was summoning the beast, Ian Gillan was hidden behind a curtain of hair playing the bongos, Roger Glover was holding the beat, while Ian Paice sat in the back doing his thing. I had never seen anything like it before. I was completely impressed. As you can imagine, it was the loudest and coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Lars Ulrich and Deep Purple fame
Something notable for Lars Ulrich, of Danish origin, was the popularity of Deep Purple in Europe. In the United States, the biggest rock band of that period was Led Zeppelin. Both came from England, but stood out in different spaces.
Regarding Purple’s fame in European territory, he reflected:
“Led Zeppelin never achieved the same level of fame when I was growing up in Denmark. Zeppelin somehow seemed to be more of an American thing. There was also an image built into them. Ritchie Blackmore was very visual, but he didn’t pose like Robert Plant (lead singer of Zeppelin) with his open shirt, sweaty chest and ‘I’m a God, come back to the hotel room and give me oral sex’ attitude.”
Interestingly, Metallica never covered a Deep Purple song on their albums. There are records of the band playing “When a Blind Man Cries”, but not in the studio. And look, the metal group is notable for recording several versions of songs by its idols. During the chat, Lars revealed:
“We didn’t play Deep Purple songs live in the old days, but we played a lot of their songs in our rehearsals, songs like ‘Black Night’ and ‘Highway Star’ we played all the time and also some Rainbow songs (Ritchie Blackmore’s band ), such as ‘Stargazer’ and ‘Tarot Woman’. It’s really where our musical roots lie.”
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
