Metallica’s Lars Ulrich has reflected on the defining song that inspired him to commit to being a musician during his formative years.
In a new interview with GQ, the musician revealed that influential British heavy metal act Diamond Head were a crucial inspiration.
Diamond Head were an integral act in the late 70s new wave of British heavy metal music, and have often been cited as an important influence by acts like Metallica and Megadeth.
“When I was 15 or 16, I was living i L.A. – I’d moved over from Denmark a year or two before – and I was going to school in Orange County,” Ulrich reminisced.
“The new wave of British heavy metal was going on. It was around 1979-81 and I would get all these records sent from England. There was this mail-order thing called Old Records, where you’d send your money and all the latest releases would show up. So I got an MCA Records compilation album called Brute Force.”
“I’d recently read about this band called Diamond Head in Sounds that I hadn’t heard of before, then they were the opening cut on this compilation album – the song was called ‘It’s Electric,” he continued. “When I heard that song I think I subsequently ended up playing it, like, 9,000 times for the next month.
Check out ‘It’s Electric’ by Diamond Head:
“If there was ever a song that made me want to be in a band, that was it. I wasn’t in a band at the time – I was still fussing around with tennis, although that was going down the drain quickly – and that song was like, ‘Holy hell, if I could just play that song or be in some sort of set-up where I could live my life playing a song like that, that’s what I want to do.'”
Love Classic Rock?
Get the latest Classic Rock news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Metallica’s admiration for Diamond Head ran so deep that the band covered their track ‘Am I Evil?’ as a B-side to their ‘Creeping Death’ single back in 1984.
Check out Metallica covering ‘Am I Evil?’:
