Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has opened up about touring in the early ’90s, explaining to Brian Johnson his days on the road with AC/DC were “heaven”.
Throughout music history, there have been some pretty amazing concert lineups on offer, usually making fans salivate with excitement at the chance of seeing more than just one of their favourite bands on the same bill.
However, most fans likely don’t realise what goes on behind the scenes, with these artists often becoming fast friends who form lifelong bonds, and often make it easier to get through the monotony of touring.
One of these famous friendships though happens to be that of AC/DC and Metallica, who teamed up with each other back in 1991 for the annual Monsters Of Rock tour in Europe. Serving as the last time that the thrash icons supported anyone, these shows were highlights of the early ’90s for many metalheads.
On Sunday, October 13th, a new episode of Brian Johnson’s A Life On The Road is set to air, with the AC/DC frontman having a chat to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich as the latter describes the influence the former had on their own band.
“You’ve gotta remember, our musical roots were much more in you guys, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin,” Ulrich began. “We were in much more kind of blues-based, harder rock and roll stuff. So we just kind of started playing it a little faster as we went along.”
Check out a preview of Brian Johnson’s A Life On The Road:
As their conversation goes on, Ulrich looks back to their performances together back in the early ’90s, with the drummer remembering these dates rather fondly.
“Playing with you guys on that run in 1991, which was the last time we really sort of supported anybody, we were in heaven getting a chance to be close to you guys and watch you every night for six weeks,” Ulrich noted.
“You had the whole stadium show and you guys did your whole two-and-a-half hour headline thing. Getting offstage and then getting a chance every night for six or sight weeks to just go up and just watch you guys…”
In related news, Aussie metalheads were undoubtedly devastated last month to learn that the highly-anticipated tour from Metallica would not be going ahead as planned.
Originally slated to kick off next week, the band revealed that their upcoming dates would be postponed while frontman James Hetfield entered a treatment program in order to confront his struggles with addiction.
At this stage, there’s no word as to when these dates will be rescheduled, though proposed tourmates Slipknot say they’re hoping to bring their live show down to Australia regardless at a similarly undetermined date.
Check out ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica:
