METALLICA’S LARS ULRICH DEFENDS THE BAND’S GRAMMY PERFORMANCE AND CALLS LADY GAGA, “QUINTESSENTIAL PERFECT FIFTH MEMBER OF THIS BAND”
Jason Newman of Rolling Stone reports:
Metallica’s Grammy performance with Lady Gaga may not have gone exactly as they envisioned – a stagehand reportedly unplugged the wire to singer James Hetfield’s microphone before the group went onstage – but as drummer Lars Ulrich tells Rolling Stone, a “slight technical snafu” couldn’t diminish the band’s enthusiasm for their temporary new singer.
What was supposed to be a Hetfield-Gaga duet for the band’s Moth Into Flame accidentally became a half-song, as Hetfield suffered complete mic failure for much of the song. While he would eventually join Lady Gaga at her mic, a visibly pissed Hetfield knocked down his mic stand at the end of the performance and threw his guitar offstage.
“There was a slight technical snafu, but that’s not really something you can do much about,” Ulrich says. “You just learn to live with that side of it. It happened to Adele last year; I guess this year it was our turn.”
The perpetually enthusiastic drummer was more keen to talk about Gaga, the “quintessential perfect fifth member of this band.” “Her voice, her attitude, her outlook on everything is so awesome,” he says. “[The performance] was so effortless and organic and she just has the spirit of hard rock and metal flowing through her veins. It comes really easy for her. There’s nothing contrived; she just has this super warm, easy energy.”
Read more at Rolling Stone.
In other Metallica news, the band recently announced they will be hitting the road in support of their new album, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. The tour will begin on May 10th in Baltimore and wind down on August 16th in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Tickets go on sale this Friday (February 17th) at 10 am local time. For more information about the tour, including a complete itinerary and where to purchase tickets, please click here.
source: rollingstone.com
Lord knows I love beating on Lars and his comments, but Hetfield issues aside, this could have been really good. I don’t mind Lady Gaga. She’s a classic throwback to the entertainment elements of music going back to the 70’s in a way, alas Queen, KISS, and other New York glam acts of the 70’s like The Dolls. And she’s got a strong voice. She could front a metal band if that was her thing. But its not, and that’s ok. I don’t really listen to her at all. But hearing her stuff doesn’t piss me of in any way shape or form.
DR,
On another thread I wrote, “As much as I dislike her as an artist for a myriad of reasons, some legitimate, and others admittedly superficial, I will acknowledge that she has a very good voice. She happens to be an excellent Jazz vocalist. But my issue with her is, that she is all pomp and circumstance with overly dramatic mannerisms that distract from her actual talent.”
So some the reasons why she “bugs” me:
1. She based her entire career off of Madonna, from image, to sound, to shock value. She read Madonna’s entire career manual and took every step.
As much as I despise Madonna as a person, I completely respect her for being the first of her kind, and an innovator. I understand artists being influenced by those who came before them, but this goes beyond influence, this seems like plagiarism.
2. Her song, Born This Way, annoys me for two reasons, it is a blatant, Express Yourself, (my favorite Madonna song), and Vogue, rip off.
Plus her message, albeit a positive one, is hypocritical. If she singing, “There’s nothing wrong with loving who you are She said, “‘Cause he made you perfect, babe. So hold your head up girl and you’ll go far, Listen to me when I say” I’m beautiful in my way ‘Cause God makes no mistakes.” Um well, I guess you felt God did make a mistake because you changed your entire face. She is barely recognizable from when she launched her career.
Look I know everyone in the entertainment business is plastic, and the majority of actors, musicians and models, have had work done. However, it is disingenuous to sing those lyrics, and then not practice what you preach. What kind of message is she really sending to her fans?
Finally, I just find her personality to be off putting. She is very affected, and overly dramatic, and I find that to be irksome. When she was once being interviewed with Tony Bennett, she took over the whole interview. I felt that was so disrespectful to do to Mr. Bennett, who sat there like a gentleman, the entire segment. After all, who was true legend there? From the way she behaved, I guess Gaga thought it was herself. That was final straw for me.
D 🙂
I hear you on all accounts Dana. I have some of the same feelings and criticisms. As a longtime Howard fan I was opposed to him interviewing her and giving her so much air-time. Then I heard her perform and I was really impressed with her vocal range and style. Since then, she’s been on Howard many times. I can’t listen to her dialogue that much, as you say she is affected, but I have purchased a couple of her CD’s for my wife & daughter. The more she’s on Howard, the more I go back to feeling she’s of the cookie-cutter category as far as the image she’s selling to the public. However, there’s that voice.
I really didn’t like her behaviour on the Grammy’s or the crowd actors—ugh! Whata’ bunch of BS. Never mind what happened to James and almost completely ignoring Kirk & Rob. And what the hell was she trying to do to Lars’ shoulder, mount it or dislocate it? Did they even get to mention the album and that they’re kicking off a huge North American Tour?!
I sold out and bought the cheap VIP GA tickets today. $259 for that bad boy. \mm/
‘She is all pomp and circumstance with overly dramatic mannerisms that distract from her actual talent’
You know you just described KISS in the 70’s right?
LOL!!! I am admittedly not really a KISS fan either. 😉
However, those gimmicks seemed to be more be much more applicable back in the drug fueled, crazy ’70’s and the over indulgent 80’s. Additionally, as I said before, her theatrics are not her own, she practically copied Madonna’s entire career.
Finally, Katy Perry also does this, but the difference is her costumes, and staging are more cartoonish, or Japanese anime, so it seems to be a bit more palatable, kitschy and not redundant of someone else’s image. On the flip side of the coin, Katy Perry does have a good singing voice, unlike Gaga, who has a lot of range.
D 🙂
DR, did you just actually compare that talentless “AIN’T NO LADY” Gaga to KISS? Really bro? You can’t be serious!
Doug I was simply using Dana’s words against her Big Bro.
Listen Gaga won’t be anyone’s cup of tea on this page, mine included. But I wouldn’t consider her ‘talentless’.
Why would he need to defend it? From close minded metal heads I suppose. Lady Gaga is super talented, whether you like her music or not.
It was cool. The ladies dancing around was a little much.
I felt sorry for James, never mind they didn’t even mention Metallica before the performance, but then the Grammy’s have always marginalized metal…nothing new there.
he is defending and justifying the performance, because he knows damn well it came off the rails , the reaction iv’e seen {eddie and dana’a reaction sum it up perfectly} and the reaction of people I know, is mostly the same… awful over the top performance from ga ga her good voice made no difference , horrible embarrassment for the grammys – total train wreck – the band should say nothing more and move on …. METALLICA is fine without ANYONE guest singing-
A bit off tangent but did anybody see that Megadeth won best metal performance ? As they walked up to get the grammy the house band played master of puppets !!!!!!!!!!!
Ray,
I admittedly channel surfed throughout the entire show and did not come back very often.
They played Master Of Puppets when the Megadeth walked onto the stage to accept their awards?? That was either another tragic oversight from this clearly clueless association (emphasis on a–), or that was done on purpose, which is quite insulting. Oh well, at least a proper metal band won in the correct category.
From what little I did see the two highlights were the Prince tribute, Bruno Mars killed it, and Gary Clark Jr. (who played liked Stevie Ray Vaughn).
D 🙂
Ray,
I did see that! What a total screw up! Can you imagine how that made Dave Mustaine feel, knowing the history between Megadeth and Metallica? Just goes to show how totally clueless the Grammy’s are when it comes to this genre of music. At least Megadeth finally got the respect that they deserve. Megadeth has always been my favorite of the Big 4. Even if Megadeth really is only Mustaine along with whatever hired guns he has playing with him at the moment, they have never really disappointed me the way Metallica did with Load and Re-Load. Hell, I even sort of liked Risk, and I haven’t played that one in years! Dystopia is a KILLER album, and kudos to them for finally winning a Grammy!
Yes but Dave’s twitter response was brilliant. When asked about it he said the orchestra couldn’t play Megadeth so they had to settle on Metallica.
Metallica has financial success and is one of the most popular rock bands ever. They are at a point in their careers where, I think, they feel can they can do whatever the hell they please. Also, I think playing with Gaga was a strategic business decision, not a music decision, to appeal to younger audiences to continue their longevity. Metallica has been using a very strategic business model throughout their careers, and I credit Lars and his business acumen for a lot of Metallica’s success. People may continue to “bag” on Lars drumming skills, but his drumming was good enough to contribute, musically, to the band and help pioneer a genre of heavy music.
Gaga showed she has a real strong voice, and I enjoyed her singing Metallica’s “Moth Into Flame”. I didn’t care for the dancing production that accompanied the performance, but hey, that’s show business.