Lars Ulrich Gets Misty-Eyed Over AC/DC as He Launches New SiriusXM Deep Dive

Summary

• Lars Ulrich kicks off his new show, Lars’ Deep Dive, by geeking out over AC/DC’s massive legacy and hidden gems.
• The Metallica drummer got ‘misty-eyed’ watching the rock legends return at Power Trip, calling the performance a total ’triumph’.
• Lars names Let There Be Rock as the band’s rawest peak, specifically praising the ‘f-ing heaviest’ deep cut ‘Overdose’.

Metallica is everywhere, man. But if the usual radio hits aren’t enough for you, their dedicated SiriusXM channel, Maximum Metallica, is still churning out the goods.

We’re talking deep cuts, live recordings from the vault, and the kind of behind-the-scenes stories that only the guys in the band can actually tell.

Lars Ulrich has been using the platform to get a little nerdy lately, specifically taking a deep dive into the legendary AC/DC.

During a recent stint on the air, Lars took a trip down memory lane to talk about seeing the rock titans at the Power Trip festival in Indio, California.

It was a massive moment, mostly because it marked the return of Brian Johnson to the stage after that whole hearing loss nightmare that saw Axl Rose filling in for a few years.

For Lars, seeing Brian back where he belongs was nothing short of a “triumph.”

He isn’t exactly a newcomer to the fan club, either.

During an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation Power Trip Special,” Lars reminisced about his long history with the band:

“I saw ’em here [at Coachella in Indio]. I think they played here in ‘15, so eight years ago. And I saw ’em in San Francisco later that year. And obviously, as a lifelong fan, I mean, I saw AC/DC back in Denmark opening for BLACK SABBATH in ‘76 or ‘77. And then they came back on ‘Let There Be Rock’ tour and played a 1,500-seat venue with no support act and basically played all of ‘Let There Be Rock’. And it was literally f-ing mind-blowing. And then I saw them along the way, when I came to America, obviously, on and off, and we played with them for a whole tour on the Black Album in ‘91.”

Watching Angus Young tear across the stage at Power Trip apparently hit Lars right in the feels.

He talked about getting “misty-eyed” watching the crowd rally around the guitar icon, describing a sense of unity in the metal community that you just don’t see anywhere else.

He also pointed out that Brian Johnson looked like he was having the time of his life, sporting a “shit-eating grin” that made the whole performance feel special.

It makes sense why Lars would be so hyped, though.

Earlier in the month, he admitted that AC/DC, along with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, are basically the reason Metallica exists in the first place.

Seeing all those heavyweights in the same desert location was, in his words, “awe-inspiring.”

But the real gold came when Lars started geek-ing out over the technical side of AC/DC’s 1977 masterpiece, Let There Be Rock.

For Lars, that’s the peak of their discography, the heaviest, rawest, and most energetic thing they’ve ever put to tape.

He loves the “unpolished” feel of it, the sound of amps buzzing and the band counting in the songs.

“Obviously, this is before AC/DC hooked up with [producer] Mutt Lange on the ‘Highway To Hell’ album and started crafting to perfection the idea of the three-to-four-minute rock song as a radio hit. Here, it was the perfect balance of two guitars: just endless guitar solos and the riffs and Angus and Malcolm [Young] playing. A lot of the songs would start with one guy playing a riff, the other guy playing open chords. Then, after 16 bars or 32 bars or whatever, both guitars would lock in on the same riff. Then Bon [Scott] would come in with these cheeky, great, almost cartoon-like lyrics about women and bad behavior and illicit experiences.”

He even shouted out “Overdose” as his favorite deep cut, calling it “the f-ing heaviest thing ever” when the guitars finally lock in together.

Apparently he hasn’t had the guts to ask Angus why they never play it live yet, but hey, maybe that’s a conversation for his next SiriusXM special.

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