Lars Ulrich (born December 26, 1963) is the drummer and co-founder of
Metallica. He was born in Gentofte, Denmark to a middle-class family. A tennis prodigy in his youth, Ulrich moved to Los Angeles, California at age seventeen to pursue his training, but instead of playing tennis, he ended up as a drummer. After publishing an advertisement in a local Los Angeles newspaper called The Recycler, he met James Hetfield and formed
Metallica.
BIOGRAPHY
Lars's father, Torben Ulrich, who was an acclaimed tennis pro from the late 1970s into the early 1980s, was also a musician, playing jazz with such giants as Stan Getz and Miles Davis; legendary saxophonist Dexter Gordon is Ulrich's godfather. In February 1973, Torben Ulrich obtained five passes for five of his friends to a
Deep Purple concert that was being held in the same Copenhagen stadium as one of his tournaments. When it was discovered that one of the friends could not go, their ticket was handed over to the nine year-old Lars. The young Ulrich found himself mesmerized by the performance, buying the band's Fireball album the very next day. The concert and the album had a considerable impact on Ulrich, inspiring his entrance into the world of rock and roll and later on, heavy metal. As a result of his newfound interest in music, he received his first drum kit at the age of thirteen, a Ludwig.
In 1981, Ulrich met James Hetfield in Downey, California and formed the thrash metal band
Metallica. Ulrich's early work with
Metallica led him to be dubbed as one of the thrash metal scene's drumming greats. He became known for his pioneering fast thrash drum beats and techniques featuring on many of
Metallica's early songs, such as "Metal
Militia" (from
Kill 'Em All), "
Fight Fire with Fire" (Ride the
Lightning), "Dyers Eve" (...And
Justice for All), and "Battery" (
Master of Puppets). He has since been considerably influential due to both the popularity of his band and his interesting drum techniques and styles such as the machine-gun double bass in the song "One" (...And
Justice for All) and the pounding opening of "Enter Sandman" (
Metallica).
NAPSTER CONTROVERSY
In 2000, Ulrich faced criticism when he was one of the first artists to take direct action against Napster. In July 2000, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee after
Metallica's entire catalogue was found to be freely available for download on the service. There was mass outcry from Napster users. No one ended up getting sued for copyright infringement, and the case was settled out-of-court, resulting in more than 300,000 Napster users being banned from the service.
PERSONAL LIFE
Ulrich has been married twice. His first marriage, to Debbie, an English woman, ended around 1990 during the making of
Metallica also known as "
The Black Album". In March 2004, Ulrich separated from Skylar Satenstein (an emergency medicine physician), to whom he was previously married for seven years and had two sons, Myles (b. August 5, 1998) and Layne (b. May 6, 2001).
Ulrich is dating Danish actress Connie Nielsen and they had their first child, Bryce Thadeus Ulrich-Nielsen, born in San Francisco on May 21 2007. Nielsen also has another son named
Sebastian (b. 1991).
EQUIPMENT
Ulrich is an endorser of Tama drums, Zildjian cymbals and Remo drumheads. He has said: "Zildjian cymbals are not just the best cymbals, but the ONLY cymbals". He is rarely, if ever, seen without these brands onstage. He has, however, been known to use a mixture of brands when recording in the studio, including Ludwig-Musser drums, Gretsch drums and Sabian cymbals. Ulrich was an endorsee of Calato Regal Tip drumsticks, but changed to Easton Ahead in 1994. Tama Drums has produced two signature snare drums, one with a steel shell (with diamond plate-like finish) and another made out of bell brass which currently is Tama's most expensive snare drum on the regular catalogue. Both snare drums measure 6.5x14.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Ulrich
