Creeping Youth: Lars Ulrich's been surprised by the young crowds on Metallica's stadium tour

Dan Weir

8 years ago

ABC/Randy Holmes

ABC/Randy HolmesAfter a two-week break, Metallica‘s summer tour resumes tonight, July 5 in Orlando, Florida. The trek is the metal icons’ first full-length North American stadium run in nearly 10 years, and drummer Lars Ulrich has been most surprised by the youth movement in the crowds.

“It feels like maybe half the audience has never seen Metallica before,” Ulrich tells ABC Radio. “That’s kind of crazy, that there’s still so many young kids showing up and…checking it out and being introduced to Metallica for the first time. So it’s a really cool thing.”

The other thing Ulrich’s been surprised by? How much people want to hear the songs from Metallica’s new album, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct.

“I think we’re playing an average of around five new songs a day. I think there’s a couple shows where we played six new songs,” says Ulrich. “It’s great! People are asking [that] we should play more new songs and different new songs.”

“Any time you’re in a rock n’ roll band and somebody wants to hear a new song…that’s a joyous occasion, trust me,” the drummer adds. “That’s not something that anybody should take for granted in 2017.”

There’s been a particular groundswell from fans for Metallica to play the Hardwired track “Spit Out the Bone.” While Ulrich doesn’t see the song making its live debut on this run — he thinks it would work better in a smaller venue — he’s not ruling it out.

“The last couple of weeks we’ve actually been practicing ‘Spit Out the Bone,'” says Ulrich. “So where there’s life, there’s hope, as they say.”