Did Metallica Aim To Fire Lars Ulrich?
Anthrax have denied that their guitarist, Scott Ian, once confided to Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine that Metallica plotted to kick out drummer Lars Ulrich.
In an interview with RollingStone.com, Mustaine – who was a member of Metallica for fewer than two years in 1981-1983 – was asked if, as far as he knows, it is true that on the last Metallica tour bassist Cliff Burton was on before he died, the band were planning to fire Ulrich at the tour’s end.
“That’s what Scott [Ian] told me,” Mustaine replied. “He said that when Metallica got home, that James [Hetfield], Cliff [Burton] and Kirk [Hammett] were going to fire Lars.”
According to a short message posted on Anthrax’s official Twitter account, Mustaine’s claim is “not true.”
The post adds, “Little does anyone know but Lars actually owns the [Metallica] name. Good luck ever kicking him out.”
Hmm. We’re so sure about this.
In pre-Classic Rock days, a few of us from Kerrang! went out for a drink with Scott Ian and [Anthrax drummer] Charlie Benante, circa 1986.
We distinctly remember Ian pretty much telling us that Metallica were thinking of changing drummers, although not blatantly. So, we suspect Mustaine isn’t making this up…
Meanwhile, Mustaine undergoes surgery today to mend his injured back and neck.
In a blog posting, the singer reveals he has been suffering excruciating pain and will check into hospital for an operation to fix damaged vertebrae in time for the band’s upcoming tour, which kicks off in September.
Mustaine will then undergo more serious surgery later in the year, when the roadshow is over.
OMONOIA LAOS DOUBLE
Scott’s right, how could they fire the guy who started the band anyway!!
Typical Mustaine bullshit!!
Who cares what happened 20 years ago! I think that this is irresponsible, lazy journalism. Did we really need to know anyway? Slow news day eh boys!!!
so what ! so f****n what ! it was ages ago.
I think its quite interesting actually, cheers Classic Rock. Ulrich is kind of hopeless…and Mustaine doesn’t normally bulls**t people. Will admit there’s a grudge there, though.
Here’s an idea…
Let’s all chip in and hire Wembley Stadium for a night, invite Megadeth & Metallicock to play there one night but not tell either one the other one is playing…
Let’s all be in the crowd, clapping and cheering, pretending to be interested, and have them both come on stage simultaneously…
Then when the inevitable clash of egos happens right there on stage, all of us in the crowd quietly trickle out on tippy-toe so they don’t notice…
And when the last one of us is out, we slam the doors shut, weld them from the outside and leave both of them clashing their egos in there until the end of time…
…and just go back to having the FA Cup in Cardiff!
i hope ulrich was fired….. i don’t really like dave, but i hate lars more.
what does it matter? the best band to come out of the 80’s and someone is bitching about the lineup.. they wouldn’t be where they are without lars.. and they won’t be as good as they we’re with cliff!