Prior to making their appearance at the Power Trip festival over the weekend, the members of Metallica – including drummer Lars Ulrich – rehearsed for several days to prepare for the gig. But that’s not how it always was.
Frontman James Hetfield has revealed that Ulrich went years without practicing – until recently.
“Lars never rehearsed ever until — I don’t know — I’d say maybe four or five years ago, he started really getting into rehearsing,” Hetfield says. “And now he’ll rehearse four days for a two-hour set, which is what he needs to do, which is awesome.”
Hetfield has not offered a reason for Ulrich’s longtime refusal to rehearse, however, he did share insight into the Power Trip rehearsals.
“So there was gonna be rehearsals [for Power Trip] down at HQ for a couple days beforehand. And I said, ‘I’m not gonna show up guys. I would love it if we could find a rehearsal place here [closer to Power Trip], ’cause I’d love to see all these other bands.’ And Robert got on board, and then we found a place over here in the polo grounds to rehearse,” Hetfield said.
“I’m grateful that Lars was up for it. So they did their rehearsals down there and then we came up and we have rehearsals and get to watch these bands.” Hetfield continued, “It’s so frickin’ cool to have your own compound at a festival for all the days of the festival…We show up, go rehearse, and then go out there and watch Iron Maiden. I mean, how cool is that?”
Metallica closed out the three-day festival on Sunday, following performances by Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, Judas Priest, AC/DC and Tool.