Lars Ulrich Says Metallica Will Tour "Death Magnetic" Through 2010

Metallica's massive world tour behind Death Magnetic is still in its infancy, but Lars Ulrich has visions of it lasting beyond next year. "We're booked up through August of next year, and right now we're sort of laying out Fall of '09 and the Spring of '10," he says. "We're waiting for a few other countries to be actually formalized as nations so we can be the first band in. We're also waiting for the polar caps to stabilize so we can go play there. There's talk about some other planets too." As of now the band is on planet earth, playing American arenas for the first time in four years. "It's great to be back indoors," says Ulrich. "We're right in the thick of it in the middle of the arena. It completely exposes every nuance and that adds a real tone of vitality and excitement." The setlist is heavy on 1980s classics like "Master of Puppets" and "One" as well as about five songs from Death Magnetic. The setlist changes from night to night, but they always end with 1983's "Seek And Destroy." "We've probably ended our last 200 shows with that song," says Ulrich. "The 17 or 18 songs before that get mixed up every night, to the point of ridiculousness. So having a slight bit of predictability at the end gives people the chance star thinking about putting their coats on and remembering what fucking parking lot they were in."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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