Lars Ulrich: "We've Always Been Fiercely Independent and Controlling"

Rolling Stone caught up with Metallica at their Record Store Day signing event in northern California late last week. Drummer Lars Ulrich dialed us up to discuss the event and chatted about recording with Rick Rubin, bonding with his kids over Guitar Hero and learning to love the Web.

You went through four boxes of Sharpies signing autographs on Record Store Day. Can you talk about that marathon meet and greet?
I think the intense energy and all the love carried us through. I didn't even take a pee break! It's probably the longest we've gone for as long as I can remember. We used to be like, "Where's the beer? Fire up the Misfits!" It would be a lot more reckless. Now it's more personal and less about you and your beer needs. It's funny. You're at home chilling out in your backyard, being a parent, and driving your kids around town and you conveniently forget. At 9 a.m., I spent ten minutes wiping the shit off my nine-month old. At 12 p.m., I was in the dog park cleaning up dog shit. Then you get into a car drive down to Mountain View and go, "Holy shit!" By 2 p.m., they're saying how amazing you are. It's easy to forget in your own little bubble.

What did you take away from the fans this time?
I would say the main thing is that it continues to reinforce how varied metal fans are; how difficult it is to define who they are. You are talking about fans that cross all lines of age, gender and cultural backgrounds — it's not categorizable. You see parents there with their kids who say they finally found something in common through Metallica. I walked away totally humbled, whereas in my twenties and thirties there's these big black holes. I didn't remember walking away with that feeling.

You signed a lot of Guitar Hero controllers. Is that cool?
It's fucking way cool. Our kids love playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It's awesome. There's something really positive coming out of video games. It's so cool to sit there and have your kids talk to you about Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and Soundgarden.

What made Metallica want to be part of Record Store Day?
It was a no-brainer for us. It took three seconds to decide to do it. The record store has been such a huge part of our lives. When I was twelve, fourteen years old in Denmark, the record store was the Holy Grail and the guy who worked there was my hero. I would go two to three times a week and get Judas Priest, Accept, Triumph; this guy was like a God to me. In America it was places in San Francisco like the Record Vault where we'd sell our demos, T-shirts, hang out.

How would you feel on the day the last record store in America closed?
I'd do my best to try and be there playing "Fade to Black" as the last song, but I don't think it'll come to that. iTunes? I'm there as much as everyone else, I'm not against that. If you look at vinyl, fifteen years ago CDs came out and yet it continues to make more of a comeback. I don't think you'll be able to kill the record store, at least not in major cities. I'm worried about the smaller cities. I'm against these soulless megastores.