Metallica would welcome Coachella slot

Metallica onstage at New York's Webster Hall
Metallica onstage at New York's Webster Hall (Image credit: Getty)

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich says he’d like the band to play a set a Coachella at some point in the future.

Asked by the BBC’s Matt Everitt what’s left for Metallica to achieve in their careers, the sticksman says: “At this point, it’s just staying together, longevity. I tell you what, we’ve never played Coachella – that would be fun to do one day.”

When asked if they’d say yes if approached by organisers of the Californian festival, Ulrich responds: “Absolutely. If we can still keep buzzing around and continue to have one foot in relevance and one foot in the future.”

“Then at the same time, when you’re 35 years into what you’re doing, there has to be at least an acknowledgement of the past – we struggle with that quite a bit.”

Ulrich explains: “For maybe the first couple of decades of our career we were maybe fearful of repetition so when Rick Rubin showed up in our lives about 10 years ago, he sat us down and basically encouraged us to feel good about our past and to embrace it and maybe even borrow from it.”

When asked what he thought people’s preconceptions of Metallica were, Ulrich adds: “That we live and breathe super heavy metal 24-hours a day and that we have devil horns coming out of our foreheads.

“That whole thing about us being the metal guys that eat metal for breakfast. We’re pretty chilled, normal dudes with a vast outlook on music – from jazz to classical, to pop to reggae. Metal is kind of what we gravitate towards and what we play, but most of us are borderline civilised people.”

Metallica’s 10th album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct is released on November 18 via the band’s own Blackened Recordings label, while they were recently confirmed as part of the lineup for the 2017 Lollapalooza festivals in Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

Prior to those dates next year, they’ll play two shows at the Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre, California, in October, before embarking on a tour of Latin America.

They played an intimate show at New York’s Webster Hall this week for their fan club members.

Metallica tour dates

Oct 22: Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre, CA
Oct 23: Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre, CA
Oct 26: San Juan Coliseo De Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico
Oct 29: Quito Parque Bicentenario, Ecuador
Nov 01: Bogota Hipodromo De Los Andes, Columbia
Nov 03: Guatemala City Estadio Cementos Progreso, Guatemala
Nov 05: San Jose Estadio Nacional, Costa Rica
Mar 25-26: Lollapalooza Brasil
Mar 31-Apr 01: Lollapalooza Argentina
Apr 01-02: Lollapalooza Chile

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Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.