Lars Ulrich recently chatted with Mary Anne Hobbs of BBC, discussing how Metallica used to be ‘cynical’ towards TV productions and why they never expected ‘Master of Puppets‘ to blow up on ‘Stranger Things.’
The topic first started off with the host asking Ulrich whether he was excited by younger audiences discovering Metallica through ‘Stranger Things,’ and the drummer delved into how they’d never seen the success coming:
“It’s very exciting, it’s unexpected. So many people asked, ‘Did you know?’ No, we didn’t. We didn’t know, you never know with these things.”
He then further opened up about how Metallica’s ‘cynical’ stance towards film and TV productions have changed in the last couple of years:
“We kinda done a 180° on our band, I don’t know when, maybe a couple of three, five years ago. We would just say no to everything before the question was even asked. So, a lot of synced requests just knew we weren’t interested in sharing these songs. We were cynical of that whole world.”
Ulrich carried on by explaining the band’s intention to be more ‘supportive’ of TV and filmmakers:
“And a few years ago, it was like, ‘Why are we like that? Why don’t we share the music and why don’t we support other creative diverse outlets and younger filmmakers, and independent filmmakers, and TV shows?’ And, now, we say yes to pretty much everything.”
The drummer then explained how he’d heard about ‘Stranger Things’ while reexpressing his surprise over becoming a ‘phenomenon’ among the younger audiences:
“And, obviously, I know ‘Stranger Things’ from my kids and [I] was aware of the phenomenon, but we didn’t know that it was gonna be phenomena at this level. Who would’ve known? Nobody would know that.’”
Lars then expressed how although Metallica was aware of Kate Bush’s success with ‘Running Up That Hill’ on ‘Stranger Things,’ the act still didn’t think ‘Master of Puppets’ would also blow up. He said:
“We certainly had heard and [I] was aware of the Kate Bush element. The fact that a 37-year-old heavy metal song, that [is] close to 9 minutes, could connect with the younger generation at the level it did last summer… It’s just beyond explaining.”
Still, it seems that Lars isn’t the only one feeling surprised by ‘Master of Puppets’ success and resurfacing through ‘Stranger Things,’ as James Hetfield also, previously, made this clear, saying how he found the now prominent connection between the Netflix show and their track ‘bizarre.’
Metallica also received backlash from some ‘Stranger Things’ fans as well, as you can check out right here to see what displeased fans over the band’s track.
