When ‘Hardwired… To Self Destruction’ came out in 2016; James Hetfield revealed a fight he had with Lars Ulrich during its recording sessions in a chat with Metal Hammer. He said that they didn’t talk for a week after he called Ulrich ‘riff police’ for meddling with the guitar parts.
Reportedly, the drummer and the vocalist repeatedly had similar fights throughout Metallica’s career. In fact, in a 2021 chat with The Howard Stern Show, Ulrich revealed that their conflicts even included punches. He said Hetfield punched him in the stomach for starting a song with drums despite his opposition during the band’s ‘first encore show.’
In contrast to that, the drummer mentioned a change in their relationship with a few drinks in the early years during the 2004 movie, ‘Some Kind Of Monster,’ by saying:
“There was one time during the recording of the ‘Ride the Lightning’ record when him and I went out and 42 beers later, ‘Dude, I love you!’ But it could never materialize until it got to that 42 beer point. And we were alone.”
Ulrich also explained that he received his bandmate’s support in many situations in his past chats, although disputes occurred between them occasionally, especially in the ‘St. Anger’ era, which Hetfield called his ‘freak-out period.’ Still, while talking to Rolling Stone in 2016, the Metallica vocalist commented on his relationship with the drummer as follows:
“The relationship with Lars, we’ve been friends for a long time; it’s lasted longer than all the marriages in the band. God, we hate each other, and we love each other, and it morphs, it changes, but at the end of the day, we realize this works. And we’re a good team, man. Trusting him: ‘Yeah, I’ve got 800 riffs, and here they are. You edit them, you pick out the good stuff.’”
In the end, the two celebrated their 40th year in Metallica two years ago and went on to release a new album with the band earlier this year. Currently, they are on the road to support ’72 Seasons’ with a world tour called ‘M72.’
