METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich has praised the Bon Scott era of AC/DC, saying the Australian hard rock legends’ onstage “energy was insane.”
Ulrich discussed his love for Angus Young and company while taking part in The Guardian ‘s “My Fantasy Festival” feature where he was asked to select a few artists he would invite to perform at an event he would hold if he could do anything he wanted.
He said: “I saw AC/DC with [deceased singer] Bon Scott four times, opening for BLACK SABBATH and RAINBOW and then playing their own shows in Copenhagen in 1977 and San Francisco in 1979, in my early teens. The energy was insane: Angus strutting across the stage, all guitar solos, sweat, hair, no shirt on and Bon Scott, also shirtless, tight jeans, the coolest frontman ever. To me the definition of rock ‘n’ roll attitude is AC/DC in those formative years.”
Ulrich‘s other choices for his “Fantasy Festival” included the early-1970s lineup of DEEP PURPLE, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, OASIS in their heyday, and the classic GUNS N’ ROSES lineup.
Back in 2017, Ulrich told Baltimore radio station 98 Rock that he would pick AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd to take over behind the kit for METALLICA if he was no longer able to play drums in the band. “He’s been probably my main, biggest source of inspiration when we did the turn-away from the super-progressive stuff, the crazy stuff after ‘Justice’, when we got into the ‘black album’ and the ‘Load’ stuff, when it got a little more about the bounce and the riffs and the feel and the groove and all that,” Lars said. “Phil Rudd, he’s the top of that pyramid. Hearing Phil Rudd play behind James [Hetfield], that’d be pretty cool.”
