Lars Ulrich’s old passion for Oasis

The drummer of the MetallicaLars Ulrich He’s been a fan since the very beginning of Oasisas he explained to the British newspaper The Guardian in an interview about ten years ago, revealing how he learned of the existence of the future prophets of Britpop.

Ulrich said he first came into contact with the Gallagher brothers by reading an interview with them and then, later, hearing a song by them on the radio.

“In 1994 I was looking through an issue of a magazine called Select and there was a story about an English band, with some unusual looking guys, who I had never heard of. I looked at the article and was quite amused by the fact that every other word was either ‘fuck’ or ‘pussy’. There was a fairly detailed description of a conversation between one of the guys in the band, Noel Gallagher, and Paul Weller, which was particularly vulgar and very, very funny. It oozed nonchalance, which at the time, at the height of the ‘I can’t handle being a rock star’ shoegazing attitude that was very fashionable, was very invigorating.”

A few weeks later the drummer of Metallica was driving through the streets of San Francisco listening to the radio station Live 105 when he heard a song by the Oasis. “It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. The attitude, the detachment and the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ came out of the speakers and by the time the verse, bridge and chorus were finished, I was convinced that whatever I was hearing had to be by that band I’d read about in Select a few weeks earlier. I was sure of it. It was Oasis with the single ‘Supersonic’. Thus began a long and very rewarding relationship with a sound, an approach and a way of looking at the world that has had a huge impact on me and helped shape who I am today… for what that’s worth.”

He goes on to explain: “The Oasis phenomenon crosses all shapes, sizes, borders and classes. Everyone knew Oasis and was influenced by them in some way. If they didn’t like them, it was often the opposite. Everyone had an opinion about them. Everyone had a thought. Nobody ignored them. Nobody.”

Lars Ulrich
he even ended up joining the Manchester band’s crew one night. “I did the lights for them at a club gig in the spring of ’95 in some godforsaken hole, that was a highlight of my early encounters. They didn’t have a crew member to man the lighting board and I was the only one in the place who knew the songs.”