The cries of Metallica being all about the money have been numerous and lasting since 1991's Black Album, but drummer Lars Ulrich says that couldn't be further from the truth.
In an interview with Sonar FM, Ulrich says the misconception that Metallica is money hungry stems from the band's 2000 lawsuit against Napster… because I guess not wanting people to outright not pay for your hard work is greedy?
"After all the Napster stuff, the preconception that Metallica is greedy and cares about money and is money-hungry and money-driven or whatever. That's a very big misconception. Also, [the misconception] that Metallica doesn't care about technology. That's completely wrong. I have 37 Apple products just in my carry-on bag."
Now we need a followup interview to know what the hell Ulrich is toting around in his bag. Maybe that's where Kirk Hammett lost his phone! Did anyone check in Lars's bag?!
All kidding aside, our very own Robert Pasbani tackled this issue last year in an article covering Lars Ulrich calling other bands "pussies" when it came to Napster (they were pussies to Lars because they would complain behind closed doors about the service but never say anything publicly.) At the time, Rob wrote:
Over time, I've come to realize, that Metallica was not going after its fans. Metallica were going after a startup organization that was taking millions of dollars of funding to create a product on the backs of copyright holders, without compensating those artists. In the excellent 2013 documentary about Napster, Downloaded, co-founder Sean Parker says that this was all just a small project that started in a dorm, and the reason nobody in the music industry was reached to work out a deal was simply because they did not know anybody in the music industry. They were just kids, in over their heads.
I feel like Napster lives on in Spotify, which is legal, and is paying out musicians and proudly streams Metallica. But, by Metallica coming out in front of this thing, they were painted, perhaps unfairly, as the villains.
[via Ultimate Guitar]
