Lars Ulrich: Moscow 1991 Is a “Mindf**k” Of A Concert To Watch | Conan O'Brien Needs A Freind

I wanted to. um just to speak to the uh just the. incredible endurance of your uh of your. fan base and how loyal they are and how. it just uh has it it grew and grew and. grew and then they've always been with. you and they've followed you the the. whole way I mean your your the shows the. number of people that you play to you. played one show in Rush at a 1.6 million. people. um I believe it was a free show and I. think that was a mistake.

I. don't know if the money at that time was. worth anything. but uh it was right in the wake of the. perestroika yeah transitional thing I. mean it was so it was negotiated between. I think it was a Gorbachev maybe Yeltsin. was coming into power at the time and it. was negotiated between the students and. the people running the uprisings and the. demonstrations and the government in. that period of transition that part of. what they wanted the students wanted was.

a rock and roll show and so AC DC and. Metallica were on tour uh in Western. Europe that whole summer and two three. weeks before the end of the tour they. want you to come to Russia and plan at. that time I mean this is just a couple. years after Reagan uh you know Bush. senior was president and it was still. you know the evil Russians and and all. of that stuff and they're gonna you know. drop nuclear bombs on you next week and. and I mean there was all that that crazy.

stuff so going to Russia. was like holy but here we are here. we are on the Red Square here we are. running around seeing you know the. sights and the Kremlin and and then we. were there for maybe three days and then. played that insane show uh we weren't. really prepared for what that was going. to be but we had the camera crew led by. Wayne Isham and and his cohorts and they. filmed it and if you go to YouTube now. it is among the most.

surreal and extraordinary footage of. Metallica ever because like you're. saying it is Metallica and whether it's. a million people a million and a half. who knows what the real number is but. there are tens of thousands of Russian. soldiers in uniform that are supposed to. be protecting the audience and there as. into the show and rocking along as all. the kids are there are Sikorsky. helicopters flying right over the. audience I don't know if it's a scarecot.

tactic or where they're keeping people. whatever it is but these giant Sikorsky. helicopters hovering right over the. audience looked like people could just. Reach Out And Touch them and it is. um it's a real mind of a concert to. watch I guess 30 years later so if. anybody out there listening check it out. on YouTube. to me it's the power of. um and I'm going to want to talk about. how I love the your origin story is so. amazing and your fans all know it but I. want to make sure my fans know your.

origin story because it is absolutely. incredible but to think that it started. out. two guys fighting each other. um you know putting ads in the paper. recycler yeah. and and then what happens is you end up. getting uh you can unify all these. people uh in in Russia at a very. delicate time I mean we could really use. that today obviously but getting 1.6. million people to come to a concert and. I think a lot of them were chaining.

around they know the lyrics they know. the words they know the syncopation of. all the songs and it's because it was. all from bootleg tapes because there was. no record industry in the Eastern Europe. at the time but the unifying power of. that the unifying power of uh you know. any kind of art form but especially uh. the music of Metallica just worldwide is. a very positive thing yeah you know it's. pretty critical I'll tell you another. version of that that comes to mind uh.

first is uh we've played down in Abu. Dhabi and Dubai a couple two three times. and um great great place to come and. play primarily because. the fans come in from Iran they come in. from Iraq they come in from Saudi they. come in from Kuwait they come in from. Lebanon they come in from Bahrain they. come in from Syria they come in from all. over the Middle East and you're playing. to 30 40 000 kids we've done it two or. three times and they all bring their.

Flags their national flags and the. Iranians and the Iraqis and the Saudis. and everybody else are sharing an. experience together right and in that. Arena. they all are completely United around. the music and and and kind of there's a. brotherly feeling of all of us in this. together including the band members and. then outside of that Arena I don't need. to. to tell you guys you know these. countries not only don't like each other.

but hate each other and fight Wars over. religion and territory on the rest of it. so. it does speak to to the power of music. uh and and and what the possibilities. are in a lot of of places in the world. uh you know we've played in India we've. played in you know places like Indonesia. Malaysia Antarctica didn't you we we. played Antarctica yes we were there was. uh and it was it was it was by chance it. it was not something that we sat down.

well in you know two years from now. let's check all the seven continent. boxes it wasn't like that we were. playing somewhere we're playing. somewhere else we're playing and then we. were five or six into it and somebody. said well hang on a second if we're. gonna do this then let's do it and we. got an offer uh from um. I think it was Coca-Cola uh they were. doing a contest for Latin America and. they invited us to come down and play. for contest winners on a Chilean.

research base in Antarctica and so we. flew down and we're on a. talk about different bring different. nationalities together we were on a. Russian Icebreaker on a Chilean anchored. off a Chilean research base playing to. Argentina Argentinian Chilean and. Brazilian Coca-Cola contest winners in a. space that was maybe twice of the room. we're in right and there was a small. room yeah it was uh it was a tent that.

was set up and on top of that uh. everybody in the audience had headphones. on like we all do now because it was. silent disco style because uh part of. the part of the part of part of the deal. was we couldn't disturb the environment. and the Penguins and and all the. incredible Wildlife down there so the. only thing you could hear in that tent. uh where the drums or the acoustic drums. and James's vocals but all the. amplifiers everything that was Amplified.

the guitar is the bass Etc were all. going through these uh sort of boxes. into everybody's headphones so you put. all those elements together and that was. one of the most unique three or four. days ever and on top of it the band. members and all our wonderful crew and. all the contest winners were staying on. that Icebreaker together so it was a. real communal experience and and we all. had our meals together and if anybody. wanted a beverage or post your drink or. whatever we go down the bar right and it.

was the 200 contest winner it was one of. the best uh trips we've ever had like. one guy asked for a Pepsi exactly.