POP MUSIC : Views From Inside Rock’s Dream Team : LARS ULRICH / METALLICA

Lars Ulrich doesn’t like messages in music, but the Metallica drummer speaks about hard rock with a passion and commitment that is reminiscent of the Who’s Pete Townshend.

Son of Danish tennis professional Torben Ulrich, Lars was living in Newport Beach in the early ‘80s when he and singer James Hetfield formed Metallica. The group’s music--influenced by the dark, threatening sounds of British bands that mixed punk and metal--was far from that of the flimsy, glam-conscious Hollywood bands that were popular at the time.

Despite receiving almost no radio airplay, the band was hailed by critics as a thinking person’s metal group and last year broke into the rock mainstream with its highly accessible “Metallica” album.

Drinking mineral water in the bar of a chic hotel here on the eve of the Giants Stadium concert, Ulrich, 28, spoke about Guns N’ Roses, Metallica and rock ‘n’ roll statements.

Question: Do you feel any sort of battle of the bands competition between you and Guns N’ Roses on the tour?

Answer: Yes, but in a positive sense. This tour came along at exactly the right moment for us because we had done 140 shows on our own in America and sometimes you need something to inspire you or force you into giving a little more of yourself.

Knowing Guns is going to be on the same stage each night is something that pushes you to another level of playing--and I’m sure the same is true for them. The couple of nights I’ve watched them on the tour, I think they’ve played at a higher level than when I saw them on their own.

Q: Did you think there would be a problem when Metallica and Guns fans got together?

A: No, because I think the real Guns N’ Roses fans and the real Metallica fans are a lot closer than people think. I’m talking about our foundation audiences--the first 2 or 3 million people who buy “Metallica” or who buy (Guns’) “Use Your Illusion” albums. Those fans share a lot of attitudes that the bands share . . . in terms of doing things your own way, not catering to what the music business tries to force bands to do.

The difference in the audiences becomes more marked when you get into the more casual fans . . . the ones who buy “Metallica” because they hear (the single) “Nothing Else Matters” on the radio or who get into Guns N’ Roses because of the success of “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”

Q: Any concerns that something might go wrong on the tour because of Axl Rose’s temperamental nature?

A: I always find it amusing that the minute you start saying Guns N’ Roses, everybody conjures up all these pictures that are the result of images and rumors. I know a lot of people said the tour will never happen or Axl’ll never show up, but I never had any worries. I know Axl and that when he really wants to do something, he can do it. Both bands have enough mutual respect for each other not to drag each other down.

Q: I understand you invited Nirvana to open the show before you invited Faith No More. What happened?

A: I don’t want to go into too much negative stuff about Nirvana but it was kind of annoying when they refused to go along because Nirvana is another band with attitudes similar to Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. They kept saying they didn’t know what they wanted to do with themselves and their career. They didn’t know if they wanted to play stadiums or even go on tour.

I couldn’t understand it. We were like saying, “Here’s the biggest tour of the summer. Come on out and you’ll play to 50,000 people four times a week. I mean, do you want to stick to playing clubs?”

Q: But wasn’t there a time when you could understand their reluctance? Didn’t you once worry about what it would do to your music by playing stadiums or opening for other bands?

A: No. We come from the total opposite side of that. Every time we got a chance to go play with somebody bigger than we were, we ran after the chance because we were doing something so different from what anybody else was doing that the only way we could reach more people was to play with bigger acts.

There we were opening for Van Halen, opening for Ozzy (Osbourne), opening for this, opening for that. We didn’t even have what Nirvana has, which is a high profile . . . the luxury of radio and MTV or anything. The only way to reach new fans was to go out and prove ourselves to people in concert. So we would never second guess a chance to go play with anybody else.

Q: Back in the ‘60s, the Beatles, the Stones and other bands said they were inspired by hearing each other’s new albums. Do you find that true today? Do you go into the studio trying to top something you’ve just heard from another band?

A: I listen to other albums, sure. But there’s a major difference between the recording scene now and in the ‘60s. In the ‘60s, the Beatles would put out records every six, nine months; same with the Stones. Nowadays, everything is more drawn out. By the time Metallica’s studio album No. 6 comes out, it’ll probably be 1995 because you tour longer than you used to and therefore you take longer breaks, plus you spend much longer in the studio.

So, sure, on one hand, I see Megadeth has a new album out and I see what it’s like. By the time we’re ready to even think about making a new record, their album will be old, too. So, there’s not the immediacy there was 20 years ago. The result is you become less concerned with what people are doing around you and more concerned with what is going on inside you.

Q: Have you been paying much attention to the election?

A: I’m not a citizen of the United States, so I can only speak as an observer, but I do follow the election and what I sense is people are finally realizing that Bush is mortal. No matter what the Republicans say about tax and spend liberals and how they are the only ones with family values, people seem ready to vote for change, and that means Clinton and Gore.

Q: Some people in the pop world have criticized Clinton’s choice of Gore as the vice president candidate because of his wife, Tipper Gore, and her efforts to bring about warning stickers on records. Do you share that feeling?

A: Would I invite her over to dinner? Probably not. But I also don’t share the feelings of all those who shudder and go, “Oh, Tipper Gore in the White House . . . how horrible.”

I know this is probably not going to be very popular with other people in the business, but I was not that worried about what she was doing because I still feel that wanting to label something is a long way from the whole idea of censorship even though they have been kind of lumped together.

Censorship, such as what has been happening to Ice-T, is scary. But does putting a sticker on a record scare me? No. What it really does for most of the kids--which I always think is a great paradox--the minute it says warning , kids are going to want the album all the more.

Q: Are you a fan of rap?

A: I couldn’t stand it when it first started getting popular in the ‘80s. I thought it was annoying and didn’t have any real attitude. But then I heard Ice-T’s “Colors” and I started getting into it.

I got a copy of the N.W.A.’s first album and it was one of the few times in the 17 or 18 years I’ve been listening to music that I can remember being instantly blown away by something. I was in a hotel room in Allentown, Pa., and I listened to the CD over headphones and it was just amazing.

For the next few months, I was heavily into N.W.A. and Ice-T, but I think rap has lost some of its edge and its attitude since then. It seemed that a lot of people were singing about this stuff and having the attitude just to have the attitude rather than having it genuinely.

Q: What about the social message of rap?

A: For me, the whole issue of message in music is a gray area. I think the best rap was the stuff that had an attitude without trying to force a message across. Rap that tries to tell us what we can do to help the inner cities looks noble on paper and it’ll get you some nice media support, but I just have problems with it because people kind of end up patting themselves on the back.

That’s what always bothers me. I think it’s great what Sting is doing for this or saving that, but the aspect of self-promotion always ends up coming along with it and that annoys me. Similarly, I think (U2’s) Bono has a lot to say in his lyrics, but the way he goes out of his way to try and get the point across outside of the music takes a little of the value away from it.

I personally don’t ever want to see Metallica get in a position where we get looked upon as the kind of band that will get up on a soapbox and start preaching and telling people what they should think about certain issues and stuff.

Q: But isn’t this tour a statement in itself--the fact that two quality headliners would join together to show that you don’t have to stick to business as usual? Isn’t there a message in that?

A: Yeah, of course, and part of the reason we are doing this tour is that it will give fans a chance to see how two bands can get together and do something unique, how they can sell millions of records and still do things their own way. But it’s nothing I want to make a speech about, and if no one in the audience even thinks about it from that perspective, it’s OK.