Lars Ulrich

Lars Ulrich (born December 26, 1963) is a Danish drummer and one of the founding members of the American heavy metal band Metallica. He was born in Gentofte, Denmark to an upper-middle-class family. A tennis player in his youth (he is the son of former tennis pro Torben Ulrich), Ulrich moved to Los Angeles, California at age sixteen in the summer of 1980 to pursue his training; though rather than playing tennis, he began playing the drums. After publishing an advertisement in a local Los Angeles newspaper called The Recycler, Ulrich met James Hetfield and formed Metallica. --- Lars Ulrich was born on December 26, 1963. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon was Ulrich's godfather. In February 1973, Lars' father Torben obtained five passes for five of his friends to a Deep Purple concert that was being held in the same Copenhagen stadium as one of his tournaments. When it was discovered that one of the friends could not go, their ticket was handed over to the nine year-old Ulrich. The young Ulrich found himself mesmerized by the performance, buying the band's Fireball album the next day. The concert and the album had a considerable impact on Ulrich, inspiring his entrance into the world of rock and roll and later on, heavy metal. As a result of his newfound interest in music, he received his first drum kit from his grandmother at the age of twelve, a Ludwig. Ulrich originally intended to play tennis, and he moved to America in 1980. In 1981, Ulrich discovered British heavy metal band Diamond Head. He was excited about the band's style of music after purchasing its debut album Lightning to the Nations (1980). He traveled from San Francisco to London to see the band perform live at the Woolwich Odeon. However, Ulrich had not planned the trip out properly and was left without anywhere to go after the performance. He managed to meet the band backstage and explain the lengths he had taken to see them. The band warmed to him and lead guitarist Brian Tatler let him stay with him in his home town of Stourbridge, where Ulrich spent the next few weeks sleeping on Tatler's floor in his house. Ulrich remains a fan of Diamond Head and mixed its album The Best of Diamond Head. Upon returning to America, Ulrich placed an ad in a local newspaper looking for musicians to start a band with him. James Hetfield replied to the ad and Metallica was formed. --- Later in 1981, Ulrich met James Hetfield in Downey, California and they formed the heavy metal band Metallica. He got the name "Metallica" from a friend, Ron Quintana, who was brainstorming names for a heavy metal fanzine he was creating, and Metallica was one of the options, the other being "Metal Mania". Lars encouraged him to choose Metal Mania, and used the name Metallica for himself.[citation needed] He became known as a pioneer of fast thrash drum beats, featured on many of Metallica's early songs, such as "Metal Militia" from Kill 'Em All, "Fight Fire with Fire" from Ride the Lightning, "Battery" and "Damage Inc." from Master of Puppets and "Dyers Eve" from ...And Justice for All. He has since been considerably influential due to both the popularity of his band, as well as his drum techniques, such as the double bass drum in the song "One" (...And Justice for All) and the opening of "Enter Sandman" (Metallica). Since the release of Metallica, Ulrich adopted a less focused and simplified style of drumming, and reduced his kit from a 9-piece to a 7-piece. Ulrich's voice can be heard in the opening seconds of "Leper Messiah" and he also counts to four in his native Danish on the St. Anger music video. He made his acting debut in the HBO original film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which began filming in March 2011 and was released on May 28, 2012. Ulrich made a brief cameo appearance as himself in the film Get Him to the Greek, as the partner of the character Jackie Q. In 2012, Ulrich was the focus of the documentary film, "Mission to Lars". The film by Kate and Will Spicer concerns their journey with their brother, Tom, who lives in a care home in Devon, England and who has Fragile X Syndrome, to try to meet Lars at one of Metallica's 2009 gigs in California. Ulrich was also ranked #5 on the top 5 metal drummers from That Metal Show. --- Ulrich has been married twice. His first marriage was in 1988 to Debbie Jones, a British woman he met on tour, but divorced in 1990 due to Ulrich's constant absence during the recording of Metallica. His second marriage was to Skylar Satenstein, an emergency medicine physician, from 1997 to 2004. They have two sons, Miles (b. 1998), and Layne (b. 2001). Ulrich dated Danish actress Connie Nielsen from mid-2004 until 2012, after his divorce from Skylar and the couple had their first child, Bryce Thadeus Ulrich-Nielsen, (b. 2007) in San Francisco. Nielsen also has another son named Sebastian (b. 1991). Ulrich is currently engaged to fashion model Jessica Miller.