Lars Ulrich brought the perfect jacket to Friday’s 31st Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. Draped in purple to induct Deep Purple, the Metallica drummer told a packed Barclays Center how the English rock band influenced him and his musical compatriots. “These guys could play, they could improvise, they were in constant and curious cutthroat competition with each other to take the music some place new, some place unknown, and never ever the same place twice,” he said. “With almost no exceptions, every hard rock band in the last 40 years, including mine, traces its lineage directly back to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. As far as I’m concerned, these three bands should always be considered equals for their songwriting, their recordings, and their accomplishments.” Watch his full speech below (and catch the honorees here):
Though Ulrich was on hand to support Deep Purple, Vulture also got a cryptic update on his own band’s long-awaited next album. “I’ve mastered the fine art of being very vague over multiple sentences, so let me tell you: There’s a record coming at some point, in the future. Not soon enough, but we are pretty close,” he told us offstage. “Unless something drastic happens, it will come out this year.” The follow-up to 2008’s Death Magnetic marks Metallica’s tenth studio album, one that has been teased as similar to its predecessor. “We should be done with it this spring,” Ulrich added. “I don’t know what else to say — there’s no title yet, there’s a bunch of songs, it sounds like Metallica, it’s all good!”
