Back in 2005, Metallica opened two shows for The Rolling Stones — but if you thought the two bands hung out backstage and partied, you’d be wrong. While chatting with Bill Maher for his Club Random podcast, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich revealed the band wasn’t even allowed to make eye contact with Mick Jagger.
Ulrich says the band was sitting backstage at what is now Oracle Park in San Francisco when an assistant told them Jagger was about to walk through to go to his gym and warm up, telling them, “’When he walks through here, please don’t make eye contact with him or talk to him.’”
While Lars says the Stones did take a picture with them, they didn’t exactly get a chance to bond.
“I had dreams, like, I thought, we’re gonna play with the Rolling Stones and you know where I’m gonna spend my whole time, in Keith Richards‘ hotel room, sitting doing those legendary parties ’til nine o’clock in the morning: I’ll be the last one to leave!” Ulrich said. “It wasn’t exactly like that.”
It did have a lasting effect on Ulrich, though, and informed the way he treated opening acts for the rest of their career. “I always go and say hello to our support act. I look them in the eye, I ask them if there’s anything they need,” he says. “It’s a human thing; if somebody comes out and plays on a Metallica stage, I want them to feel at home.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
