STONE SOUR guitarist Josh Rand believes that METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich is a “great” drummer who does “unique things” behind the kit.
As of late, it’s become somewhat of a trend within hard rock and metal to dump on the METALLICA drummer’s skills, however Rand says that he has always had a tremendous amount of respect for Lars.
“Here’s the thing. They’re my favorite band,” Josh told Australia’s Heavy (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “He takes a lot of shit from everybody. For one, it’s not like he’s a spring chicken anymore — let’s be honest. I mean, he’s starting to get up there [in age]. They play for two and a half hours. They were road dogs for how many years now and how many shows. And everybody [goes], ‘Oh, this and that.’ He still had to record those songs. So even if you wanna make the argument of, ‘He struggles now to play this or he plays that,’ I’m, like, he still wrote it 30 years ago. And back then, there was no Pro Tools, so he had to play it.”
Josh added: “I think he’s a great drummer. I think he does several unique things in his style that nobody else does that always stuck out to me.”
In 2020, Ulrich said that he wasn’t bothered by people’s criticism of his drumming abilities, telling METALLICA’s So What! fan-club magazine: “I’m so over — I’m literally immune to it. We just did a bunch of interviews, and sometimes, if I am being interviewed by a journalist who is also a fan, they’ll say, ‘When people say Lars Ulrich is a shitty drummer, I defend you.’ Which is cool, but I’ve got to tell you, 20 years later, 30 years later, it just doesn’t register anymore. I am so comfortable with who I am, I’m so comfortable with who METALLICA is, I’m so comfortable with our place in all of it. I’ve got an incredible wife, three great kids, my dad and [his partner] Molly, incredible friends, and lots of cool acquaintances. It’s all good. I’ve got nothing left to prove, so it just doesn’t register anymore.”