Lars Ulrich: "I've never been very interested in ability"

One drummer who gets a lot of flack for his playing style/ability is Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. He has become sort of a running joke in the metal community for his lack of skill and his tool-like personality. In a new interview he apparently does not seem to care.

When asked about how he feels about his style of drumming when interviewed by the Polar Music Prize, Ulrich says:

"I've never been very interested in ability. 'Oh, wow! This guy is so great!' Yeah, he's so great, but it doesn't mean that he can make it swing, or it doesn't mean that he can make it work within a group or a collective."

What's always the most interesting to me about drumming is how do you fit the drums into what else is going on? How does it work [with] accents and special hits and kind of things that make it more rhythmic or more dynamic or just add a kind of a physicality to it?

I've looked at drums as more of a group instrument. I've never been very interested in playing drums by myself — you know, sitting down in a basement, practicing drum solos for hours at a time, that's not my thing."

It's no surprise that Lars feels this way or at least expresses this. When your back is against the wall for being the butt of so many jokes you have to find some way to talk your way into a position where you don't look as bad. That said, I still don't blame people for making said jokes.