Metallica: "The Best Years Are Still In Front Of Us Because We’re Just Getting Started…"

It's a damn good time to be a Metallica fan right now. Not only did the metal heroes just play two absolutely brilliant sold-out stadium shows in the UK last week, they also scooped a couple of Kerrang! Awards while they were at it: Best International Live Act (in association with Rizla) and Best International Act (in association with Vans).

And now, in the new issue of Kerrang!, drummer Lars Ulrich has not only been reflecting on this most wonderful of trips across the pond, he's also teased that there's plenty more to come from him, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Rob Trujillo; in fact, Lars believes that the quartet are "just getting started".

“It’s been a magical night and a magical week,” Lars told us backstage at the Kerrang! Awards 2019. “Coming to the UK is always special to me, not only because of our own history here, but also the musical pedigree that helped make Metallica Metallica. Plus, Kerrang! and all the stories that have been published about us over the years are certainly embedded here in my thick Danish skull. It’s so cool that 240 years later we’re still being acknowledged and appreciated, but the best years are still in front of us because we’re just getting started. Just in case you were wondering.”

Amazing.

Before we caught up with the sticksman, Lars revealed onstage collecting the award for Best International Act (in association with Vans): “I’ve got to say that every time we come to England, it doesn’t change. Like, the first time that I came to England in the early-’80s and followed my favourite bands around, it was incredible. The first time Metallica came to England and played the Marquee in 1984 of the spring, it was like butterflies in all our stomachs. This was the mecca, and this was ground zero for everything that we grew up on, and everything that we wanted to be. All the music and the lineage of everything that I had listened to for the previous 10 years, it was all within 200 miles of where you’re standing or sitting right now. And that feeling still comes over me, being in England, 35 years after we played the Marquee for the very first time.

“It’s fucking unreal, and it’s so cool. I still feel like that same fucking 18 year old when I come back to your beautiful country, and I just feel the inspiration, the history, the lineage, and everything that made me want to be in a band…”

Watch the Kerrang! Awards 2019 below:

Read this next:

• The 15 best Metallica covers
• 10 things we learned from Metallica's WorldWired European stadium tour
• I spent the day in Metallica's inner circle