Metallica’s Lars Ulrich on Re-Master of Puppets, Napster and More

METALLICA re-released "Master Of Puppets" on Friday, one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time, it has finally been remastered for the first time. The greatest result of this remaster is it provides the most advanced sound quality possible in three formats – CD, vinyl and a deluxe box set.

It includes previously unreleased versions and a lot of bonus materials that Metallica fans are going to love including TONS of live stuff, all professionally recorded.

In an interview anticipating the re-release LARS ULRICH got off on a tangent about Napster and some background on that debacle back in the day.

To say Metallica took a few knocks when they went to war with Napster, even from their own fans, who thought they were acting like rich, greedy A-holes. Lars now admits they should have, quote, "educated ourselves better about what the other side was thinking and what the real issues were" before getting into it. Especially since their beef was NEVER ABOUT MONEY. It all started when their song, "I Disappear" leaked early, and started getting radio play.  He says, quote, "we traced it back to this company Napster, and as you did in those days, it was, like, 'well, let's go [eff] with Napster then.'"

That's when the giant schwat-storm spewed forth putting the band right in the middle of an issue still being defined and revolutionized to this day.

The irony is, at the time, Metallica was TOTALLY in support of bootlegging and tape trading. Ulrich: "It was just about, 'Wait a minute! If we're gonna give away our music....maybe WE should do it, or maybe somebody should ask our permission.' And then that back-alley street fight went public and worldwide, we were completely caught of guard."