The music industry has seen its fair share of feuds, but one that caught the attention of fans was the brief tiff between Dave Grohl, frontman of the Foo Fighters, and Lars Ulrich, the drummer for Metallica. The feud began in the early 2000s when Ulrich and Metallica went after Napster for allowing users to download their music for free, which they saw as piracy. While many fans were outraged at Metallica’s actions, Grohl’s response was particularly savage.
In an interview with Rock and Roll True Stories, Grohl admitted that while Ulrich had some legitimate concerns about piracy, he believed that the way he was going about it was wrong. Grohl stated, “I feel like music should be available for anyone who wants to hear it. I don’t want to have to turn on the radio and put a nickel in it to hear a Metallica song… When it’s someone who’s sold 50 million records, and they got 50 million fucking dollars, and they’re bitching about pennies, fuck you man.”
Grohl wasn’t the only one to criticize Ulrich’s pursuit against Napster. Fans even showed up at the court proceedings with their Metallica records to stomp on them as Ulrich went into the building. However, over the years, Grohl’s love for Metallica started to mend. During the promotional cycle for Metallica’s album Death Magnetic, Grohl and fellow Foo Fighter Taylor Hawkins interviewed the band.
Grohl even shared a story about how Ulrich showed him what real rock star living was like. In an interview for Ulrich’s It’s Electric radio show, Grohl recalled, “you said one of the craziest things to me. You said you wanted to direct the plane to Vegas, and I said I can’t do that. Then you said, ‘we can do whatever we want’ and I was like…’YEAH WE CAN MAN’. Then I just went home. I was like ‘I wanna be Lars Ulrich so bad’.”
Despite their past feud, Grohl and Ulrich have since put their differences aside. When promoting their record Concrete and Gold, Ulrich even talked about attending one of The Foos’ gigs and how much different their dressing room was compared to those of Metallica’s shows. Grohl has always remained grounded, focusing on giving his audience a good time rather than reaching Metallica levels of rock stardom.