“There was this Star Wars one going around a week or two ago…”: Metallica has a band member-only group chat for sending memes
It’s official: when Metallica aren’t knocking out hair-raising riffs, they’re sat watching funny cat videos. Well, not quite, but drummer Lars Ulrich has revealed that the legendary metal outfit have a group chat for exchanging memes and funny videos.
Speaking to Variety, Ulrich explains that the elusive Metallica group chat isn’t just filled with band secrets and new song ideas. Instead, it’s filled with jokes and fan-edits. “We have a band-only text thread that’s just for the four members, and there are definitely some fun things that we see in this day and age with everybody being so creative,” he explains.
READ MORE: “I’d still be trying to kick some doors down”: James Hetfield says if Metallica never existed, he’d spend his life trying to make Metallica exist
Ulrich picks out a recent favourite of his: an Anakin Skywalker TikTok set to the sound of Metallica’s 1988 track, One.
“There was this Star Wars one going around a week or two ago which was really funny,” he recalls. “There are some conversations between Darth Vader and a whole thing that builds up, and then they’re talking about the dark side. Then all of a sudden it goes into ‘Darkness imprisoning me!’, that whole thing from One.”
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♬ original sound – BRETHREN
“We love people’s creativity, and to see so many fans reinterpret our songs, whether it’s on guitar or drums or singing them,” Ulrich says. “[Some are even] taking them into different genres. Sometimes you mix a little AI in there and then something fun spits out.”
Of course, it’s hard to keep track of absolutely everything fans are posting online. “It’s a lot to keep track of because this happens hundreds, if not thousands, of times a day,” he admits. “But there are some fun ones that get into our band-only text thread for the four of us to enjoy and appreciate.”
Metallica have previously shared proof of their online presence. When Ulrich was unable to attend Download Festival in 2024, Ulrich acknowledged memes about him avoiding the festival because of its name – a jestful nod to Metallica’s lawsuit with Napster, a site that allowed users to ‘download’ MP3 files for free.
The drummer also revealed in a 2023 interview with Metal Hammer that he reads fan feedback online. “If you decide to go down into the comment sections, at least for me, you have to prepare yourself for not taking any of it overly personally,” he said. “You have to kind of remove yourself from it. But I’d like to challenge anybody in a band to say they don’t look at comments.”
“I mean, I’m not sitting up until four o’clock in the morning scrolling through every one,” he notes. “But when you haven’t put any music out in five or six years and you dump something like Lux Æterna on an unsuspecting world, you’re going to want to see what the feedback is.”
Metallica’s third documentary, Metallica Saved My Life recently made its debut on June 11 at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was directed by Jonas Åkerlund.
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