There's been a rumor going around for awhile that rockers Metallica wanted to oust longtime drummer Lars Ulrich from the band in 1986. Anthrax's Scott Ian, who is the source of the story, recently stuck behind his claim.
In his recent autobiography, I'm the Man: The Story of that Guy from Anthrax, Ian writes about how the rumor got started, Blabbermouth reports. He talked about that part of the book on 94.3 KILO. "A lot of people have been asking me about this, and that story's actually been out there for a long time," he said about the rumor, which gained traction in 2009 after former Metallica member Dave Mustaine talked to Rolling Stone. "I'm not outing this; that would never be my intention. My book's not like an exposé; it's not that kind of a book."
Metallica was out on the road with Anthrax in 1986, the same year that bassist Cliff Burton died in a bus accident. "But yeah, the story was that they had made a plan that they were gonna make a change and get a new drummer," Ian added. "We were all kind of blown away by that, because it was the four of them. It was just, like, 'Wow! Really?' And they were, like, 'Yeah. When we finish this tour, we're gonna find a new drummer.'"
No one will ever really know what the plan was at the end of the tour had Burton lived, and Metallica hasn't responded to the rumor. Ian said he thinks that the firing would have never occurred, though. "I honestly think it wouldn't have happened," he said. "'Cause, believe me, I've thought about it quite a bit over the years. I honestly think that the tour would have finished and I think cooler heads would have prevailed, maybe, and I don't think the change would have taken place."
