Metallica is set to headline UK's Glastonbury Festival on Saturday; however, their booking has brought about mixed responses from festival-goers. In response to the negative comments about their slot, Lars Ulrich spoke with BBC 6 Music (via NME) about his thoughts on how UK metal fans are portrayed.
The drummer and founding member complained that UK metal fans are seen as being "less educated" by people he refers to as sitting on "precious indie thresholds."
"People have short attention spans in 2014," he continued. "They like things broken down into easy, digestible sound-bites. It's like, Metallica at Glastonbury, what's the sound-bite? 'Here comes the big bad heavy metal band to our precious little festival.' I don't think it's genuinely like that... but there obviously are people who snub their nose a little bit at hard rock, and look at hard rock as inferior or lower-class, some sort of lower music form or something, and [think] that the people who listen to hard rock are less educated."
Ulrich said he thinks that the controversy over their booking stems from "a tradition with British music journalism, a need to categorize."
"We basically have played every country in the world's version of Glastonbury," he added, "and nobody bats an eye. It's sort of what we do. Though obviously, having played Reading and Leeds many times, I understand and appreciate that Glastonbury is a different British institution."
However, Ulrich is not concerned about the upcoming show. He compared Metallica's booking to Jay Z's 2008 headline slot controversy. For those who don't remember, Noel Gallagher said hip-hop didn't belong at the festival, and Jay Z responded by playing a mash-up of "Wonderwall" and "99 Problems."
"Not only did everybody survive when Jay Z showed up a few years ago," Ulrich noted. "But they even enjoyed it. I see no reason why the same shouldn't happen when Metallica takes the stage."
Many UK artists have commented on Metallica's booking, and Arctic Monkeys, Mick Jagger, Kasabian, and Johnny Marr all agree with Ulrich that Metallica will do just fine, as NME notes.
What do you think? Do Metallica and other metal bands belong at Glastonbury? Let us know in the comments section below!
