Lars Ulrich defended Lulu, Metallica’s 2011 collaboration with Lou Reed, saying fans who didn’t like the work were displaying ignorance.

The controversial record was greeted with bewilderment and frustration by some of Metallica’s followers, many of whom felt the band should have been focusing on a follow-up to Death Magnetic, which was released three years earlier.

In The Art of the Straight Line, a newly published posthumous memoir by Reed and his widow Laurie Anderson, the Velvet Underground icon – who died in 2013 – shared some comments by Ulrich.

“What the fuck is it about Lulu that it got that kind of reaction?” the drummer wondered (via Loudwire). “I can’t quite figure it out, but years later, it’s aged extremely well. It sounds like a motherfucker still. So I can only put the reaction down to ignorance. ... It took our fans to a place I wish they would go more often. Maybe it would be a better time to release it now with what's going on outside in the world, the chaos. I don't know, but I am very proud of this record.”

He added that “James [Hetfield] and I would be figuring out ways through a piece of music and then Lou would look over and go, ‘That’s it. I’m not doing another fucking take of that.’ That’s not the way we usually worked, but it was so beautiful and great, the whole thing.”

While Reed celebrated the power and influence of tai chi in his life – noting in the book that the “ancient art ... makes the outside sounds into a more musical environment” – Ulrich observed, “I never was fully immersed in it with him. Like with his guitar setup, I tried my best to stay out of the way.”

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