Lars Ulrich Blames Metallica's Lou Reed Collaboration Backlash On Ignorance

Despite Metallica and Lou Reed both being legends, their 2011 collaborative album Lulu was not well-received (to put it lightly). The project was panned by critics and fans, who complained that Reed's delivery just didn't work with Metallica's heavy instrumentation. In an excerpt from Reed's posthumous new book The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi, Lars Ulrich blamed the backlash on "ignorance."

“What the f**k is it about Lulu that it got that kind of reaction?” the Metallica drummer remarked (via Loudwire). “I can’t quite figure it out, but years later, it’s aged extremely well. It sounds like a motherf**ker 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 continued. "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 f**king take of that.’ That’s not the way we usually worked, but it was so beautiful and great, the whole thing.”

Reed passed away in 2013 at the age of 71. Lulu was his final album.