Lars Ulrich On Drumming In His Sixties: ‘There’s Also Slightly Less Of Me Than There Used To Be Ten Years Ago, Thanks To Taco Bell’

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has opened up about the intense physical regimen required to maintain his performance abilities in his sixties, comparing the unique demands of heavy metal to professional sports where athletes retire decades earlier.

Speaking at a special post-screening event for the new documentary “Metallica Saved My Life” at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Ulrich addressed a fan’s observation that his drumming—specifically his footwork—seems to have gained speed with age.

“I don’t know if I a hundred percent agree with that, but I’ll take the compliment,” Ulrich joked, before offering a more serious explanation. “Long story short, I just put a lot more work into it now than I ever used to.”

Ulrich, whose father Torben Ulrich was a professional tennis player, drew a sharp contrast between the life cycle of an athlete and that of a rock musician. He noted that while tennis greats like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic face retirement speculation in their mid-thirties, rock and roll offers no such off-ramp.

“With rock and roll, that’s not applicable… So it’s not like [it is] in tennis or in different sports, whatever, [where] there’s like a senior circuit or any of that s**t. It’s just one big thing,” Ulrich explained. “So you’re just out there, in our early sixties, competing against the guys and gals that are in their twenties and thirties, and so you gotta kind of be at the top of your game.”

To maintain that level, Ulrich credits significant “lifestyle choices,” including strict diet and exercise regimens, and a move away from the habits of his younger years.

“There’s also slightly less of me than there used to be ten years ago, thanks to Taco Bell and whatever else was going on at the time,” he quipped.

He also revealed that the entire band has become proactive about injury prevention. “All of us in our own ways, all four of us — are much more sort of cautious about putting ourselves in harm’s way, or having people out traveling with us who can help us with preventative injuries, whether it’s the shoulders or the knees or the wrists.”

Reflecting on the history of the genre, Ulrich noted that Metallica is charting territory that was once considered impossible. He recalled that when the band started, the idea of a “rocker” in their sixties was nonexistent.

“The McCartneys and the Mick Jaggers and all those guys were literally in the their late thirties [back then],” Ulrich said. “The idea that you could play rock and roll in your sixties or seventies or eighties like McCartney and, say, Jagger are now, that was preposterous. That didn’t exist. That was almost the antithesis to what rock and roll represented. In the immortal words of Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, ‘I hope I die before I get old.'”

Now, however, the goalpost has moved. Ulrich concluded that the objective is to remain “functioning and somewhat relevant” for another 10 or 20 years, a feat that requires him to “really be on top of all that s**t.”

The conversation followed a screening of “Metallica Saved My Life,” a documentary directed by Jonas Åkerlund that examines the profound emotional impact the band has had on its global fanbase.