Q&A: Metallica's Lars Ulrich And Stone Brewing Company CEO Greg Koch On Music And Beer

Brett Murray

Metallica's Lars Ulrich is feeling really good when we sit down to talk in a private room at L.A. hotspot No Name to discuss the band's new Enter Night Pilsner with Stone Brewing Company.

Before he joined me for the only interview he did on this night, he, band mate Robert Trujillo and Stone Brewing Company CEO Greg Koch did a little intro of the beer that could have easily been stand-up comedy. Then, Ulrich has a lot of reason to be smiling now. The venerable band continues to sell out stadiums and their outside endeavors are growing to the point Metallica now has an umbrella company, as he proudly points out.

I spoke with Ulrich and Koch about Enter Night Pilsner, about what both were looking for in their collaboration and paying tribute to Chris Cornell, which Metallica will do Wednesday night (January 16) in L.A. as part of the I Am The Highway show.

Steve Baltin: What is the one song for you that gets a room jumping?

Lars Ulrich: I would say in my circles, if I'm hanging with my crew, my peoples, it's Oasis "Supersonic." It's got this thing where people just start singing along and kind of forgetting about whatever is going on. It becomes this communal thing. So many of their songs have that spirit where it becomes this communal exercise, but "Supersonic" is slightly above the rest of them.

Baltin: It used to be musicians teaming with brands, especially in rock, was taboo. Now that's obviously changed. Talk about how you guys have been stretching out and enjoying doing that.

Ulrich: Obviously the music is the nuts and bolts and the music is the total foundation everything is built on, but it's not limited to the music and I think that's really something that's changed a lot in the stigma, the attitudes, the way that people relate to cultural entities and creative entities.

Baltin: It also becomes necessity because as Nick Hexum from 311 pointed out when we were discussing 311 investing in cannabis there are more dispensaries now then record stores.

Ulrich: There is more of that picture right there than there are record stores, there's more of that thermostat set to that particular temperature than there are record stores. Let's get to the chase: there are fewer record stores than anything else on the planet. So these days you look for other ways to connect, it's that simple. I think social media has also been such a big factor in this. I think the big thing about social media, about all this stuff, you just want to feel like you're part of something bigger, whatever your thing. So if it's music, you have a tendency to embrace the lifestyle choices that come in the wake of that particular thing, whether it's hip hop, R&B, hard rock. Whatever your lane is there's a whole kind of thing, a universe and a bunch of choices that are waiting to be embraced or be a part of that experience. And it's not just limited to music anymore.

Baltin: Talk about the creative aspect too of being involved in the beer.

Ulrich: I look at each one of those outlets as creative. So when we did Through The Never movie, first and foremost it was a creative process. When we did Some Kind Of Monster there was an undertow of creativity to it. Nixon comes and says, "Let's do a cool line of watches for these skaters or surfers." I embrace the creative element. What we can do to f**k with this medium that makes it Metallica? For people that are wired like I am it's great fun. So when it comes to beer, this particular thing, sitting down and talking pilsners versus ales, I grew up in Denmark, this is the tradition I come from, what can this be? What are some of our peers doing? Where's our niche in this? And then having people who have the creative and practical resources to help with everything, like these guys, that has been the common thread for the last six months on this project. We are so similar in where we come from, how we relate to the status quo in the music industry and how they relate to the status quo in the beer business and so on. So the stories and spaces we occupy are so similar. So this endeavor, to me, the idea of just sitting down and doing all the blind taste tests, going, "Let's try a little bit more of that, let's do this," looking at the artwork, doing all that, it's great fun. Doing artwork for beer cans is like doing artwork for a record, doing artwork for a DVD, it's fun. And to be able to still find ways to express yourself creatively, to have these creative outlets happen continuously with all these other endeavors is super fun.

Baltin: What is the one project you would love to be involved with?

Ulrich: I think with our Blackened, which is something that we fully own, so we have an umbrella company. S**t, not everybody can say that, thank you very much. So our umbrella company, he says with a complete straight face. This Blackened thing, we're three times over our projections right now in terms of where we thought we would be by January. So that thing is just blowing up. So I think doing a tequila, looking into some other liquors could be super fun. And then I think the one thing we're looking into potentially is toasters, Metallica toasters. So we'll take it a step at a time.

Baltin: Talk about what it means to be at the Chris Cornell tribute Wednesday night.

Ulrich: It's a chance to get together and maybe for some people get a little bit of resolve and have a moment that celebrates primarily the music, the creative side and that all the different people from his whole close to 30-year musical journey will be there to celebrate and acknowledge and share is really cool. It's exciting just to see what's gonna happen. I'm sure there are gonna be some Kodak moments and some pretty special things that will come out of the whole thing organically. I look forward, as a fan, more than anything to be part of the night.

Baltin: What do you hope fans take from this night?

Ulrich: Like I said it's unfortunate it's under the dark cloud of his passing. But as a fan hopefully it'll bring another step and maybe some resolve or start having some public conversation about depression and what this disease does to people and how it affects so many more people amongst us than what we really think. And how we're probably always much closer to people that are struggling with this on a day to day basis than we truly understand.

Baltin: What Metallica album goes best with the beer?

Ulrich: The next one. To me it's always about the next Metallica album. We're saving all that for when we turn professional (laughter). What we tried to do with Greg and his team was to obviously this is the big leagues in terms of beer and what we wanted to do was try to find and create a beer that felt like it was part of their legacy and could stand toe to toe with all the incredible things that they've done from their IPA to Arrogant Bastard to all the rest of their whole arsenal of stuff. But also at the same time get a beer that is good for tailgating. You're hanging out in the afternoon and you're drinking a few beers. You can drink a few of these without falling over. We use the word drinkable, this is very drinkable.

Baltin: What does it mean to you that they want to be involved with Stone IPA given how strict Metallica are about lending their name?

Greg Koch: I think that's the magic of what we've done together is that this definitely wouldn't qualify as lending anybody's name to anything, it's a collaboration. It's a very together activity where we have actively worked to create and craft what was the best representation of the coming together of Metallica and Arrogant Consortia.

Baltin: Who approached who?

Koch: We were reached out to by them. My initial reaction was, "Wow, Metallica, how awesome. But I don't know, why would this be something that...why?" And I wanted to answer that question myself. So I got the chance to really have a lot of dialogue with them and a lot of back and forth and I got the chance to spend a lot of time with Lars early on. And it really just felt right. I wanted to really understand their motivation. I wasn't assuming they would rubber stamp something, but I wanted to make sure that wasn't the case. And it's very much not the case.

Baltin: What have you learned working with them?

Koch: I love that undying passion they have for the things that they're involved in. For one simple example, we were out at our warehouse in Downey today, it's our distribution warehouse, we have our team of drivers and guys that work the warehouse, and Rob [Trujillo] came out and hung out with them for several hours to meet and say hello and to thank them for the work. He was interested in doing that. These guys are super genuine and enthusiastic.

