Throwback: When Dave Grohl Blasted Lars Ulrich Over Napster

Andreas Lawen, Fotandi, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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When the Napster lawsuits started hitting, Lars Ulrich practically had a target painted on his back.

Even after the fact, Lars’ answer to the backlash showed he was acutely aware of the hate sayingbeing the most hated man in rock and roll. Yeah, that was totally my goal. I said ‘yeah things are going a little too well this year, what can I do to mess it up.

Pissing off the fans might be bad enough, but going after Napster ended up reaching all the way to the nicest guy in rock and roll, Mr. Dave Grohl.

Being interviewed about the Napster issue, Dave Grohl had some pretty uncharacteristically critical words to say about people like Ulrich, who he saw as suing companies like Napster just for greed, saying:

 “I think music should be available to anybody who wants to hear it. There should be no such thing as a price tag on music. I don’t want to turn on my radio and put a nickel in it to hear Metallica.

I understand where some people come from when they say ‘Napster is taking money away from me. I don’t have food in my refrigerator because Napster is playing my song all over the Internet.’ But when you’ve got someone who’s sold 50 million records and they got 50 million dollars and they’re bitching about pennies, Fuck you man.’” 

In the years since though, Dave has seemed to make it water under the bridge, even hanging out with Lars on his radio show and saying that he got most of his stage banter from Metallica. When asked about his influences, he said: “James is one. I remember I had this box set of {Metallica}, and I would listen to the stage banter in between songs and think ‘this is the funniest shit I’ve heard in my entire life.

And when you break down that barrier of being superhuman entertainer guy and you’re just a bunch of rowdy friends, that’s when it gets to be really fun.

You may be able to piss off him in the moment, but there’s a good chance that nothing’s going to keep Dave down for too long.

Watch Dave Grohl Share His Thoughts on Metallica and the Infamous Napster Lawsuit: