Metallica – Louder, Faster, Stronger

 The overnight flight to Copenhagen on Ulrich’s jet, after Metallica’s show in Riga, is about 90 minutes ”“ plenty of time for a parade of trays full of fresh fruit, raw-tuna appetizers, tiramisu and flutes of cham­pagne. The small plane is full of Ulrich’s family and guests, almost a dozen people, including his two sons by a former marriage, Myles, 9, and Layne, 7. (Ulrich and Nielsen also have a year-old son, Bryce.) There is Ulrich’s old schoolmate Peter Von Wowern, now an engineer; and artist-musician Franz Beckerlee and his wife. Beckerlee was the guitarist in Gasolin’, the top Danish rock band in the Seventies, and is a longtime Ulrich family friend. “I saw Lars make his first hit on a drum,” he says while waiting to board inRiga. Lars, then eight months old, crawled across a floor and smacked a toy drum with his hand. “Look at him now.”

 It has been an exhausting night. After the concert, the entire Metallica entourage stopped at a Riga airport hotel, where the four members took over a room for a long band conference and a phone meeting with Rubin. But on the plane, which doesn’t take off until2 a.m., Ulrich is as energetic as he was onstage, wisecracking with everybody, making sure their plates and glasses are full. He’s not just paying for the trip; he’s in charge of hospitality, too. “Danes by nature are very social,” Ulrich explains. “We love gathering people and making them feel welcome, rolling out the red carpet. I love bringing big bunches of family and friends on the plane.”

 But there are no other members of Metallica here. The Hetfields have flown with Hammett toRome, where Hammett gets off, then to Milan. Trujillo and his wife are off to Paris. The band will not be together again until a few hours be­fore the Bologna show two days later.

 “We don’t do this to be luxurious,” Ulrich says, hoisting his champagne glass cheerfully. “It is a luxury, but it is a necessity. If we were still all on a bus to Düsseldorf, there would be one guy fed up with going to Düsseldorf. There would be bad feeling, maybe an argument over nothing, and things fall apart again. This way, it is comfortable for each of us. We feel good when we need to be together, to play.”

 The Metallica air force is a far cry from the $5 per diem per member that Ulrich remembers on the band’s first US tour in 1983: “That was just enough for two cheeseburgers ”“ or two beers.” And there was the all-you-can-eat salad-bar scam: four guys taking turns loading up the same plate at Burger King for $2.99. “Four guys eating off that plate with the same fork ”“ there’s gotta be a lot of love in there.”