METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich called into "The Opie & Anthony Show" Friday morning (May 25) and stayed on the air for about 15 minutes, talking about the recent HEAVEN AND HELL show he saw in Los Angeles, MERCYFUL FATE's influence on METALLICA's music and the opportunity to open for THE ROLLING STONES in 2005. A few excerpts from the chat follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):

On seeing HEAVEN AND HELL in Los Angeles:

"Me and James [Hetfield] went and saw the HEAVEN AND HELL thing — you know, [BLACK] SABBATH with Dio — two-three weeks ago in L.A. and it was really cool. I was really psyched. They're actually playing a show with us in Europe this summer. That's pretty amazing [that they're supporting us]. It's like, 'We should be opening for you.'

"Bill [Ward, SABBATH drummer] is Bill. But he hasn't been in the best shape the last couple of years. But if anybody's gonna sit in for him, Vinny [Appice] is…

"I thought it was awesome. I was really psyched about how much… It was just really spunky and it had a lot of energy. It was a good couple of hours. It was good fun.

"I'm telling you, if watching HEAVEN AND HELL up on stage doing their thing wasn't great, up by the mixing board where we were, Hetfield had his own mosh pit going, out by, like, where the lighting was standing looking terrified. I hadn't seen Hetfield that excited for years, so we'll take that too."

On the status of the new album recordings:

"We were down in L.A. for the last four-five weeks just doing all the backing tracks to the new album with [producer] Rick Rubin. We just finished about a week ago doing all the backing tracks and then I came back up here to San Francisco and I had a baby on Monday [May 21] — I didn't have a baby, but my better half had a baby — so this is my first night back in the house here, so I've got a three-day-old baby in the bedroom in there with the lady. So we took a little bit of a break for that and then we're gonna start rehearsing in a couple of weeks and we're gonna go over to Europe and do three weeks' worth of shows and do some of the festivals and all that outdoor fun and games and then back to L.A. in August and finish up the record."

On covering MERCYFUL FATE (in 1998, METALLICA paid tribute to MERCYFUL FATE by recording a medley of classic MERCYFUL FATE songs on the album "Garage Inc." Entitled "Mercyful Fate", the medley included parts from "Satan's Fall", "Curse of the Pharaohs", "A Corpse Without Soul", "Into the Coven" and "Evil"):

"MERCYFUL FATE is one of the two or three main bands that kind of shaped METALLICA's sound, along with, like, DIAMOND HEAD, and one one or two other bands. So back in '81-'82 when we were kind of getting our chops together, MERCYFUL FATE was one of the main inspirations, so when it came time to do some covers and pay some tribute to some of the people that paved our way, MERCYFUL FATE… I don't know how many of the people listening to us know who MERCYFUL FATE are, but some of the stuff's pretty nutty, as you know... So much of our, kind of, more progressive side comes from them, but I'm telling you when we covered that thing in — when was it? '97-'98 or whatever — I mean, watching Hetfield try to sing King Diamond stuff; it's like nine octaves above… where only birds can hear or whatever it is. That was quite a sight. But that was great. FATE have always been a huge thing in METALLICA's career. We actually had them out playing with us a couple of times in Europe, and had them up on stage with us — upside-down crosses and the whole thing. That's all good. [Laughs]"

On opening for THE ROLLING STONES:

"Yeah, it was last year — it was about a year and a half ago out here in San Francisco. We were in the middle of some chill time after the 'St. Anger' tour and one day it was like, 'The STONES wanna know if you wanna open for them in San Francisco,' and it was like, 'Duh, of course, we will. Just name the day and place and we'll be there.' We obviously hadn't opened for anybody for a few years but if you're gonna open for anybody, open for the STONES. I mean, c'mon!

"It's the second show — [we played] two shows [with THE ROLLING STONES] in a row — and some assistant with, like, five walkie-talkies and a water-bottle holder, whatever, comes in before the show and says, 'Do you want your picture taken with THE ROLLING STONES?' We were like, 'You know what? Sure. Why not?' So after our show and then they're getting ready to go on, this assistant comes in and says, 'OK, be ready in five minutes' or whatever. So she comes in, she escorts us into this place in the tunnel leading into the stadium and she says, 'Wait here.' As we're standing in this tunnel, literally, and this band EVERCLEAR — who were playing also — they were kind of like over there on their 'X'. So we're standing there and we go over and say 'Hello' to the guys in EVERCLEAR, 'Hey, how was your show?' And this assistant comes back and says, 'No. The guys in METALLICA stay here, and the guys in EVERCLEAR stay over here.' We were like, 'Whoaaah.' So then about five minutes later the STONES come in, and I swear they didn't stop — they slowed down their pace, or their walk, just slow enough to get, like, two or three pictures taken, two or three frames shot with EVERCLEAR, and then they came over to where we were standing waiting, and they all looked at us… No, actually, Charlie Watts said 'Hello' and I think Keith [Richards] nodded or something, and Mick [Jagger] looked like we were all gonna give him pneumonia or something — he had this disgusting look on his face. And then they slowed down long enough while the photographer took two or three frames, and then they walked off. And then the assistant came over and said, 'If the band approves the photo, we'll send you a copy.' That kind of sums up THE ROLLING STONES experience. [Laughs] But being up on stage, that was awesome and the legacy and the whole thing, but that kind of left me with a little bit of a strange taste in my mouth . . . If we ever pulled that, would you come and find me and shoot me? I mean, seriously? But it was a great night and getting a chance to just be part of… If you can sit there and tell your kids, 'I opened for IRON MAIDEN, I opened for DEEP PURPLE, and I opened for THE ROLLING STONES,' then you're pretty much good to go, you know what I mean?"

(Thanks: Johan Mörling)