Testament Guitarist Reacts to Metallica’s Lars Ulrich Drum Performance
Testament guitarist Eric Peterson talks about his introduction to Metallica, drunk Lars Ulrich drum performance, and early gigs of Slayer.
In his interview with Let There Be Talk, Testament‘s guitarist Eric Peterson reflected on many topics, including various bands. He mentioned his introduction to Metallica, which seems like a very good experience for him, his thoughts about Metallica’s Lars Ulrich drunk drumming, and the early Slayer gigs. Let us see what Testament guitarist Peterson said.
Testament guitarist Eric Peterson on his introduction to Metallica
Testament guitarist Peterson mentioned the influence of Metallica on his songs, saying that Metallica inspired him.
“This new band from L.A. – and I remember seeing the flyer that said, ‘Imported from L.A. – Metallica.’ And I remember being on the phone with someone, on the payphone, and as soon as I heard, I was, ‘I gotta go, man.’
“I went up there, and I was just like, Lars was like The Animal, and I just sat there and just sitting there going, and everybody’s holding on to each other and just headbanging and I went home and wrote like four songs that week. And I knew what I wanted to do now because everything was Judas Priest, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Motley Crue, that’s all there was, really.
“So I got their demo, I ended up buying it from James, I think, I forgot how I got it, but yeah, that was really inspiring. Metallica was a big inspiration for sure. And then taking everything else in, you know, still listening to ‘Angel of Death’ by Angel Witch – that was a huge influence.
Eric Peterson said Lars Ulrich is annihilated every time he sees the drummer
“Did you ever go to Tu Lan’s, the Vietnamese restaurant right down the street from The Warfield? Man, you got to there next time you’re here in the city – really, really good. That place is just dirty, it’s always crowded.
Of course, now it’s like, you can’t even go in there. It was the best going there. I mean, running into – you first walk in and it’s just crowded, and there’s the bar, and then Metallica’s hanging out, Lars is totally drunk, annihilated every time I saw him, which is cool.”
Testament guitarist also talked about the early works of Slayer
“Backstage, we had known who Slayer was, and I remember Dave Lombardo was walking back and forth, he just kept saying, ‘Chemical Warfare.’ And we’re like, ‘What’s that?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, it’s our new song.’ So yeah, they had this new song called ‘Chemical Warfare,’ and yeah, it was a really good time. But yeah, before I went on I threw up so many times. I was so nervous, I didn’t know about taking a shot or anything yet before.
I was shaking – because the curtains closed, and then the curtains opened up, it’s that kind of adrenaline, I remember I just clammed up like, I couldn’t even move my hands.”
