The mall thing that Influenced him was his passion for music. While growing up In Generate, which was a town in eastern Denmark, Lars took in a number of different genres of music. He heard everything from rock and Jazz music, to Indian music, different types of Asian music, Buddhist chants, and classical music. The reason that he heard all of this music was because of his father, Torrent Lurch, who not only played tennis, but was also a Jazz musician, being able to play both the clarinet and saxophone.
Even though being exposed to many types of music while growing up, the main type of music that Lars would come to know and love was different hard rock acts of the ass, tit bands Like Uriah Heap, Status Quo, and Deep Purple. Of all the rock bands Lars listened to, Deep Purple was his most favorite. Lars would be so ecstatic about them. That he would do anything to see them or even meet the band members. Lars remembered in an interview, “When I was nine years old, it was all about Deep Purple. HIS father’s friend and fellow tennis player Ray Moore, had been given passes to one of Deep Purple’s shows, which was taking place at the same arena as one of his tennis tournaments. Lars said that it “blew his mind. ” (Mice Wall, Enter Night: A Biography of Metallic, Pig. 12. After that concert, all he could think about was Deep Purple. Lars remembers In an Interview, “l would spend all my time sitting outside their hotel In Copenhagen, waiting for Ritchie Blackmore (guitarist for Deep Purple) to come out so I could follow him down the street. Later on, Lars would also be introduced to then less well-known bands liked Judas Priest, Thin Lezzy and OF. His dedication to music and wanting to form his own band would be Increased when his grandmother bought him his first drum kit when he was thirteen. Mice Wall would ask him, because of his outgoing personality, why he chose drumming over Ewing a frontal. Lars said, “Well, there’s Just one problem. I couldn’t sing. I mean, when I tried to sing in the shower it bothered me. And I Just always loved drumming. (Mice Wall, Enter Night: A Biography of Metallic, Pig. 14. ) Some more musical influences that Lars would be introduced would include NEWBORN (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) would be bands like Diamond Head, Iron Malden, Defy Leopard, etc. So, with all of those musical influences and a passion for drumming, Lars put an ad in a local music free-sheet called The Recycle. That ad would state, ” Drummer looking for other metal musicians to Jam with. Tigers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head and Iron Maiden.
Lars had gotten a call from a man named Hugh Tanner who 1 OFF “l got this call from this guy named Hugh Tanner who had seen my ad and he came down and we had a Jam, and he brought this guy James Hatfield along… ” James was from Los Angels, CA, and the first meeting did not go well. The first song they had tried playing was “Hit the Lights”. James remembers, “Lars had one cymbal that kept falling over. We had to stop while he fixed it. ” (Mice Wall, Enter Night: A Biography of Metallic, pig. 27. ) Lars and James had very different upbringings.
Whereas Lars had rowan up in a very wealthy family, being that his father was a tennis player and a musician, James grew up in a broken family. His father had left him when he was thirteen, and his mother had died of cancer when he was 17. The only thing that Lars and James had in common at the time was their musical influences and passion for music. While growing up, James had been introduced to hard rock and heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple, which he was introduced to through his older brothers’ record collection. James and his friend Hugh Tanner had formed a band in high school called
Phantom Lord, with another fellow schoolmate, Ron McGovern, who would later on play bass for Metallic. This group would not last long, mainly abacuses of Hugh Tanner leaving the group. After he left, James and Ron put an ad in the paper looking for a guitarist. Troy James would be the person to answer that ad, and they would form a group called Leather Charm. But, yet again, the band would fall apart, being that Troy James had quit. Not wanting to see James and Ron so upset, Hugh found an ad that Lars had put in the paper, and even though Lars’ and James’ first meeting loud not go well, they would eventually come to like each other.
Lars was very determined to form a band with James. So, even though he knew that James was not very fond of working with him, Lars took a different alternative. Lars thought that Just being able to listen to records together would work. So, when James first visited Lars at his home, his attitude towards Lars had changed. James said, “l would spend days lust going through Lars’ record collection. He introduced me to a lot of different music. ” (Mice Wall, Enter Night: A Biography of Metallic, Pig. 45. ) Later on, Lars called Ames up because it seemed that he was into the same type of music as Lars was.
Now that Lars and James had gotten together, being that Lars was a drummer and lames was able to sing and play guitar, they felt all they needed was a bass player. Lames had suggested Ron McGovern. Ron and Lars’ first meeting would go well Hoover. Ron would later say to Bob Millenarian, “He couldn’t keep a beat, and compared to Jim Mulligan (Leather Charm drummer), he Just couldn’t play. ” (Mice Wall, Enter Night: A Biography of Metallic, Pig. 47. ) Lars and Ron would eventually begin to get along, as the sessions would get better. After some time, Lars, James and Ron would put together a band.
Their discovery of the name Metallic had been put together. Lars and James, Hoover, would not be the ones to claim coming up with the name. The name would come from a friend of Lars whom he met through the tape- trading scene, and that man’s name was Ron Quintal. Eventually, Lars was able to finally put his group’s name on the map. An old friend of his, Brian Eagle, who would come to found Metal Blade Records, was putting together a compilation album of different heavy metal bands that no one had ever eared of, which was to be called Metal Massacre.
When Lars heard that he was doing called me up one day and said, “Hey, if I put together a band can I be on your compilation album? ” I said, ” Sure, no problem, why not? ” (Mice Wall, Enter Night: A geography of Metallic, Pig. 51 . ) Eventually, Brian was growing tired of waiting for Lars to call back because he had a deadline to meet to when he was supposed to release the compilation album. He called up Lars and told him he had a deadline to meet, and Lars said, “Give me a date and a time when I have to have it and I’ll make sure I get it to you by that time. (Mice Wall, Enter Night: A Biography of Metallic, Pig. 1 . ) rime passed by, and eventually Lars had gotten the tape he had put together to Iran. The track that was on the tape that was to be put on the Metal Massacre album was “Hit the Lights”, which was an old Leather Charm song that was written by Hugh Tanner. The track featured, Lars on drums, James on guitar, bass and vocals, Ninth a guitar solo by a man named Lloyd Grant, who Lars and James had auditioned for the band a couple of months before. He did not make the band though, due mainly because, according to James, ” he didn’t make the cut mainly because his withy stuff was never very tight. (Mice Wall, Enter Night: A Biography of Metallic, Pig. 53. ) Lars and James had made their way over to Ron McGovern house to do some recording, but Grant did not have time to make it over there. Even though Lars and James had tried to convince Ron to play bass, Ron could not do it. Ron said, “My musical contribution to Metallic was very limited. ” Iron’s interests were mainly in business, so Ron would decide to manage the band. After a very long time of trying to find another guitar player and placing an ad in the paper, they found someone in the arm of Dave Musician.
After meeting with Musician, James said that he had felt a connection, being that, like James, Musician had also grown up in a broken home. Shortly Dave had Joined the band, the group was getting more attention, mainly due to word of mouth. The group would eventually come to play their first shows, starting at Radio City, in Anaheim, CA. The songs they mainly played were a lot of Diamond Head covers, their three track demo, and one other original song. The cover songs they had played were meant to seem like original material. James said in an interview once in 1986, “We away the New Wave of British Metal that was coming out.
We knew it was goanna hit, like, you know a couple years before, it was goanna hit the states fairly soon, so, you know we like doing it and you know, we were doing it down in L. A. And a lot of people didn’t know you know, what the hell was going on. They didn’t see and hairdos or makeup or anything, we Just going up there bashing it. ” Eventually, Lars suggested that they put out a cassette tape called No Life till Leather, which they took from the opening line of the song “Hit the Lights”, and also inspired by Motherhood’s live album, No Sleep till Hammerheads.