Metallica drummer talks torture

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich appeared as a guest on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday night (April 27th), where the liberal news commentator and the Danish drummer discussed living in San Francisco, Guitar Hero: Metallica, and politics. With the debate over the military and CIA's use of torture front and center in the news lately, Maddow also asked Ulrich how he felt about Metallica's music being used to psychologically torture prisoners of war: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "There is a lot of Metallica music that's helping a lot of scared 18, 19 and 20-year-old kids out there who are out on the front lines and who are doing a hell of a job on behalf of you and me and the rest of us. But obviously when you hear stories like the one you're telling, it all seems so bizarre and so strange that Metallica's music, which generally sort of facilitates bringing people together, is used in these bizarre circumstances. It's certainly not something that we in any way advocate or condone."

Ulrich also told Maddow that if someone really wanted to use music to torture others, there are groups out there that are way more extreme than Metallica: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "If there are people that are dumb enough to use Metallica to interrogate prisoners, you're forgetting about all the music that's to the left of us. I can name, you know, 30 Norwegian death metal bands that would make Metallica sound like Simon and Garfunkel."

Metallica will be on tour in Europe throughout the rest of the spring and summer, but will begin a new North American trek on September 14th in Nashville.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 4th, along with Jeff Beck, Run-DMC and others.

A digital "box set" of every song Metallica has ever recorded, called The Complete Metallica, became available online last month at iTunes and other outlets.