Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich opened up about his experience when he first moved to the United States from his hometown which is Copenhagen, Denmark, during an interview with Tanya’s Table Podcast, and apparently, his ambition to become a professional tennis player like his father vanished after seeing how competitive players are.
As many of you might know, Lars Ulrich was born in Gentofte, Denmark and he’s the son of Lone née Sylvester-Hvid and tennis player Torben Ulrich. His paternal grandfather was also a tennis player named Einer Ulrich.
Ulrich’s initial intention was to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a professional tennis player, thus, he moved to Newport Beach, California, in the summer of 1980, however, he failed to keep up with all the other players in the United States despite being ranked in the top ten tennis players of his age group in Denmark. Therefore, he decided to continue with making music.
During a recent interview, Lars Ulrich opened up about the first time he moved to the United States and revealed that he convinced his parents to move to California which’s when his family left Denmark when Ulrich was 17 years old.
While Ulrich’s ultimate goal was to play tennis, however, due to the fact that Denmark and the United States are two completely different worlds when it comes to population which affects overall competition in sports, Lars did not even make it to the top ten in his street.
Here is what Ulrich said:
“I was 17. I came over in 1980. I grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark, and my dad was a tennis player, and spent a lot of the ’60s and the ’70s traveling a lot in the United States.
So I spent quite a bit of time with him on the road here, and when I started going to school when I was 16 or 17, I encouraged my mom and my dad to find my idea of moving to Southern California.
We landed in Newport Beach in the fall of 1980 when I was 17, and obviously, that was a pretty significantly different world from what I grew up with, still under the false impression at the time that I could follow my father’s footsteps and play tennis, and maybe take it to a professional level.
In Denmark, which is a very small country, I was playing at different levels and ages, but when I came to Newport Beach, I was not even in the Top 10 in the street where I was living in.”
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