Torben Ulrich, Father of Lars Ulrich, Dies at 95
Torben Ulrich, the father of Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, has died. He was 95.
Torben’s death was confirmed by Lars in a post on Instagram. Lars captioned the post, “95 years of adventures, unique experiences, curiosity, pushing boundaries, challenging the status quo, tennis, music, art, writing….and quite a bit of Danish contrarian attitude. Thank you endlessly! I love you, Dad.”
Torben was a Renaissance man of sorts. He famously was an accomplished amateur and professional tennis player. His career spanned from the late 1940s to the 1970s.
Torben also was a lover of music and played multiple instruments, including the clarinet and the saxophone. In fact, in 2021 at age 92, Torben released the album Oakland moments: cello, voice, reuniting (rejoicing) with cellist Lori Goldston.
When the album came out, Lars wrote on Instagram, “This is my dad… he’s the one on the left. 92 years old and just getting started…Today, as one does at his age, he’s putting out another record… This one being a collaboration with his dear friend @legoldston. If anybody’s interested in checking it out, it’s available on the @obscure_terrible Bandcamp page. Definitely something to aspire to.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Torben also had a career in music journalism and wrote for various Danish publications.
Lars and Torben’s Rock Hall Moment
The passing of Torben Ulrich serves as a bittersweet reminder of this moment when Metallica was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. Lars closed out his acceptance speech acknowledging his father, who he said probably had the longest hair in the building.
“I grew up in an incredible, rich household,” said Lars. “There was music playing when I went to bed, everything from Dexter Gordon to Miles [Davis] to [Jimi] Hendrix to Janis [Joplin] to everything [in between]. It was still playing when I woke up at seven in the morning to go to school.”
He continued, “But it was such an incredible, rich upbringing, and you taught me everything about being open to all of life’s possibilities and to be open to all different kinds of music. And for you to be here and share this moment with me and the rest of the snot-nosed kids behind me means more than you’ll ever know.”
Lars concluded, “So, thank you for having that household that gave me such a rich upbringing,”
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