Hulk Hogan Tried To Join Metallica This Day in Rock 2012

01-27-2024

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Professional wrestling legend and reality TV star Hulk Hogan made news on this Day in Rock back in 2012 when he revealed in an interview that he was nearly a member of Metallica.

Hogan made the revelation to The Sun, sharing that he was friends with the band's Lars Ulrich. "I used to be a session musician before I was a wrestler," he said. "I played bass guitar. I was big pals with Lars Ulrich and he asked me if I wanted to play bass with Metallica in their early days but it didn't work out."

Hulk's "big pal", Lars Ulrich was asked about the claims during an appearance on the Howard Stern show. He replied, "That one, when that showed up two or three months ago, I was scratching my head over that one. Unless he went by... like...his Christian name or something, and I don't know if anybody knows what his Christian name was - Dave Smith or something [it's Terry Bollea] - if there was a whole thing that we had with him under a different name, but I certainly have no recollection of doing anything with 'Hulk Hogan'."

Fast forward a year and Hogan spoke to Kerrang! about the claims, clearing up some of the original misconceptions. He told the publication, "That has rumor has been turned and twisted and thrown in so many different directions - that I auditioned and that I lied and that I never auditioned and they weren't interested.

"The truth is I played music for many years before I ever got into wrestling, and when I heard Metallica was looking for a bass player, I would have quit wrestling like that to get into Metallica.

"When I heard they were looking for a bass player, I got my tapes together from the old band, got a couple of tapes together that Simon Cowell produced with me - Green Jelly, and I did an old Gary Glitter song, 'Leader Of The Gang', with Simon, back in the day, before he got his break with all the wrestling music and became a huge monster. But I got all that stuff together to send it to Metallica and never heard a word.

"So they never responded to me. They either thought I was a joke or they thought it was a joke, and it wasn't me, or I was no good, but I never heard back from them ... I tried - but I never did audition for Metallica. I wish I would have. But the bass player they got was so good. My God!"

Hogan's claims were resurrected last year for an interview on the FULL SEND Podcast. Check it out below: