Lars Ulrich (born December 26 1963) is the drummer, main songwriter (with James Hetfield) and co-founder of Metallica. He was born in Gentofte, Denmark to a middle-class family. A tennis prodigy in his youth, Ulrich moved to Los Angeles, California at age seventeen to pursue his training, but instead of playing tennis, he ended up as a drummer. After publishing an advertisement in a local Los Angeles newspaper called The Recycler, he met James Hetfield and formed Metallica.