Lars Ulrich introduced his children to rock music at a young age.

The Metallica drummer is tired of his kids - Miles, 15, Layne, 12, and five-year-old Bryce - fighting over the same favourite band, but is proud to have influenced their tastes.

He said: ''I must have listened to 'R U Mine' by Arctic Monkeys maybe nine million times since it came out 'cos my kids are f***ing crazy for it.

''The eldest started listening to it first, then the other two picked up on it and they argue between themselves like 'Get your own band'. I'm like, 'Hey motherf*****s, I introduced them to all of you so cut it out.'

''I started all my kids listening to rock music early on.''

Metallica's original bassist, Cliff Burton, died in a bus crash in 1986 and Lars still finds it difficult to listen to the group's track 'Orion' because it reminds him so much of his late friend.

He told NME magazine: ''There's no song we didn't want to play anymore after Cliff passed away - we had to carry on.

''But there were some that were his. You can be playing 'Orion' and all of a sudden go, 'F**k, what an incredible piece of music.' Losing him was more like losing a brother.''