Hulk Hogan, Metallica: Lars Ulrich Has No Memory of Wrestler Almost Joining

In his version of history, Hulk Hogan was once "big pals" with Lars Ulrich, and the two were so chummy that the Metallica drummer invited him to play bass in an early incarnation the band. Sadly, the wrestling superstar told Britain's Sun newspaper earlier this year, "it didn't work out," and he was forced to find fame as a grappler, not a headbanger.

It's a great story, but according to Ulrich, it's not true.

"You know what?! I'm blessed or cursed, depending on how you look at it, with having more or less a photographic memory for pretty much anything that I've been a part of," Lars said in a recent interview with Howard Stern, Blabbermouth.net reports. "That one, when that showed up two or three months ago, I was scratching my head over that one."

While Ulrich left open the possibility that he somehow crossed paths with Hogan -- who also claims to have lobbied for a spot in the Rolling Stones -- he's dubious, to say the least.

"I don't know enough about him ... I'm not a huge wrestling [fan]," he said. "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 -- 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 quote Hulk Hogan endquote."

*Yes, we know that is Hetfield, and not Ulrich, in the photo above.