Lars Ulrich mourning death of father Torben

Lars Ulrich has paid tribute to his late father Torben Ulrich.

The Metallica drummer announced that Torben, a professional tennis player and jazz musician, had died aged 95 in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

"Torben Ulrich: 1928-2023," he began. "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."

The Danish drummer posted a series of photos of him as a child with his father as well as a black-and-white portrait of Torben, an image of him playing the clarinet with his jazz band, and a magazine cover calling the former sportsman "The Ageless Guru of Tennis".

Torben was born on 4 October 1928 in Denmark and also worked as a filmmaker, actor, poet, journalist and painter.

He co-directed two films, 1988's The Ball and The Wall and 2002's Body & Being: Before the Wall, and released his own jazz album in 2021 at the age of 92.

He was well known to Metallica fans thanks to his appearance in the metal band's 2004 documentary, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

In his memorable scene, he was asked his opinion on a new song and he advised them to "delete" it, saying, "For me, it doesn't cut it. It sounds like a guy shouting in some kind of echo chamber."