Lars Ulrich has defended protests against their Glastonbury appearance, calling the criticism “ridiculous”.

Earlier this week, a petition was set up on Facebook entitled “Remove Metallica From Glastonbury for Their Support of Bear Hunting” after it emerged that James Hetfield would be narrating a TV series about bear hunters.

Lars told Metal Hammer Magazine: "Glastonbury is like the Holy Grail in England and we're respectful to that but when somebody sits there and talks about petitions or what some other guy says, there's a point that it just becomes ridiculous. We're fairly thick-skinned and turn a blind eye to it or whatever, but if Mick Jagger, or Alex Turner, or the very nice guys in Kasabian who I love, it's cool. But at some point, when there's some guy in some other band...it's like 'Huh? What? Who are you?'

"We're definitely on a roll. We're warmed up, loosened up and fit for a fight. We're ready to go."