AceShowbiz - Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich insists he feels "younger and more clueless than ever" as he approaches his 60th birthday. The sticksman will celebrate the milestone age in December but insists he doesn't feel "old" thanks to his obsession with the gym and his Peloton exercise bike.

"Surely there must be some mistake. When people turn 60, aren't they supposed to feel old? I don't feel very old. I feel in some perverse way younger and more clueless than ever. But it is what it is. I'm accepting of the things you can't change," he told the new issue of Metal Hammer magazine.

The heavy metal legends are preparing to release their 11th studio album "72 Seasons" on April 14, while they are also gearing up for the mammoth "M72 World Tour" - but show no signs of slowing down.

Asked about how long they can keep going, Lars said, "How long is a piece of string? If I keep sitting on that Peloton and everybody else stays in good shape, then knock on wood, hopefully, a few years still. Look at the Stones. Look at McCartney."

When it comes to making albums, Lars insists the "Nothing Else Matters" rockers still haven't figured out a shortcut to make records faster. "72 Seasons" is the follow-up to 2016's "Hardwired... to Self-Destruct", a gap of seven years.

He said, "I don't know how possible it would be to make an album in a shorter amount of time. We do take it seriously and we do try to do the best we can. But as we get older, it doesn't feel like we're any closer to cracking the code on any of it than we were 10 years ago, or 20 years ago, or 30 years ago."

"I mean, you can romanticise about having to finish an album on the 28th of the month because you're about to run out of money, especially if you're sitting freaking the f*** out and trying to figure out what's up, down and sideways, but I guess at the end of the day, I wouldn't change a thing."