Lars Ulrich is among the many that are amazed with the surprise Top 40 hit status of Metallica‘s 1986 track “Masters Of Puppets.” The tune, which has taken on a new lease on life after being featured in the season four finale of Netflix’s Stranger Things, is turning a whole new generation on to the thrash giants. Following the July 11th season finale, “Master Of Puppets” has racked up 17.5 million streams.

Bravewords reported Ulrich spoke to Chicago’s Rock 95.5 and touched upon the song — amazingly — entering the Billboard single charts at Number 40 and shed light on how Metallica feels about letting their music find new audiences across the spectrum: “We try to be very involved in letting our music be part of these cultural things that are out there and just to connect to fans and get the music out there, but the way this thing has taken off. . . This song is 36-years-old, and it’s now in the Top 40 in the UK. It’s an eight-minute song! And it’s f***ing making a statement.”

Ulrich went on to talk about the importance of transcending the band’s original audience with their music: “Obviously any opportunity you get to turn new kids or younger kids on to music that may be a gateway into discovering whatever it is, whether it’s harder rock or different things, whatever is on their radar, is super cool. But this thing is just crazy. It’s kind of hard to fully comprehend, but it’s awesome.”

When we caught up with Lars Ulrich a while ago, we asked him if it was safe to view him as the glue that holds Metallica together: “Sure. I mean, I can go with that. Obviously, it’s a lot more complicated than that, and I find that as I grow older, my world exists less and less in black and whites and more and more in grays in between those, but I’ve always considered myself to be Metallica’s number one fan, and with that comes responsibilities. To keep it going and keep it alive, and to make sure that Metallica is the best it can be at all times.”

Metallica next performs on August 11th at Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium. After that, the band’s only other date on the books is on August 14th at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park.