Long before they collaborated on Lulu, Lou Reed and Metallica frontman James Hetfield had something else in common — and now it's coming back to haunt them, as we pit the follicular pasts of these two mullet bros against one another in the opening round of March Mullet Madness.

While college basketball goes nuts with March Madness this month, we're practicing our own brand of insanity: all business in the front, and a party in the back. That's right, classic rock fans — this month, it's time to put your bracketology skills to the test with March Mullet Madness. We've lined up some of history's most spectacular mullets and paired them off against each other for a series of tonsorial battles, and we're halving the field every week based on your votes, until only the greatest mullet in rock 'n' roll history is left standing.

In this round, we give you a pair of mullet outliers — fits of hairy silliness from two veteran rockers who've otherwise tended to keep things fairly serious. Reed debuted his twist on rock's official '80s 'do at the tail end of the decade, sporting his mullet during promotional appearances for 1989's New York album — and although that record marked a comeback of sorts for Reed, he clearly didn't attach any Samson-style significance to his mullet, as he'd end up lopping it off relatively quickly.

Hetfield's detour into mulletdom was similarly brief, though it was just as noteworthy — if only because he made his move well after the hairstyle's heyday, adopting it during one last burst of shoulder-length glory during the mid-'90s, just before Metallica's makeover for Load in 1996.

So which of these mullets gets your vote? If you just can't decide, don't worry — you can come back and keep voting once an hour between now and when the Round One polls close on March 21 at 11:59PM ET. Our March Mullet Madness winner will be announced on April 12.

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