Kirk Hammett has spent the morning surfing near his home in Honolulu. Little surprise, then, that he greets Metal Hammer with the amiable air of someone who woke up in paradise and is in no rush to leave. But he’s got a job to do.
A few weeks after our chat, the mighty behemoth that is Metallica will set off for the next leg of their sprawling M72 World Tour, including a stop-off in Birmingham on July 5 for the last-ever performances by Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne.
“I can’t wait, man,” he enthuses. “There’s an Indian restaurant in Birmingham that we’ve been going to since 1985, so we’re looking forward to going back.” Curiosity piqued, we ask him which one. “I’m not telling!” comes the reply.
Thankfully, he’s not so tight-lipped on other subjects. There’s an agreeable dismissiveness about working on a new Metallica album – he’s got ideas, but there’s nothing concrete planned – but he becomes instantly engaged when the topic of The Collection: Kirk Hammett, a glossy, new, 400-page coffee table book focusing on his impressive guitar collection, comes up. Suddenly he’s not just Kirk Hammett, guitar god. He’s Kirk Hammett, king of the sixstring nerds.
What made you go, ‘I need to write a book about my guitars’?
“I wrote a book on my horror movie poster collection a decade ago now. I thought that would take me two months and it ended up becoming a two-year thing… just like this one. That book opened up a ton of amazing opportunities for me so far as my collection was concerned. When I finished it, I figured the next thing I was passionate about was my guitar collection. But things got in the way, you know?”
Do you ever look at your collection and think, ‘There’s such a thing as too many guitars’?
“Oh, I suffer from that. I get anxiety because I believe guitars should be played – I don’t believe in just storing them away and forgetting about them. I feel guilty! So I have been on a quest to shrink my collection and get rid of the ones I don’t play. There were a few that were only ever used on Death Magnetic – I played them on that tour, then as soon as that tour stopped they went into storage again as I’m not playing those songs. [The World Magnetic tour] was, what, 15 years ago? I need to save those guitars from solitary confinement!”
Is it hard to part with them?
“Well, there’s three ways to get rid of a guitar. I always try to trade them off because it’s better than just doing a cash deal. Everyone leaves with a smile on their face and has something they want. Another way I get rid of them is by selling them anonymously online. I’ll list them on eBay or Reverb and I don’t say they’re mine. I get rid of a lot of guitars that way! The third is to just give stuff away.”
How do you feel about the state of the modern guitar player? Do you ever look at people on YouTube and go, ‘How the fuck do they do that?’
“I see a lot of ’em and I’m frigging impressed. There are some amazing players out there, where I’m just shaking my head like, ‘Why aren’t these guys working? Why aren’t they recording?’ But then I think… maybe they can’t. Maybe they have jobs, or families, or something they can’t leave behind.”
How do you rate yourself as a guitarist?
“I should be a lot better than I am. I see some of these younger guitar players and I’m like, ‘Where did I go wrong?’ Ha ha ha!”
Well, you’ve not done too badly for yourself.
“It’s hard for me to be objective or subjective for where I stand in all of this. I just know that I really like playing the way I do. I know if I keep on playing from my cojones, somebody is going to be able to relate to that. I don’t need to show off or get egotistical by being like, ‘Hey, check out this three-octave arpeggio with tapping in the middle.’ I can’t be fucking bothered! I have a bombastic way of playing – and I have always been that way, even when I was just in my room.”
Who is your favourite modern guitarist?
“Oh, that’s a hard question. I love a lot of modern guitar players. It is so much easier to learn these days. I look at my son – he’s able to play Sting songs and he’s only been playing for like six or eight months. After that time, I was playing Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy and Jimi Hendrix… badly!
All we had to rely on was our ears and each other. Someone in my school knew how to play a certain song? I’d be going up to them, like, ‘Hey, you know [Van Halen’s] Eruption? Teach me!’ Now there’s a guy on YouTube who can go through every measure and scale of a song. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Do you keep in touch with any of your old Bay Area peers? Are you in any WhatsApp groups with them?
“All the fucking time! I wrote the foreword to Gary [Holt, Exodus guitarist’s] book! Our friendship never really stopped. I text him all the time. We’re bros and we always will be. I’d love to play with those guys again – I’ll play with anyone. You just have to invite me!”
Jason Momoa wrote the intro for your book. What’s your relationship with him like?
“You know, Jason came over to my house recently at eight o’clock in the morning, so I cooked him breakfast. We just sat down and geeked out about guitars all day. He’s a big collector and really knows his shit. He isn’t some Johnny-come-lately saying, ‘Oh, I think I’ll buy me a couple of guitars.’ He knows them in and out - the makes, the models, which brands he loves and what’s rare and what isn’t.”
What else do you guys bond over?
“He loves heavy metal! He and I have that kanaka [Hawaiian] thing, we’re bros. It’s funny… he called me up [about the Sabbath show] like, ‘Can you get me tickets?’ I was like, ‘Bro…’ I had management send a message that Jason Momoa wanted to come to the Sabbath show, and next thing I knew we’d been told Sharon Osbourne had called him to ask him to MC it! It was like, ‘Hell yeah!’”
Exciting as that gig is, it’ll be the big farewell from Sabbath. Have Metallica had any conversations about your own retirement?
“I don’t believe in retirement. Retirement is something that’s been forced onto people; I don’t believe musicians are allowed to retire! This was the thinking of all musicians for the last century; because you’ve earned the right to be up there onstage, you have to fulfil that responsibility to the very end.
The goal was to die onstage! Especially in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Playing music is a gift, a blessing and a privilege. I love what I do and it’s magic – it helps people. So I can’t walk away from that.”
Metallica have been on the M72 tour for two years now. Are there any songs you’re itching to bust out that you haven’t yet?
“I tell ya man, the material from 72 Seasons is great to play. They’re such fun live songs. It feels like it did with The Black Album – those were all amazing to play live too. They’re songs that the crowds are very reactive to. People get so into it on every beat and note. I love Inamorata, You Must Burn!, 72 Seasons itself… The list just goes on and on.”
You released a solo EP, Portals, in 2022. Can we expect an album?
“I don’t wanna talk too much about it, but I am getting that together. It’s gonna be as progressive as that EP, because I’m really into that stuff and going other places, integrating different atmospheres and making music nobody’s ever heard.
In the last 10 years, the music has just been flowing through me. I don’t even have to work too hard to compose music or come up with riffs. I sit there with my guitar in my lap and it just fucking comes. It hasn’t always been that way, but I’m beginning to think the muse is just whispering notes into my brain.”
What should we expect from it?
“Well, it’s a lot of work, so it takes time! But I’ve been reaching out to people, like, ‘You’ve gotta help me… and you’ve gotta help too!’ But everyone is on a different schedule so I’ve ended up doing it all on my own again! Ha ha ha! We’ll see.”
What do you think is your finest moment as a guitarist?
“It’s weird, because my opinion of that changes all the time. I don’t sit around listening to Metallica, so sometimes something comes on and I’m like, ‘I haven’t heard this in fucking five years! I forgot about that sound.’ I don’t look in the rear-view mirror too often. The whole band is like that – we just move on. What’s the next cool thing we can do? It’s just how we are. But I will say, there was a period where I thought my playing was fucking spot on, and that was The Black Album. Those solos wrote themselves! Almost all of them worked out instantly.”
As easy as that?
“There were only a few things I wasn’t prepared for, and that was The Unforgiven solo, which is pretty well documented, and the solo for My Friend Of Misery. But because the solo of The Unforgiven ended up being so spontaneous, that made me want to do them all like that from that point on.”
You’re an avowed horror fan – what’s the best horror you’ve seen lately?
“I enjoyed Late Night With The Devil. I love it when things get so fucking freaky – the special effects are going and everyone is going crazy. I love that film. But to be honest, my horror movie viewing has taken a serious hit, because I have a two-year-old now.
All my time goes into being a dad, so when I have some time at the end of the day, it goes into my guitar playing and maybe watching some YouTube. I’m actually looking forward to going on tour, where I can have some time to watch one or two horror movies a day! I am so behind, I need to see The Substance! Everyone has told me about that movie.”
Kirk Hammett: The Collection is out now via Gibson Publishing. Metallica play Ozzy Osbourne's farewell show on July 5.
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