Tag Archives: Kirk Hammett
Kirk told Dave to play all the solos
When Dave played with Metallica a few nights ago, he was a bit confused as to what versions of the songs he should have played. Luckily Kirk stepped in and saved the day:
“I was trying to figure out, Do I learn the demo versions of the songs or the Kill ‘Em All versions of the songs? Well, I found out it was the Kill ‘Em All versions. OK, do I learn my solos from the demos, or Kirk’s solos? What solos should I play? Then, when I got there, Kirk said, ‘You know, why don’t you play all the solos?’ And I was like, ‘Oooh!’ [laughs] I had to quickly go through my bag of tricks.“
Read full interview here.
They should have done a ‘Four Horsemen vs. Mechanix’ performance. Yup.
Anthrax and Kirk sitting in a tree…
Kirk “The ball-to-little-girl’s-face kicker” Hammett, Metallica‘s guitarist, joined Anthrax on stage in San Francisco.
It happened last night and he did guest vocals (huh?) on “I Am The Law.”
Then he remembered he sort of plays guitar, and played “Whiplash.”
The audio from the clip above is awful. There’s another clip after the jump, audio is just as bad. So yeah, don’t watch it.
Ian, Burton, Hammett – The Three Musketeers
Scott Ian posted a cool story of his friendship with the late Cliff Burton on his blog, and it’s a pretty awesome read. I just couldn’t help myself and had to do that photo above. Why? Read below…
Love how fat Kirk looks in that photo, by the way.
Anyway, here is the (somewhat) short version of the story. Make sure to read the full thing when you have the chance:
“I knew Cliff for three years and in those three years became good friends with him and Kirk, bonds that have lasted and stood the test of time. We were the three musketeers when we were together and we got to spend a lot of time together back in those days.
I was in London in March of 1984 doing promo for our first album Fistful Of Metal. Metallica was also in London because they were supposed to do a tour with The Rods and Exciter in the UK but the tour was cancelled. [...] One day Cliff and I were going to a store so Cliff could buy a Walkman. We were in the tube station and two policemen approached us and asked us if we had drugs. We said no, big surprise. Truth is, we didn’t. They kept telling us that we should just tell them what we have and things would be easier for us. We kept telling them that we didn’t have anything. I guess they didn’t believe us being the long haired freaks that we were because they arrested us and took us to the police station. [...]
At some point I heard Cliff’s voice and I started banging on the door screaming at them to tell me what was going on. A cop opened the window in the door and told me “they were taking my mate back to the flat so they could search it.” Apparently they had found Cliff’s cold medicine pills in his coat and they assumed it was illegal drugs. [...]
So now they were taking him back to the apartment and I got really nervous because I knew he had weed back there. If they found the weed we were fucked. All I could think of was that movie Midnight Express where the guy gets busted in Turkey for smuggling and sent to Turkish prison and nobody ever sees him for years [...]
It’s easy to get irrational when you’ve never been arrested for anything and you’re sitting in a cold concrete cell in a foreign country in your underwear for five hours with no clue as to what is going on. Another two hours or so passed and the cell door opened and a cop was handing me my clothes and telling me I was to go to the Captain’s office. [...] To my surprise, Cliff was already there lounging in a chair with a huge Cheshire cat grin. I figured we were OK but I still had no idea what happened and how they didn’t find the weed back at the flat. The Captain started to apologize to us and tell us how “sorry he was for the mistake and us being falsely accused and that the cold medicine really was cold medicine etc etc.” I freaked. [...]
As soon as we were outside I asked Cliff what the hell happened back at the flat. He told me that they (Cliff and six cops) walked into the flat and Kirk was in the living room playing guitar. The cops proceeded to search the flat for an hour to no avail. They couldn’t find anything. I asked Cliff where the weed was hidden, like he had some super secret hidey hole to stash his shit. He started laughing and asked me where would be the first place I would look if I was a cop searching a flat looking for drugs. I told him I would look under the mattress of his bed.
Exactly.
The weed was under his mattress and the cops never looked there!! I couldn’t believe it. The Metal Gods were looking down on Cliff and I that day.“
Read full story here.
Wait, is he saying what I think he’s saying? Did these guys commit a felony?
Holy shit, someone should call the cops! I have a feeling the inmates will REALLY love Kirk.
Make the jump for a photo of Scott and Cliff from that period.
Kirk Hammett thinks you’re rich too
The thing about being in Metallica is, sometimes you probably forget not everyone in the world is worth 200 zillion dollars. We all remember Hetfield casually talking about traveling in a private jet, as if everyone reading that could relate, right?
Well, seems like he’s not the only guitarist in Metallica who assumes everyone else is loaded, too. Kirk just released his own guitar straps, and guess what — they can cost up to $550 each.
Kirk, that is more money than most of your fans spend on their guitars. Hell, Dave probably can’t afford that, what makes you think your fans do?
That’s the strap in the photo above, which I stole got off his site, and in all fairness, the $550 one is the most expensive model. The prices range from $150 to $200 for the other three models, but that’s still a lot in my opinion.
I can’t comment on how great they are, but judging from the photos, they seem like they’re pretty well made. But again, I’ve seen guitar/amp combos cheaper than those straps, kids who want to grow up and play guitar like Kirk (a dying breed, btw, everyone just wants a Macbook to do dubstep nowadays) will most likely not afford them. Professional musicians who can afford it probably don’t care for the Hammett signature.
But hey, good luck with your business venture, and feel free to ship me a few if you want a review. I’ve already reviewed Jaymz’ picks some time ago, and that was all out of my own pocket. Throw in an autographed CD, and I’ll review the shit out of them, say they were handcrafted by God himself. [/shameless whore]
This is what made Jaymz cry
As Simo wrote yesterday, Lou Reed apparently made both James and Kirk cry. Now, no surprise there when it comes to Kirk. But Jaymz? That’s something.
So here are the lyrics that made both Metallica guitarists soft (to say the least):
“Junior Dad”
Would you come to me If I was half drowning An arm above the last wave Would you come to me Would you pull me up Would the effort really hurt you Is it unfair to ask you To help pull me up The window broke the silence of the matches The smoke effortlessly floating I'm all choked up Pull me up Would you be my lord and savior Pull me up by the hair Now would you kiss me on my lips Burning fever burning on my forehead The brain that once was listening Now shoots out its tiresome message Won't you pull me up Scalding my dead father has the motor And he's driving towards An island of lost souls Sunny - a monkey then to monkey I will teach you meanness fear and blindness No social redeeming kindness Oh-or-state of grace Would you pull me up Would you drop the mental bullet Would you pull me by the arm up Would you still kiss my lips Hiccup: the dream is over Get the coffee: turn the lights on Say hello to junior dad The greatest disappointment Age withered him and changed him Into junior dad Psychic savagery
To be fair to them, they do have a pretty bad family background, so it does feel a bit mean picking on them for this. Then again, read the title of the page. This is DOSE OF METAL, if we’re not being mean, we’re simply not doing our jobs.
Can’t wait to hear the whole record, though. And by ‘can’t wait’ I mean ‘don’t want.’
Source: Blabbermouth
Friday Top 10: Stage incidents
Last week we covered concert riots, and at one point I mentioned I might make a follow up. Here we are, it’s Friday Next, and let’s see if the sequel is any good.
Make the jump for ten funny, weird or simply fucked up stage incidents.
Friday Top 10: Greatest Metallica solos
Last week, for the first time ever, we missed the chance to write a Top 10 because we were lazy busy. Instead of publishing a ‘Friday Top 10′ on a Saturday, we’ve decided to simply work on a bigger Top 10 for ‘next Friday’ — which is this Friday cause this happened last week. Confused? So am I.
Anyway, this is more than just a Top 10. I will also talk about 5 runner-ups and will make it a Top 15.
Now, let’s get back to business. I talk a lot about how James is THE guitarist of Metallica, and people give Kirk a lot of shit for his playing. But truth to be told, Kirk wrote some of the best metal solos of all time. His 80s lead work is legendary and has probably influenced countless lead guitarists.
You can get the most technically proficient lead guitarist in Metallica, it won’t guarantee better songs. Kirk’s soloing just gels with James’ riffs, in my opinion, and this Top 10 will take a look at some of his best work.
Arranging the solos by ‘quality’ is very hard. You tend to ‘root’ for your favorite songs. So I tried to be as objective as I could and simply judge the solo itself, regardless of how much I like the rest of the song.
Disclaimer: This article will not talk about speed, length or other technical aspects. It is simply about what I think are Metallica‘s greatest solos, judged on how good they sound on their own and how well they fit the song itself. So all you guitar dorks out there, watch out.
Now that we got out of the way, we can carry on with the top itself. Make the jump.
Friday Top 10: Ugliest guitars
Guitars are beautiful and they make anyone look good. But what happens when some musicians get extremely ugly ones? Is it because they lack good taste or do they just want to stand out?
Either way, some guitars used by known musicians are atrocious looking, and that’s what this Top 10 is all about. Make the jump and let’s laugh at some hideous instruments.
Note: This top is based solely on aesthetics (it means ‘looks’ for all you SOAD fans). It has nothing to do with price, quality or the guitarists themselves. It is based on what I consider ‘ugly looking’ instruments.
Everybody on? Good. Great. Grand. Wonderful.
*UPDATE*: Dear trolls and nitpickers, I have written my follow-up to this article: Top 10 Best looking guitars. Enjoy!
Surf’s up, bra!
Nothing says metal like surfing on a blue surfboard. Luckily, neither Kirk nor Metallica are metal so I guess it’s okay. See? He didn’t even do the devil horns properly.
Anyway, you might think Kirk is home practicing guitar with a metronome, but you’d think wrong. He’s in Hawaii surfing. Well, why wouldn’t he? Next time he has problems keeping up with James on stage, he can just add a ton of wah to hide it… Oh wait.
But yeah, if you fancy seeing more photos of Kirk surfing, check out more photos here.
Kick the baby remix
We’ve already written about Kirk Hammett‘s incident with the ball and a little girl’s face. Twice. Since we’re so original, we’re going to do it again. Someone must have thought that the only thing wrong with the previous video was the horrible background noise (aka Metallica), so they’ve edited it. Say goodbye to Metallica, say hello to kung-fu movie type of sound effects. Video after the jump!
