Kirk Hammett is hard at work on his first-ever full length solo album, and unlike his debut solo EP, 2022’s Portals, it will likely feature guest vocalists, he reveals in the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. He also has a massive collection of brand-new riffs for the next Metallica album, which he expects the band to start work on within a year, shortly after the end of their current tour.
Hammett has a new book out, The Collection: Kirk Hammett, which shows off his stunning collection of vintage guitars, and to mark its release, he sat down for a career-spanning new interview. To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above. Here are some highlights from the discussion:
He doesn’t know how many guitars he owns: “I made it a point a long time ago not to count,” he says. “The number bums me out, ’cause I can’t play ’em all. And so over the years, I’ve been trying to bring that number down because it drives me crazy knowing that there’s guitars sitting in cases that never get played. I have a core collection of about 40 to 50 guitars I try to play all the time. And those are my most favorite guitars. And most of them are in the book.”
He’s amassed a staggering number of new riffs for the next Metallica album: “I have 767 new ones for the next album,” he says. It is such a nightmare going through this stuff, too. And I’m the one responsible for all of it and I can’t do it…. I don’t foresee us starting the next album for at least another year because we’re still finishing the 72 Seasons tour. Once we fully finish this and go to all the outlying places like Asia and Australia and New Zealand, I think we’re gonna take a little bit of a break, not too much of one, and then we’re gonna get right back into it.”
A solo album is in the works. “I’m just actively getting ideas together for my [first] solo album,” he says. “I guess the best way to describe it is it’s gonna be a fusion of all sorts of styles…. All of a sudden I’m writing classical progressions, and all of a sudden I’m writing more heavy stuff and all of a sudden I’m writing like a funk thing…. There will be vocals because the songs that I wrote scream for vocals this time around. So I’m like, okay, who’s gonna be doing the vocals? I don’t know. I hope I’m not—I already have too much to do on stage… I have an instrumental piece that to me sounds like it’s 2000 years old called ‘The Mysterion.’ It’s based on all this stuff that I’ve been reading, the ancient Greek texts, and it’s amazing to me because I wouldn’t have had this instrumental if I didn’t start reading these ancient texts.”
He’s intrigued by the suggestion that Metallica could re-explore their Nineties sound. “Who knows? We might just say, ‘Okay, let’s go back to the Nineties again. It’s not a bad idea! We haven’t said that to each other yet. And it’s interesting because when Load and Reload came out, there was a lot of backlash. But nowadays I run into fans and they love that era. We play ‘Fuel’ and people go nuts. We play ‘Until It Sleeps’ and people know every word. It’s kind of like how when I was a teenager, I listened to all the Zeppelin albums except Zeppelin III because it was more acoustic and I just wanted the high-energy aggressive stuff. But over time I really came to embrace Zeppelin III and how wonderful it is.”
He has fond memories of partying with the late Marianne Faithfull, who sang on “The Memory Remains.” “Lars and I, we loved Marianne and we would hang out with her,” he says. “One time Lars and I went out to dinner with her and Anita Pallenberg, Keith Richards’ first wife. And boy, what a dinner that was. And the stories we heard. Anita and Marianne really liked hanging with Lars and I, because we kept up with them. Every drink, every line, everything. We did a lot of drugs that night. Marianne was amazing, man. She never slowed down.”
Working with Lou Reed on Lulu was a profound experience: “That album means so much to me for a number of reasons,” Hammett says. “The lyrics are amazing. It’s poetry from track to track. I’m a huge Lou Reed fan. To be able to hang out with him and work with him musically meant so much. And the track ‘Junior Dad’ — I can’t listen to it, man. Brings me to tears. I remember when Lou said, ‘I have a song for you and I want this to be on the album.’ And he played it for James and I. And by the end of the song, I looked at James, and James looked at me and we both had tears in our eyes. Then Lou Reed came in and saw us both crying in the kitchen. He’s smiling and he said, ‘I got you, didn’t I?’”
Reed wasn’t a fan of guitar solos: “I remember I started doing some wah-wah stuff and he just went up to the mic and said, ‘No,’” Hammett recalls. “I was like, ‘What?’ And he goes, ‘No guitar solos.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ And then I remember at one point I went to a Phrygian dominant, you know, it’s kind of eastern sounding scale. And he went up to the mic and said, ‘No belly dancing music.’”
At 62, Hammett is still creatively fired up: “I’m 62 years old, and a lot of artists, when they’re 62 years old, they’re winding things down. I feel like I’m still climbing the summit. Haven’t reached the top of the mountain yet. Haven’t reached the capstone of the pyramid. Still going up, man. I still feel like I’m improving and I still have a lot of creative momentum and energy in me.”
His creative process is purely spontaneous now. “The stuff I don’t think about is usually the best stuff because it just comes to me,” he says. “And if it just comes to me in a natural way, then there’s an organic sort of feel to it. And so that’s how I come up with everything these days. I just sit there with my guitar and see what happens. I refuse to work hard on anything. And when I mean by working hard, just analyzing it and trying to go, ‘Oh, if I change this note and this has to work with this.’ It feels like I’m doing algebra afterwards. I don’t want it. I failed algebra two years in a row. I’m not gonna wanna do algebra when it comes to music.”
He believes Metallica can continue indefinitely as long as they stay healthy: “A lot of it has to do with personal health,” he says. “I think we’re all pretty healthy and pretty fit. And sometimes I freaking forget how old I am ’cause I don’t feel like I’m 62 years old. I feel like I’m still somewhere in my thirties and, you know, I go out and surf, I bike, I run, I walk and I do all sorts of crazy stuff physically. I’m still able to do everything. I do yoga every day, I meditate every day. I don’t feel like I am winding down. If anything, things are ramping up around me. And I know that I’m not the only band member that feels this way. Lars is in really great shape, too. As long as we have our health and our mind, I think we can just keep on going.”
He has thoughts on Polyphia guitarist Tim Henson labeling traditional lead-guitar technique “boomer bends.” “I love that,” he says. “But you know, is he gonna like, call Eddie Van Halen a boomer guitar player there? I really like [Henson’s] style. It’s really unique, and in terms of technique, it’s amazing. But then, it’s the age-old question, how relatable is it? It’s good to listen to like three or four times. Can you really relate? Sometimes people just wanna listen to music and not feel challenged. Sometimes people just want to feel raw emotion. Is he hitting on raw emotion? No. It’s so complicated. It’s a very distinct emotion that he’s shooting for and therefore, how accessible is it on a larger scale? Well, it’s only accessible to people who like that or can understand that.”
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