For over forty years, Kirk Hammett has played a crucial role in Metallica, shaping the band’s sound and helping to maintain harmony among its members. However, in a recent conversation with The Telegraph, the guitarist pushed back against his image as the group’s peacemaker.
“I have to say, I do have a temper. And I can butt heads with people,” Hammett admitted. “I butt heads with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich occasionally.” While conflicts are inevitable after spending so many years together, he considers it part of the experience. “Oh, everything. It’s just part of being in a band and being with someone for 40-plus years.”
When Hammett joined Metallica in 1983, replacing Dave Mustaine, he was just as outspoken and intense as the rest of the band. “I was equally as ornery as Lars and James. When I joined the band, I was right in there talking shit and doing crazy stuff, just as much as James and Lars and Cliff Burton were,” he reflected. “Sometimes prickly people turn on other people around them.”
In the band’s early days, their energy was raw and aggressive—something Hammett attributes to their similar backgrounds. “We were like a gang of youths and just looking for somewhere to belong,” he said. “I came from a broken home, James came from a broken home, Lars came from a broken home. The most well-adjusted person was Cliff Burton. We were all basket cases. But we created this thing called Metallica that’s been our refuge. It’s been the one constant in our lives.”
He also opened up about his upbringing, recalling a childhood where aggression was ever-present. “My dad was a full-blooded Irishman who liked to drink and liked to scrap. He was always fighting people, even fighting his friends,” he said. “It was just one big f***ing toxic soup of masculinity, and that’s what I came out of.”
“In the last two or three years, I’ve gotten way into ancient history, and the interesting thing is that, back then, almost all the major civilizations were led by women. Matriarchal societies are very, very successful. This patriarchal society, with all this f***ing masculinity stuff, it’s ingrained in all us males that, if males are leading at the top, that means all males in our culture need to be a leader,” Hammett added.
Despite the struggles and disagreements, Hammett remains dedicated to the band that has been central to his life. “Leaving Metallica is not an option,” he stated. “If I ever left Metallica, everyone in the world would remind me that I used to be in Metallica.”
Following the release of his instrumental EP Portals in 2022, Kirk Hammett revealed to Rolling Stone that he is working on a new solo album, which will likely feature vocals—a shift from his earlier solo projects: “I’m just actively getting ideas together for my [first] solo album,” Hammett said. “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.”
He continued: “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 also expressed openness to revisit the band’s controversial “Load” and “Reload” era.
In an interview with the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, the lead guitarist was asked if he would consider creating music in the style of the band’s mid-’90s albums. While those records received a mixed response from devoted metal fans, he didn’t dismiss the idea of revisiting that sound in the future.
“Yeah, who knows? We might just say, ‘OK, let’s go back to the 90s again,’” he said (via Blabbermouth). “It’s not a bad idea.”
