In a recent episode of The Metallica Report podcast, Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett revealed a surprising perspective on his band’s music. Despite the technical prowess on display in Metallica’s iconic songs, Hammett admitted that playing their music doesn’t present a significant challenge for him. Instead, he finds genres like bebop jazz to be much more demanding.
“I’ll tell you, I know people are going to kill me, but Metallica’s music is not that hard for me to play!” admet Hammett. “It’s hard for me to play bebop – that’s hard to play, okay? There are jazz progressions where there’s a chord change on every beat. That’s hard, man!”
Hammett explained that his interest lies in exploring complex musical theories and solos by great soloists. “That’s what I’m most interested in: studying the classics of the great soloists and trying to delve deeper into the theoretical side of things, to look at them from a musical point of view and see how they approached it. Metallica’s music, I’ve been playing it for 40 years. Of course, it’s easy for me. That’s because I’m the guitarist. [du groupe]”did he declare.
During the podcast, Hammett also discussed his mentorship with legendary guitarist Joe Satriani. Known for training many successful musicians, Satriani’s influence on Hammett remains profound. When podcast host Steffan Chirazi mentioned that Satriani and Steve Vai had performed Metallica’s Enter Sandman on their recent tour and that Satriani had praised Hammett’s solo, Hammett expressed his gratitude.
“It’s absolutely wonderful. I love the solos so much [Satriani]. He’s my Yoda, you know? Every time Yoda says, ‘Luke, Luke, you can do it!’, that’s kind of how I feel.”Hammett said.
