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It's definitely true that Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my all-time favorite guitarists.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
I feel like I've matured more musically than I have personally. But I totally embrace what becoming older has to offer. I find the wisdom that comes with each passing year is a trip.
Kirk Hammett Metallica
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There's something about a wah pedal that really gets my gut going! People will probably say, 'He's just hiding behind the wah.' But that isn't the case. It's just that those frequencies really bring out a lot of aggression in my approach.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
For the 'Load' album, I was experimenting so much with tone that I had to keep journals on what equipment I was using. For 'Hero of the Day,' I know I used a 1958 Les Paul Standard with a Matchless Chieftain, some Boogie amps and a Vox amp - again, they're all blended.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
Metallica is like the phoenix rising from the ashes. We set everything on fire, and this is what has risen from it - 'St. Anger' being the fire and 'Death Magnetic' being the phoenix.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
I was really, really wild in my early twenties and a bit self-destructive.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
Musically, there's a movement called the flatted fifth that's really evil-sounding. It was outlawed by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. That movement is what gives you a real evil sound that conjures up dark, fantastic images. It's like an audio horror movie. It personifies what a horror movie is about.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
A life lived unexplored is a life not worth living.
Kirk Hammett Metallica
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Although I'm a lead guitarist, I'd say that a good 95 percent of my time onstage is spent playing rhythm.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
When you're first starting out, there's always the temptation to hide behind distortion because it lets you get away with murder. But, when it comes to rhythm work, you've gotta back off that gain control a bit, especially if you're playing with another guitarist.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
Deep Purple definitely belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 'Cause they had great songs, great musicianship, they had an impact, and they're a huge influence on the heavy metal community as a whole.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
The movie 'Black Cat,' from 1934, is one of my favorite movies.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
When I see my kids totally into their Legos, it brings me back to the days I was hanging out and playing with my monster models. It brings me there in a second.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
about Nothing Else Matters James always wanted to be perceived as this guy who is very confident and strong. And for him to write lyrics like that - showing a sensitive side - took a lot of balls.
Kirk Hammett Metallica
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Ampeg made incredible guitar heads in the early Nineties and then stopped. And I don't know why. The one we used had a nice clean, warm sound, and it blended well with the other amps that were in the studio.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
The same sensations that you get in heavy metal are in horror movies. Heavy metal sounds evil and horror movies are evil, ha ha!
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
One of my favorite horror films of the Nineties was 'Event Horizon.'
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
If a guitar is too easy for me to play, it makes me too laid back. I like to battle with my guitar.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
Technology has given us convenience, but at the same time it's making musicians work harder in that if you really want to make money making music and selling albums, you have to go out there and perform. And hope you sell stuff like merch, and get on YouTube, and all the other ancillary sort of things that go along with that.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
I love 'True Blood.' I love 'The Walking Dead.' Those are fantastic series.
Kirk Hammett Metallica
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I think heavy metal is therapeutic - it's music that blows the tension away. I think that's why people who have had really bad childhoods are attracted to heavy metal. It allows people to release aggression and tension in a nonviolent way. Also, heavy metal seems to attract all sorts of scruffy, lost animals, strays no one wants.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
I've been into horror movies ever since I was five years old.
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
I love this pedal to death. The only way you could keep me from playing one is by chopping off my legs!
Kirk Hammett Metallica -
For a while I was collecting Satan and devil stuff - you know, anything that had to do with old Beelzebub or Lucifer. But I had to put the brakes on it, because there's a lot of stuff out there, and the collection was just growing too quickly.
Kirk Hammett Metallica