Song Quotes by Kirk Hammett

My musical tastes change every week.

— Kirk Hammett

Jeff Beck is one of my heroes and has been since I first picked up a guitar.

— Kirk Hammett

Guitar playing is both extremely easy for me and extremely difficult for me at the same time.

— Kirk Hammett

If a guitar is too easy for me to play, it makes me too laid back. I like to battle with my…

— Kirk Hammett

I went through a whole blues period in the Nineties, and that had some influence on 'Load' and 'ReLoad.'

— Kirk Hammett

I love this pedal to death. The only way you could keep me from playing one is by chopping off my legs!

— Kirk Hammett

It really shocked me just to hear of the fans' response to 'St. Anger' not having guitar solos.

— Kirk Hammett

I'm very fortunate to be doing the thing I do best, which is play guitar. There aren't many other things I could…

— Kirk Hammett

When you're first starting out, there's always the temptation to hide behind distortion because it lets you get away with murder. But,…

— Kirk Hammett

I've learned that there's a signature Metallica sound, and if we stray too far from that, our fans get impatient, or they…

— Kirk Hammett

When I got my first Marshall amp, it was so empowering. No one ever forgets their first Marshall amp if you're a…

— Kirk Hammett

Metallica is like the phoenix rising from the ashes. We set everything on fire, and this is what has risen from it…

— Kirk Hammett

For the 'Load' album, I was experimenting so much with tone that I had to keep journals on what equipment I was…

— Kirk Hammett

Much of my playing is rhythmic and choppy; I use a lot of double stops. The wah just accents all those stops…

— Kirk Hammett

The only problem I've had with my Vox wah is its tendency to move around on the floor. So now it sits…

— Kirk Hammett

Because of things like iTunes and streaming and social networking, it's destroyed music. It's destroyed the motivation to go out there and…

— Kirk Hammett

One thing I've noticed over the years is that young players - I mean 10- and 12-year-olds - really like my guitar…

— Kirk Hammett

After months of playing air guitar to 'Free Bird', what really got me into guitar was watching a documentary about Jimi Hendrix…

— Kirk Hammett

I think the whole concept behind lyrics is you better mean what you say, or you should like, become a storyteller. I…

— Kirk Hammett

Basically I just had to say, Screw everyone around me - from now on I'm just gonna play what I think is…

— Kirk Hammett

There's something about a wah pedal that really gets my gut going! People will probably say, 'He's just hiding behind the wah.'…

— Kirk Hammett

Ampeg made incredible guitar heads in the early Nineties and then stopped. And I don't know why. The one we used had…

— Kirk Hammett

I'm not into that whole Satanic thing. It's just something to fall back on if you don't have much imagination. Singing you…

— Kirk Hammett

I don't think success has changed us as people at all. We are the same lunatics that we were when this band…

— Kirk Hammett

On 'Metallica,' I recorded six or seven different guitar solos for almost every song, took the best aspects of each solo, mapped…

— Kirk Hammett