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Kirk Lee Hammett
Instrument: Guitar
(Lead)
Specialty:
Kick-ass, full-blown lead guitar, vocals
Birthday:
November 18, 1962
From: San
Francisco, California
Vitals:
5'8" & 134 lbs (1.7 meters & 60.78 kilos) ; brown hair &
brown eyes
Marital status:
Happily married to Lani
Drives: Land
Cruiser, mountain bike, '55 Dodge Coronet
Drinks:
Martinis, Sky Vodka, green tea
Eats: Sushi,
Mexican food, pasta, Indian food, Thai food
Sports teams:
None ("I hate sports!")
Before Metallica:
Played in Exodus, drank a lot
Likes: Mountain
biking, tattoos, piercing, collecting old horror-movie stuff,
cigars,
philosophy, H.P. Lovecraft, Taxidermy, Pinball
Listens to: Jimi
Hendrix, UFO, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple. Led Zeppelin,
Kiss, John
Coltrane, Gout, Mule, Chet Baker, Prez Prado, AIC,
David Bowie, U2, King
Crimson, Robert Johnson, Radiohead
Heroes: Boris
Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Jimi Hendrix, Chet Baker,
Diane Arbus, John Coltrane,
Charles Bukowski, Edward Munch, Joel Peter Whitkin
First concert:
Day on the Green with the Eagles, Steve Miller, Heart, and Foreigner
Describes himself as:
Smelly, ugly, happy, obsessive, progressive, curious
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Kirk Hammett, never without a grin or a curious
thought, is the true Bay Area band-member. Born in the East Bay town of El Sobrante
(also the birthplace to one Les Claypool), he gained an interest in music from his brother Rick's extensive record
collection, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and UFO. It all led to him properly picking up the guitar when he was 15, his first being a wholly unglamorous Montgomery Ward catalog special accompanied by a shoe box with 4 inch speaker for an
amp.
After picking up a 1978 Fender
Stratocaster, Kirk experimented by mixing and matching guitar parst to find his perfect sound before falling for a 1974 Gibson Flying
V. In a determined (and successful) effort to upgrade his equipment, Kirk even took a shift at Burger King to get the cash together for his first Marshall
amp. Around that time, Kirk also co-founded Exodus with Paul Baloff, and the East Bay thrashers crossed paths with Metallica
twice, in late '82 and early '83, as a support act.
In April 1983, Kirk received a phone call from Metallica in New
York. They were in the process of firing guitarist Dave Mustaine and wanted Kirk to fly out and
audition. Kirk got the money together for the flight, left California for the first time and arrived in the late afternoon to find three guys who were still waking
up. Immediately he, and they, knew the fit was right despite the fact nobody ever formally invited him to
join.
A keen student of his instrument even
today, Hammett followed his first 'Kill 'Em All' tour by taking lessons from Joe
Satriani, and embarked upon a passage of guitar self-education that took in
jazz, blues and classical styles. Indeed, education has always been Kirk's answer to potential
burnout. After the marathon 'Black' album tour ended in 1993, he immediately went to the City College of San Francisco where he took
classes, something he credits as the reason behind his reinvention as a guitarist on the
'Load' and 'Re-load' albums.
Kirk continues to bring a dazzling array of lead guitar parts to Metallica's
music, and has recently been switching off with James and taking on some rhythm
duties. He is happily married to Lani, and lives in San Francisco along with a large collection of old Hollywood movie
memorabilia, his two dogs Darla and Hoku, plus cats.......Oh, and for the
record, Kirk plays his guitar at least 361 days a year
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