During an episode of The Metallica Report podcast, Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett opened up about how playing the band’s music does not represent a challenge for him and compared the relative ease with the difficulties other genres might present.
“I gotta tell you. I know that people are going to kill me but Metallica music isn’t that difficult for me to play! It’s difficult for me to play bebop – now that’s difficult shit to play, okay? There are jazz progressions out there where there’s a chord change every beat, that’s difficult bro!,” Hammett stated.
“That’s mind-bending, learning how to solo over that. That’s where my head is at – or looking at great classic solos from great soloists and trying to get deep into the theory side of things and looking at it musically and seeing what their approach was. Metallica music, I’ve been playing it for the last 40 years. Of course, it’s going to be easy for me. It’s because I’m a guitar player.”
During the podcast, Hammett also discussed his long-standing relationship with his mentor, Joe Satriani. Satriani, renowned for his exceptional guitar skills and influence in the guitar community, has shaped many successful musicians, including Steve Vai, Primus‘ Larry LaLonde, Andy Timmons, Testament‘s Alex Skolnick, Rick Hunolt of Exodus, Third Eye Blind‘s Kevin Cadogan, Charlie Hunter, and notably, Kirk Hammett.
When the podcast host Steffan Chirazi brought up the subject that during Satriani & Vai’s recent tour, they played a rendition of Metallica‘s “Enter Sandman” each night, and Satch praised Kirk‘s solo on the song, Hammett shared: “That’s absolutely, totally, completely wonderful. I love so many of his solos. He’s Yoda, he’s my Yoda, okay? Every time Yoda says ‘Luke, Luke, you’re doing it!’, that’s how I kind of feel.”
Satriani‘s teaching philosophy emphasized guiding students to explore music independently rather than adhering to rigid rules. Using Hammett as an example, Satriani recently remarked, “Kirk would come in and say, ‘This is a rehearsal tape, we’re working on the song. What key is this in?’ And it was brand-new music!… And I’d say, ‘Well, I’m not going to tell you what to play. But here, I’ll tell you how to figure it out… And then you just go do Kirk Hammett once you learn this stuff.'”
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