- 3 years ago
An interview with Kirk Hammett of the mighty Metallica. WMMR.com for more!
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00:00It's 93.3 WMMR in Philadelphia. I am Sarah tonight in East Rutherford, New Jersey at MetLife Stadium because Metallica is about to kick off their M72 world tour, at least this leg of it. And I am joined by Kirk Hammett of Metallica. Thank you so much for taking the time.
00:18I am so happy to be here right now talking to you. So you this is the tour kickoff for North America. You just got done the European run of this M72 no repeats tour. How did that go? It was great. I mean, we had had a lot of fun playing those shows.
00:35It took us a couple couple shows to figure out that stage and, you know, how to had how to wrangle that stage. And it took us a few a few shows to figure out what songs work best on that stage. But we've got that all worked out now. And so, you know, it's great because just in time for North America.
00:56So we get the better end of that deal. The more refined road tested show. Yes.
01:02Well, when the playlist switches from night to night and you've got these gaps between shows, how do you vibe check the crowd when you get off stage?
01:11What has to happen for you to go, OK, that was a kick ass show?
01:15Yeah. Well, you know, every show is different. You know, every show has its own kind of like dynamic and vibe.
01:22And it really just boils down to our connection with the with the audience, you know, collectively, because like we can play, you know, any any combination of songs.
01:31Of songs, fan favorites, you know, deep cuts, whatever. And, you know, you never really know why, how it's all going to go down until you just go out there and do it.
01:42And a lot of times we went out there with really challenging set lists and thinking, oh, this is going to be too much for the audience.
01:49The audience comes comes back, you know, loving it, the feedback we get.
01:54And sometimes we try to make really like fan friendly set lists.
01:58And then people are saying, well, you didn't play this. You didn't play that.
02:01And there wasn't enough deep cuts. So, you know, it's all about just trying to really just strike a balance.
02:07You mentioned the stage for this tour is massive. I heard that the stage for your last tour can actually fit inside the snake pits for the stage on the start.
02:18Yes.
02:19How do you navigate that? Like literally, is it do you get a little lost sometimes?
02:25Sometimes I wish I got lost just sometimes.
02:28We get lost a lot on that because it's just just just picture just like a big donut or kind of like, you know, oval with no landmarks.
02:40You know, the only landmark is the drum kit.
02:43And so when you're playing and you're like so focused in on your your your instrument and on the performance,
02:52the last thing you think about is where am I at on stage, you know, and it is that's not something that we think about during the songs.
03:00It's something we think about after the songs.
03:03Right.
03:04So a lot of times you'll final note.
03:05Where do I go? Where do I go?
03:07What do I do?
03:07A lot of times after the song, you'll see, you know, me or James or Rob just like doing this really quick sort of trot toward her toward where our techs are and where are all our other guitars are.
03:21And that's what that is all about.
03:23But, you know, another interesting thing to know about the stage is like if when you do 14 revolutions around it, it equals one mile.
03:32And, you know, I think I do that by like the seventh or eighth song.
03:37So you're burning a lot of calories in a single show.
03:38Yeah.
03:39But, you know, that's what I'm here to do.
03:41You know, that's what we always do.
03:43We always go out there and just give it a ton of adrenaline, a ton of sweat, a ton of effort.
03:49And, you know, just really just try to just play our asses off and do the best show that we can do under the circumstances, you know.
03:59And that's kind of that's kind of been our approach to every show.
04:03I've seen Metallica in stadiums like this one.
04:06I've seen Metallica in arenas.
04:08And I was also lucky enough to see Metallica in a tiny little place not too far from here, Webster Hall in New York City back in 2016.
04:16What do you remember about that night?
04:18Because it was such a special show for so many reasons.
04:21Yeah, you know, Webster Hall is a really, really cool place to play.
04:26And so when we played there, it was just like, yeah, this reminds me of being somewhere out on the ride, the lightning tour.
04:33Nice.
04:34You know, and and for us, I mean, it's a real treat to play the smaller places because obviously we get stuck and play in these bigger places only because just, you know, the math of it all.
04:46So you've got to play bigger places because we have so many fans.
04:50And when you play smaller places, it's great for a certain percentage of the fans, but a lot of the other fans miss out.
04:57And so it's just one of those things, you know, we like doing the smaller, smaller shows, but it's it's kind of like it's not to it's not really a great thing for, you know, for us to be doing all the time because sooner or later there's going to be people, people will miss out.
05:14So we again, it's all about a balance of like, you know, playing the bigger shows and finding a way to play the smaller shows in a way that, you know, it's just like, I don't know, it just works.
05:26Well, Metallica does such a great job at bringing the fans into the experience, no matter what the experience is.
05:32That Webster Hall show was pressed to vinyl.
05:34So anyone who was or wasn't there was able to pick it up and like have a physical product and look at the art and see the videos online.
05:42And Metallica, you just purchased a pressing plant, one that you've been working with for a while, but now it's yours.
05:49So does that allow for opportunities to press, you know, maybe rare tracks or more shows?
05:55We have plans.
05:57Yeah.
05:57I mean, we have plans for that pressing plant.
05:59I mean, we have big plans, you know, when it comes to Metallica and in certain situations, certain business situations where we can be creative about what we do about it, you know, then it becomes a really, really cool project for us.
06:21And, you know, having this pressing plant is the beginning of a great project that we're going to be embarking on in the next 10 years or so.
06:29Are you a vinyl guy?
06:30Do you collect vinyl?
06:31You know, I just like music.
06:33You know, I just like I remember I remember eight tracks.
06:36I remember reel to reels.
06:38I remember cassettes, you know, albums, obviously CDs, dat tapes.
06:45And they're all just like they're all just kind of formats for me with, you know, various grades of like, you know, audio fidelity.
06:55And it's all really, really, really great.
06:57But, man, you know, to me, it's just like a good song just comes comes across no matter if you're listening to it, you know, through a shitty like three inch radio speaker or like a massive, a massive system.
07:13A good song will always be a good song.
07:15And so, you know, I don't I don't get too lost in, you know, in the audio part of things because that's a rabbit hole that I could easily go down because I go down that route with my guitar sound and, you know, guitar tones.
07:31And so that's something that, you know, I just kind of purposely stay away from.
07:37Gotcha.
07:37Yeah.
07:38Leave it to the other experts.
07:39Yeah, exactly.
07:39And you'll be an expert at what you do.
07:41Yeah, you know, I have a lot of friends who are total audiophiles who had like the most massive stereo setups.
07:47And those are the people I'd like to come visit.
07:50Yeah, yeah, exactly.
07:50You don't have to deal with the setup or explaining why it's high fidelity and all that stuff.
07:54You can just come and enjoy it.
07:56Enjoy their setup.
07:57Yeah.
07:58We're speaking with Kirk Hammett of Metallica on 93.3 WMMR.
08:02Metallica's debut album, Kill Em All, just celebrated its 40th anniversary a few weeks ago.
08:08And Ride the Lightning, Not Far Behind, going to celebrate the same milestone next year.
08:13What is your relationship to those early tracks like today?
08:18Well, when I listened to those tracks, I was just kind of blown away when I look back.
08:26You know, we were all so young, but we had a very clear vision of what we wanted to do,
08:32what we wanted to sound like, how we wanted to execute things, the type of songs we wanted to write.
08:39I mean, you know, for as young as we are, we all had a collective vision and we knew exactly what we wanted.
08:47And, you know, what we wanted and what we were chasing was very unique.
08:51No one else was.
08:52Well, very few other bands were chasing that same vision.
08:56You know, it was Us, it was Slayer, it was Anthrax, it was Megadeth, it was Exodus, it was Overkill, it was Testament.
09:04There was a lot of bands who were, you know, chasing that vision.
09:08And we all had kind of like the same vision.
09:10But what blows me away about it is we're all around the same age, you know.
09:17And so I don't know if that happens these days, you know, you find out just a large, large group of people, you know,
09:26a scene where everyone's just all into the same thing and is supporting each other.
09:31And then, and then somehow, some way, you know, record companies are start, start, you know, going, what's going on?
09:39Start getting curious.
09:40And next thing you know, all of a sudden there's a record company in the room.
09:44He's signing everyone.
09:45And we're all like 22, 23 years old.
09:49You know, the fact that we got so much done at such a young age just blows me away because we had something on our sides, you know.
10:02We had some sort of like energy or God was smiling down on us or the universe was pushing us.
10:09And thank God, you know, because those two albums, Kill Them All and Ride the Lightning,
10:14when they came out, there was nothing like it, you know.
10:17And I'm, I'm really proud of that.
10:19Yeah, absolutely.
10:20And it seems like it was such a special time and special community and a community that was,
10:26you kind of touched on it, but born out of proximity, right?
10:28You made friends by going to the record store and just seeing who was there picking up the same records.
10:35And now you can create community on your phone with someone who is across the world.
10:40Yeah.
10:40So things have changed just a little bit.
10:42Yeah, yeah.
10:43You know, and, and, you know, that type of community, it's great that you can do that.
10:49But, you know, there's something about people being in the room, being together.
10:53That's just like, there's, there is, I don't care what people say about Zoom or FaceTime or whatever.
11:00There will be nothing that's, there'll be a substitution for people in a room, you know,
11:06brainstorming, being creative, you know, vibing off each other, feeling the chemistry.
11:12I mean, it can be done remotely.
11:13And we did that with 72 seasons, you know, but still we missed the live interaction and whatnot.
11:21And so, you know, I just, getting back to your question about Kiliman and Ride the Lightning,
11:28I'm actually blown away when I look back at it.
11:31You know, I, when we're, we're touring, when we're making those, those albums and touring behind them,
11:37we just kind of took it for granted.
11:38It's just like, you know, all right, we did that.
11:40Let's go on to the next thing.
11:42We never like sat down and, and, and really thought about the accomplishment that we made.
11:48Right.
11:48And, and, and so, you know, 40 years later, I'm able to do that.
11:54And I'm able to go, man, you know, we really pulled something off and we were just kind of blase about it.
12:01Yeah.
12:01Well, the momentum, it just carried you.
12:04I mean, you, you took off and no pun intended.
12:07I'm wondering when Metallica is going to space.
12:09Cause I just watched that Artemis hype video soundtrack by fuel.
12:13I'm like, all right, I'm going to be an astronaut.
12:15Now this kicks ass and really Metallica, I feel like has done just about everything there is to do on this earth.
12:23I want to, I want to go up and play in space.
12:26I want to play in zero gravity.
12:27That would be amazing.
12:29That would be incredible.
12:30I want to play on the moon, you know?
12:32I think if anyone can make it happen.
12:34Yeah.
12:34It's y'all.
12:35And you know, it's really funny.
12:36It's just like lately you've seen all this stuff about UFOs and extra extraterrestrials and whatnot.
12:41And, you know, I, I get all this info slipping by and I'm thinking, you know, it's one of the info is like, they know all about us.
12:48Right.
12:49Right.
12:49You know, they know our culture.
12:51So I'm just thinking, you know, our culture.
12:54I'm wondering if they're like listening to our music.
12:57I think, yes.
12:58If there are aliens, their favorite band is Metallica.
13:01That's what we can glean from this.
13:02Yeah.
13:03Do we have fans that are way out there?
13:06Way out there.
13:07Like so far out there.
13:08I know we have fans that are out there, but do we have fans that are way out there?
13:11Well, before you go to space, can you come back to Philly?
13:14Because Philadelphia misses you.
13:15What do you have to say to the people who are waiting for you to come back?
13:17I got to tell you, I'll never forget that Tower Theater show during the right lightning tour because it was radical.
13:24And man, we busted the place up.
13:26And I remember that show was so crazy.
13:29It was one of those shows on that on that tour.
13:32It's just like, wow, that Tower Theater show is something else.
13:35And we were talking about that show for like years afterwards.
13:39Legendary.
13:39And, you know, this is how much of an impression it made on me because I still remember it now.
13:45The building's still there.
13:46I think Metallica should come.
13:48Thank God.
13:49Maybe tear down.
13:51She played it just for old time's sake.
13:53You know, that would be actually very, very cool.
13:56Love it.
13:56Well, I know you've got a tour to kick off tonight, so I'll let you go.
13:59Kirk Hammett of Metallica.
14:01Thank you so much for taking the time.
14:03Kirk Hammett of Metallica.