...In Brief

Kirk Lee Hammett

Born: November 18, 1962
From: San Francisco, California
Personal: married
Specialty: kick-ass, full blown lead guitar vocals
Plays: guitar
Vitals: brown eyes, brown hair, 5'8"/1.75 meters tall, weighs 134 lbs/60.78 kilos

Views from band members.........

"He's not afraid to say ANYTHING to
ANYBODY." - Jason

"The thing that is so cool about Kirk
is that he retains his feel" - Lars

Biography.....

April 1, 1983, San Francisco, California. A
phone rings; "Hi, Kirk? This is Metallica, we just
fired our lead guitar player, and we need a new
one. Interested?"

Things didn't exactly happen quite that way,
but Kirk did play his first show with Metallica
fifteen days later in New Jersey. Metallica's
then road manager, Mark Whittaker, once
managed Kirk's band Exodus. When it became
time to switch lead players, Mark was quick to
suggest Kirk.

Hammett's playing brought Metallica into an era of more melodic and controlled guitar
work. He's been in the band ever since that day in 1983, which surprisingly was less
then a month after he and his former band, Exodus opened for Metallica.

Kirk grew up in the Bay area town of El Sobrante and began playing
 guitar at age 15. His first guitar was a Montgomery Ward catalog
special and his first amp a shoe box with a 4 inch speaker. A few
years later Kirk "graduated" to a 1978 Fender Stratocaster. Always
searching for his sound, Kirk managed to "Frankenstein" the guitar
with different pick up and amp combinations. Eventually he traded
up to a 1974 Gibson Flying V (just like Michael Schenker's!) That
Flying V is still part of Kirk's collection, and still pops up on
Metallica's albums.

With his new Flying V, Kirk started playing with other people. This led to a whole other
problem: money. A short stint working at Burger King fixed that as it earned him enough
cash to buy his first Marshall amp. Around that time, Kirk co-founded Exodus with Paul
Baloff. They were the support act for Metallica twice: on November 29, 1982 and March
5, 1983.

After the call from Metallica, Kirk scraped up enough
money for a flight to the east coast. He found himself
outside his native California for the first time, on the other
side of the country and in a new band. Oddly enough, the
band never really asked Kirk to join, it wasn't until the
recording of Kill 'Em All that he felt confident he was in.
After Kill 'Em All and the tour that followed, he took
lessons from Joe Satriani and learned the virtues of jazz,
blues, classical and Hendrix.

Currently, Kirk can be found in the Bay area, with his wife
Lani and dog Darla.