Why Kirk Hammett isn't allowed to play with the Big Boys
When you think of Metallica, who do you think about first? Believe it or not, not everybody thinks of James Hetfield or Lars Ulrich first. For some people, it’s Kirk Hammett. It makes sense when you think about it, he’s responsible for some of metal’s greatest guitar solos. Master of Puppets, One, Seek and Destroy, you get the picture. Well, here’s the thing about Kirk’s position as a songwriter in Metallica… it almost doesn’t exist.
When talking with Annie Clark (St. Vincent) as part of the Rolling Stones’ “Musicians on Musicians” series, he mentioned that when he’s trying to bring something new to the band, the band keeps turning down each bit of input almost every single time. He asked St. Vincent “Do you feel that your records are proper representations of your abilities? I always feel like I have so much more to say on the album, but I can’t say it.” And went on to list his styles that he’d like to incorporate, such as jazz, bossa nova, blues, gypsy jazz, Eastern European ballads. “I play all that stuff. But no one knows I can play this stuff. It’s so crazy” he went on to say.
So basically whenever Kirk thinks “Let’s do something new and interesting”, James and Lars don’t even think on it before saying “That would be kinda cool… i don’t like, try again!” Guess we’ll never hear our Jazz infused album with lots of “KYAH!!!” in it. Shame. There is set to be a new Metallica record coming sometime in the future, but there’s nothing confirmed on the progress yet. If you want to read the full back and forth between Hammett and Vincent, click here.
The band are also playing five major music festivals in 2020. The dates are listed below:
May 1-3, 2020: Epicenter, Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC
May 8-10, 2020: Welcome to Rockville, Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL
May 15-17, 2020: Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival, MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus, OH
Sept 18-20, 2020: Louder Than Life, Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center in Louisvill, KY
Oct 9-11, 2020: Aftershock, Discovery Park in Sacramento, CA