Latest news with #Greeny
Sunday World
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Join us backstage with Metallica as our man Eddie Rowley gets a taste of what's coming to Dublin's Aviva
Our showbiz reporter meets metal icons as Irish fans clamour for tickets to double date It once belonged to former Skid Row and Thin Lizzy guitarist, the late Gary Moore, who was forced to sell it when he was down on his luck financially. Gary had bought it from its first famous owner, British musician Peter Green, who used it during his time in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac. 'Greeny', a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard named after Green, is now one of the most recognisable guitars on the face of the earth. The band will play two different sets over two nights with different support acts too . . When I joined Metallica's M72 World Tour in Philadelphia last weekend, guitar god Hammett told us at a sideline event: 'It's funny, I had nothing to do with the fanbase this guitar has and it's a huge fanbase. 'When I acquired this guitar the fanbase even swelled exponentially because people learned about the other players who owned this guitar, so I feel like I'm furthering a legacy. 'A lot of the time people come up to me who are not Metallica fans but who love Greeny and they want to take a picture with her. It's the first time I owned a guitar that already had a fan club before I had it.' I watched Kirk in action with 'Greeny' over two nights at 'The Linc' stadium, home of the Philadelphia Eagles, where Metallica thrilled their own fans with incendiary performances in spectacular shows that will play Dublin's Aviva Stadium next June. Eddie with Metallica tour chief Jon-Michael Marino Tickets cover two concerts, with the world's greatest heavy metal band playing a completely different set list each night and with two new support acts on the second bill. As Metallica tour chief Jon-Michael Marino took the Sunday World inside the world of the legendary band hours before the show, I got the thrill of stepping up on to the stage where they'd perform to 67,000 fans that night. The sprawling, breath-taking stage is 'in the round' with eight gigantic towers hosting video screens and a colossal sound system that ensures even fans sitting in the gods have the best possible experience. Earlier, on my way in, I had strolled past 87 monster trucks that ferry in the stage and production. 'We have a crew of 350 people, so it's a travelling village. The production is incredible, but the live energy in the Metallica concert is really second to none,' Jon pointed out. 'It doesn't matter if you're seeing the band for the first time or if you are some of the die-hard fans I know personally who have seen 250 shows, it's the energy and the sense of community you have when you have 40,000 to 80,000 Metallica fans gathered in one space that's pretty special… the goosebumps that you get don't really go away. Eddie Rowley with one of the Metallica guitars 'The shows have only got better somehow over 44 years. They're not getting slower, they're not getting softer, it's not a greatest hits lap around the world. They are still creating new music and I expect that they'll continue to do so.' Over the two nights in Philadelphia, Metallica unleashed a barrage of their most celebrated and revered songs from their impressive arsenal with manic drumming from skinsman Lars driving the full-on, power-packed performance. James Hetfield's voice is a force of nature and he looks like he's in the best shape of his life these days — having struggled with alcohol abuse in the past — as he prowls the stage mesmerising us with his guitar work and vocal delivery. 'Music saves my life every day, I hope you feel the same,' Hetfield told us at the first show. On the second night he addressed the issue of suicide, urging people to seek help. 'I know darkness, I know everyone here knows darkness, and we don't know how hard it needs to get to go there [suicide],' James says. 'But that permanent solution to a temporary problem is not worth it. I say talk, talk that sh*t out, get that sh*t out… that's not why you're here. You are here to be loved and cherished, so talk to your friends.' Eddie Rowley with the Metallica drum kit Superfan Brian Thomas from Raleigh, North Carolina, has been to 46 Metallica shows. 'It's going to hit 50 in Tampa in a couple of weeks and I'm really looking hard at coming to Dublin,' he tells me. 'You can't go to a sporting event in the United States without hearing a Metallica song because it's high energy, excellent music, amps the crowd up and everybody's feeling good when they hear it.' Metallica's M72 World Tour will play Dublin's Aviva Stadium on June 19 and 21, 2026. Two-night tickets are now on sale. For further information, enhanced experiences, travel packages and more, go to James Hetfield and Metallica will bring their explosive show to the Aviva next year News in 90 Seconds - 3rd June 2025
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
New photo book by Metallica's Kirk Hammett highlights his ‘holy grail' of rare six-strings
For Metallica's Kirk Hammett, there is one electric guitar that stands above the rest in his arsenal for the metal band's ongoing M72 world tour. He thinks of it as his Excalibur, he says. It is a 1959 Gibson Les Paul once owned by the late Peter Green, founding guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, and a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. It later passed from Green to Gary Moore, who played it on Hammett's favorite Thin Lizzy album, 'Black Rose.' The golden instrument is now part of Hammett's vast collection of vintage and custom-made guitars, and even in that company, the guitar nicknamed 'Greeny' is special. The Metallica lead guitarist is often on YouTube searching for old videos of Green, Moore and others playing it live across the decades. 'That guitar's been through so much, and it's hurt so much and sang so much,' Hammett says. 'I just gotta try and keep it going in my own personal way.' The guitar now has a prominent place in a new book dedicated to the Metallica guitarist's stockpile of instruments, 'The Collection: Kirk Hammett,' a 400-page coffee-table book from Gibson Publishing. It includes interviews with the heavy metal player, histories of the guitars, with vivid photography by Ross Halfin. The book isn't a catalog of his entire collection, but goes deep on individual instruments. (The chapter devoted to 'Greeny' is 40 pages alone.) Hammett says he doesn't know how many guitars he owns, and he doesn't really want to know. Now on the road with Metallica in support of their '72 Seasons' album, Hammett plays several guitars a night, but his attention often remains on 'Greeny.' It's the one guitar he carries with him everywhere— to and from the shows, to the hotel room, onto the band's plane. 'I carry it with me, so I'm directly responsible for anything that happens to it,' he says. 'Where I'm sleeping, 'Greeny' is usually 10 feet away.' He's also made a point of handing the guitar to other players to try out. In the book are several portraits of guitar heroes posing with Greeny: Pete Townshend of the Who, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons. Green's former bandmate, drummer Mick Fleetwood, is also pictured cradling the guitar. So is Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. All were part of a 2020 tribute to the late Fleetwood Mac co-founder at the London Palladium, and during that night Hammett played the solo on Green's 'The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown),' unfurling an elegant flow of blues melody very different from Metallica's angular roar. Afterward, Fleetwood stood up and yelled, 'Nailed it!' Hammett once handed the guitar to Jack White, who then played it for several songs during a concert. Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne has also held it, and said in a podcast last year, 'There's so many other stupid things you could spend your money on, but that ... is almost like finding the Holy Grail or the Arc of the Covenant.' The new book is available on the Metallica website, at and at stops on Hammett's book tour, with upcoming appearances in Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia; Tampa, Fla.; and Denver. It's part of another busy period for his band, with a remastered box set of 1996's 'Load' album coming in June. Metallica is also set to join Black Sabbath for its final concert on July 5 in Birmingham, England. In the book, one thing that is noticeable pretty quickly is that these are not museum pieces protected behind glass. They show the wear and tear of use in the studio and onstage, in many cases from generations of different players. Many are scuffed and scratched, chipped and stained. For Hammett, that's how it should be. 'I can't help but use them. I know people have to put on white gloves while you're handling a [collectible] guitar: 'Take off your belt, take off your leather jacket, no zippers.' I'm like, 'Huh?'' Hammett says, laughing. 'Literally, I take that guitar out of the case, I plug it in, I start playing it. I'm not precious with my guitars,' he adds, noting that an accidental nick to the surface of a pristine vintage instrument could instantly cost it thousands of dollars in value. 'I have some serious issues with that kind of thinking. I just want to play the guitars, and if there's a scratch or a bump, so what? I don't go in for mint instruments because mint instruments don't sound good. They have no soul, bro.' Hammett was approached about doing a book by the Gibson guitar company, which had begun a publishing project, starting with a volume documenting the guitars of Slash. The author of the text for both books is Chris Vinnicombe, editor in chief at Gibson. For 'Greeny' and other guitars, Hammett 'sees himself as the custodian' of these rare instruments, he says. 'He loves the rarity and the romance behind them,' says Vinnicombe. 'I don't think he's just trying to compile a kind of box-ticking collection of vintage classics just as an ownership project. He loves the chase and he loves the romance and the stories.' Hammett had already published a book from his collection of horror movie posters, 2017's 'It's Alive.' His devotion to collecting horror and sci-fi memorabilia and movie props is second only to guitars, and those interests sometimes overlap. He has several custom-made ESP guitars with horror themes, including the classic 1930s films 'Bride of Frankenstein,' 'The Mummy' and 'White Zombie.' And now that he's just purchased a Bela Lugosi cape used in 1948's 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,' he's planning on a guitar with that theme as well. Next will be a book of his vintage surfboard collection, he predicts. One of those boards dates back to 1970, and is decorated with drawings of ocean waves and flying saucers. Hammett was told it was made for Jimi Hendrix while the guitar icon was in Maui, though he can't confirm it. 'It's still a cool story anyway,' he says with a laugh. In 'The Collection,' the metal guitarist goes deep into the history and sound of individual guitars. Sometimes the look of a guitar is as essential as the sound. 'The first time I saw an electric guitar as a teenager, it was love at first sight. I saw it from across the high school hallway,' Hammett recalls of his first in-person sighting of a guitar at about age 14. Some of the older kids at De Anza High School in Richmond, Calif., were holding a Fender Stratocaster, glowing with an orange sunburst design. 'It looked like a hot rod to me. It looked like a rocket. It looked like you could get on it and just take off somewhere else. 'Guitars for me have always had a really uplifting quality to them just by the way they look. For me, guitars look so incredibly cool. Everything about the guitars — the wood, the shiny metal, the strings, the sound — I love it. For me, it's the greatest American invention there ever was.' He grew up in a Bay Area household where the soundtrack tended to be a mix of jazz and opera, salsa and show tunes. His older brother sometimes brought home a record by the Beatles or Hendrix. And Hammett was soon playing air guitar with his brother's tennis racket. Hammett finally got his first electric guitar, a low-budget Montgomery Ward model he traded in exchange for $10 and a Kiss album. He was inspired by the rock music of his adolescence: Kiss, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and UFO. 'That's what was fueling all of it,' he says, 'and a total dysfunctional childhood, and not knowing where to turn, not having any safe places to go, especially in San Francisco growing up. Music was an emotional, mental relief from all the crap that was going on around me as a kid.' In high school, he started a rock trio called Mesh, but Hammett and his friends could barely play. 'Some of the funniest stories you ever hear are musicians when they first started out and how crappy they are and how bad their band names are,' he says with a laugh. As his skills evolved, he formed a new band called Exodus, which would ultimately be an important player in the first wave of thrash metal in San Francisco. He eventually moved up to a Fender Stratocaster copy guitar. And as things got more serious, he saved money from his job at Burger King to buy a Gibson Flying V in 1979, a choice of weapon inspired by the example of guitarist Michael Schenker of UFO. The Scorpions and Accept also carried Flying V's. Paul Stanley from Kiss played one. 'That was a game changer for me,' he says now of getting his first significant guitar, and the model remains important to him. He's shown holding a Flying V on the front and back covers of his new book. Hammett joined Metallica in 1983, just before the band recorded its debut album, 'Kill 'Em All.' In hindsight, that was a wise and obvious career move, but at the time Exodus was as much of a viable young band with a following in the Bay Area. Even so, Exodus was at an impasse when Hammett got an unexpected call from Metallica. He packed up and drove east in time for the recording sessions in Rochester, N.Y. 'I can't remember why we went on hiatus, but during that hiatus a kind of split happened,' Hammett recalls of his final days with Exodus. 'I don't know how else to put it, but we started doing different drugs. All of a sudden, I felt alienated from the rest of the guys.' He points out that last month marked the 42nd anniversary of his first rehearsals as a member of Metallica. 'When I first saw Metallica, I thought to myself, 'Wow, these guys are great, but they'd be so much better with me in the band,'' Hammett says of his first time seeing the band. 'That was a very conscious thought while I was sitting in the back of the room watching them.' Together, Metallica led a thrash metal movement that began as an underground sensation but turned out to be more lasting than a lot of the more commercial metal then coming off the Sunset Strip. Decades later, and now one of the most successful rock bands ever, Metallica celebrated that revolutionary history with a series of 'Big 4' festivals in 2010 and 2011, as one of four leading forces in that original movement, alongside Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. In 'The Collection' is a group portrait of Hammett and Metallica frontman James Hetfield posing with other guitarists from that tour: Slayer's Kerry King, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine and Anthrax's Scott Ian. 'We all heard the same sound in our heads. All us guitar players gravitated to those same new wave of British heavy metal bands — gravitated to that hyper-aggressive, energetic sound, because that's what our personalities kind of demanded,' Hammett explains of their shared movement, which collided the dual influences of U.K. heavy metal and punk rock. 'You have to be a little bit ornery, a little bit passive-aggressive, a little bit dysfunctional, a little predatory, to write and record and perform this music. So it was a lot of the right personality types and the right personality disorders, when it was needed.' In 2023, Metallica released '72 Seasons,' the third in a trilogy of albums that reached back to a modern take on that original sound. As they play the new songs in stadiums around the world, alongside career milestones like 'Enter Sandman' and 'Master of Puppets,' Hammett has many guitars at his disposal. And 'Greeny' is always there. 'None of us thought this would be the sound of the future for decades to come,' he says of the thrash movement. 'We thought we were all just outliers, having our little group of friends playing the music that we wanted to play and doing it because it was fun. We had no idea what it would become.'
Forbes
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Kirk Hammett Talks Vintage Guitars, Musical Legacy And The Power Of Inspiration
MADRID, SPAIN - JULY 14: Kirk Hammett of Metallica performs on stage at Estadio Cívitas ... More Metropolitano on July 14, 2024 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Javier Bragado/Redferns) As far as iconic heavy metal guitarists go, Kirk Hammett needs little to no introduction. Hammett has composed some of the most popular riffs and solos in the entire heavy metal genre, and he's played thousands of shows across the globe touring with Metallica for now over 40 years. There are very few guitarists these days that are in the same echelon as Kirk Hammett, furthermore there's even fewer who've been performing at the his level for as long. Suffice it to say, Hammett's playing has continued to reach new audiences over recent years, whether it's new guitarists just discovering the iconic solos of 'Fade to Black' and 'One,' or viewers of Netflix's Stranger Things becoming infatuated with the ripping guitar riffs of Metallica's "Master of Puppets." It's truly astonishing how Metallica has consistently maintained their relevance for over 40 years – sonically and aesthetically, the band's brand always finds a way to connect with the current zeitgeist. With multiple decades' worth of shows and album-tour cycles under their belts, like any tenured band, Metallica has gone through plenty of changes, whether it was chopping their hair off in the '90s or tuning down their guitars on 2003's St. Anger. However, one constant throughout Metallica's career has been their use of Gibson guitars. Kirk Hammett has been a longtime Gibson player since he first joined Metallica – Hammett earned a formidable reputation in the early '80s thrashing on his now-iconic 1979 Gibson Black Flying V. These days, Metallica's Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield continue to melt faces with a number of unique Gibson and ESP guitars. More recently Hammett's guitar collection has drawn attention with a number of rare vintage guitars, specifically his one-of-a-kind 1959 Gibson Les Paul, aka 'Greeny.' The guitar once owned by Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green before he sold it to Thin Lizzy's Gary Moore, has been a staple of Kirk Hammett's live guitars for over a decade now. However, Greeny is one of several unique guitars Hammett has been known for over the years. In collaboration with Gibson Publishing, Hammett's recently has just announced his very own The Collection: Kirk Hammett guitar book, which showcases not only the rare and unique guitars in his collection but some of the prized guitars that he's ripped on over the last four decades with Metallica. Speaking on all things guitar and Metallica related, Kirk Hammett discusses his vintage guitar collection, musical legacy, and why he still holds great value to the power of inspiration. Physical copy on display of 'The Collection: Kirk Hammett' Kirk Hammett: Well man, I can't stop playing Greeny because Greeny is my best sounding guitar, and as a guitar player you kinda gravitate to what sounds best. And it's just crazy because hands down, Greeny is the best sounding guitar I have and I'm constantly A-Bing guitars because I'm a little 'OCD' about it. I have yet to find a guitar that that sounds remotely similar to Greeny. Having said that, you know, I find myself playing late sixties maple capped Stratocasters. And particularly 1967 maple capped Strats are really unusual in that they're rare because in 1967 Fender was going to cancel the Stratocaster because it wasn't selling. But then Are You Experienced [by Jimi Hendrix] came out, and that album changed history for Fender guitars to this day. But because they were about to be canceled in 1967, the batch that got out in 1967 were amazing. First of all, they put maple caps on a lot of the guitars from that period, which is a custom thing. And then the pickups seem to be hotter. It's really amazing, they just seem to be hotter. And, if you kind of do some investigating, it's interesting because Jimi Hendrix played a '67 Strat, Ritchie Blackmore played a '67 Strat, and David Gilmour played a '67 Strat. There's a lot of '67 Strat players out there and they have a unique sound, the '67 and '68 Strats. And so if I'm not playing Greeny I'm playing the 67 Strat I have. When I'm not playing that, I'm playing a a black ES-335, a '59, that's in [The Collection] book. And if I'm not playing that, I'm playing a newly acquired 1955 Esquire. And it's the very first Esquire I've ever had, and I love it to death. It's a really amazing sounding guitar and a lot more versatile than I realized. WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 20: Kirk Hammett performs during the 2024 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song ... More presentation to Elton John and Bernie Taupin by the Library of Congress at DAR Constitution Hall on March 20, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage) KH: Pretty much. A long time ago, I just got over the concept of of what ownership really means when I was collecting movie posters. And when you really think hard about it we can't really own anything because of the cycle of our lives. And what we think we own, we just kinda have. You know? Because we're not immortal. And we cannot own something really. You can really only own something if you're around forever to have authority over it, but that's just not the case. Sooner or later, you know, I'm gonna have to pass on every single guitar I have. So I grappled for about a year over what ownership means and what it means to be an owner, and I came to the conclusion that no one ever owns anything in the world except their own consciousness, their soul, their awareness. That's the only thing that human beings really own. And so, having said that, I just saw myself as a caretaker for everything that's in my possession. And that kind of attitude takes a lot of responsibility and stress just off the whole situation, just knowing that I'm a caretaker and I'd be blessed to have these guitars in my possession. I've paid to have them in my possession, and sooner or later I'll move on from all of this, all these guitars. So, I mean, yeah, absolutely, that sense of being a caretaker is pretty strong with me. And I totally completely accept it and embrace that. It's not that I'm bummed that I don't truly own anything. Not at all. Because I get to spend real quality time with all these amazing guitars and use them as tools for my creativity and music and expression. So I feel very very fortunate. But at the end of the day man I'm just a guy getting all this stuff together and putting it in one place and saying, 'hey, instead of having to look 80 different places to see 88 different guitars, you can just come here and just see this collection of guitars that I built'. And there's a running thread through all these guitars in that they're pretty rare and they're all very unique. And, that's pretty much where I stand in terms of seeing myself as a collector or caretaker more than anything else. And I'm glad to do it, man. I feel blessed and I feel lucky. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 16: Kirk Hammett of Metallica performs onstage as Metallica ... More Presents: The Helping Hands Concert (Paramount+) at Microsoft Theater on December 16, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor P+ and MTV) KH: You know, there's two or three definitely. I mean, the [ESP] Mummy guitar is very important to me because it was one of those guitars right when I got it, it looked great, it played great, and it sounded great. Just, like, right out of the gate. And I was just like, wow this is a perfect guitar. And when I started playing it in 1995 or 1996 or something, I never stopped playing it. And it is probably my most played guitar other than Greeny. And so, you know, the Mummy guitar means a lot to me. Also, the ESP Ouija Board guitars mean a lot to me too because I love the graphics. And over the years I've had so many different permutations and different permutations that sound different to other permutations, but when it comes to the Ouija guitar the very first Ouija Board guitars were great. But about ten years ago, I started making metallic finish Ouija Board guitars, and there's something about that metallic finish that just really made these Ouija Board guitars sound better. So the purple metallic Ouija Board guitar that I have is undoubtedly one of my best sounding ESPs, hands down, and then it's the Mummy guitar and then I have a natural, I guess it's mahogany finish ESP Ouija Board guitar that just has so many riffs in it. Every time I pick up that guitar, it just composes music automatically just by me holding it, or that's what it sounds like. These guitars just mean so much to me, and I think people can gather that. OAKLAND, CA - DECEMBER 17: Kirk Hammett of Metallica performs in support of the band's ... More "Hardwired... to Self-Destruct" at the Fox Theater on December 17, 2016 in Oakland, California. (Photo by) KH: Oh yeah, well, me and my original Flying V, my '79 Gibson Black Flying V, that guitar just had a lot of music in it. And I was just like when I got that guitar, it was just like riff upon riff upon riff, because it had the sound that I was looking for. Again, humbucker pickups into a Marshall and it's just as long as I wasn't traveling and I dialed my sound in, I was happy. But I believe that riffs exist in guitars and they just need to be coaxed out. James [Hetfield] is the same way, and we talk about it all the time – 'Oh, man, that guitar has so many riffs in it,' or 'it's trying to get them out. And, you know,' I shake in agreement, "yeah I know what you mean, man." There's certain guitars that are just screaming to be just expressive. Greeny is one of them. Greeny does not wanna retire. Greeny refuses to retire. Greenie demands to be heard, and Greeny demands attention. I mean, I give Greeny all the attention and all the opportunity and in return, Greeny gives me music, man. Greeny continues to inspire me and gives me music. And I tell you one thing, after doing this forty, fifty years or so, I refuse to really work hard on music anymore, and I refused to about ten years ago. Spontaneity is the key to the best ideas. The best ideas are the ideas you don't think about. They just come to you. So literally, like, every day, I just sit and I go, 'what do you got for me?' And then something comes out. Literally every day. And it's a problem because, you know, I get to a point where I have all this music, and then I have to do something with it, which is part of the deal. You gotta do something with this music that comes to you. You gotta formulate it and make it relevant or make it mean something, or else the music is gonna stop coming. So, I mean, that's kind of how I see it. And, you know, it's bordering on the metaphysical, but I don't know how else to describe it. I can't put it in scientific terms. I can't put it in layman's terms. I can't put it in musical terms. I can only say that things come and I feel like a vessel, and it is the muse, and the muse is whispering music in my ear. And I respond, I don't question it at all. I just follow it through and make sure that it's heard in some way or another. It's a pretty weird thing, but this is a conclusion I've come to after freaking playing guitar for almost fifty years. It's crazy. But, you know, at the same time I love it. I embrace it, and I hope other people feel the same way. I hope people recognize what I'm talking about in them and in their music and in their playing. I really hope that. ROYAL OAK, MI - FEBRUARY 1: American songwriter and lead guitarist for the American heavy metal ... More band Metallica, Kirk Hammett, performs at the Royal Oak Music Theatre in Royal Oak, MI on February 1, 1985. (Photo by Ross Marino/Icon) KH: I've been this way ever since the very beginning. Ever since I first saw a guitar it looked like a hot rod or a rocket ship or something. It looked like something that had momentum and speed, and it was some sort of vehicle. And, I don't know what it is, but I've always just loved my guitar and my amp. And I love music, and I love playing, and I love learning things. I love playing with people, I love discoveries. I'm inspired a lot. I'm inspired almost every day and just like my whole world is wrapped up in music. And ever since I could remember, you know, I've had music in my head. I've had a jukebox in my head. I can recall songs and listen to them completely in my head, which I think a lot of musicians can do. Music is constantly playing in my head. And, you know, when I want to, I can just daze off and just listen to the music in my head for it seems like forever. And so when a guitar came into my immediate orbit, it made sense. It made perfect sense because ever since I can remember there was music in my house, whether it's classical music, bossa nova, jazz, you know, freaking opera, which I cannot sit through even to this day. But, I've always had music around me and in my head. And even today, I woke up and there's f**ing, like, three riffs in my head. I had to grab my guitar and just pound them out. Like it's who I am. And I have so many goddamn guitars, I have to tell myself, don't look at guitars, don't buy any more guitars. But for me, I've done a lot of investigating and research. Music is ancient. There's no point where anyone can pinpoint the beginning of music. It's freaking ancient, and the guitar is almost as ancient as music itself. You know, people say the first guitars were rabbit traps. They'd put a carrot in a box with strings over the hole, and the rabbit would squeeze through the strings but wouldn't be able to get back out. The guitar and the kithara have always been around ever since the gods. And the gods are depicted holding lyres and kitharas, and those two instruments were the precedent for guitars. Those little instruments that Pythagoras split into, he took the tension of the string and split it and created the octave, and then he split it three more times to create the first, the second, and the third, and then he split it more to create arpeggios and scales. So my point being is that I'm just a part of a freaking long legacy of people who just love music and just feel like their whole life revolves around music from beginning to end. And we can get even deeper metaphysically and I could say, you know, it feels like I've always been a musician through all these countless lifetimes I've been through. It just feels like I'm always returning back to the guitar and that sense of familiarity when I hear music. It's crazy and it's insane and I don't really know what to say about all these feelings other than it's what I feel, and those are the thoughts that pop into my brain. I believe in the power of inspiration and that's because the power of inspiration hit me so hard when I was 15 years old, whether it's Hendrix or Michael Shanker or Jeff Beck or Richie Blackmore. That power of inspiration hit me like a brick, and it still motivates me to this day. And I hope and I hope that if I have just 10 percent of that inspiring sort of ability in other people, I'm gonna freaking pass from this earth a happy happy man. Because I've contributed a lot in the world of music, in the world of art and expression, but man the real ace in the hole is inspiring other people to make music and the music of the future.
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Greeny will always be Kirk Hammett's pride and joy. But this uber-rare 1959 Gibson ES-335 is a close second – and it has a surprising history
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Although he's best known as lead guitarist for the world's biggest metal band, in guitar circles Kirk Hammett has become as synonymous with collecting as he is with Metallica. His prize piece is Greeny, the famed 1959 Gibson Les Paul named after Peter Green and formerly owned by Gary Moore. But his collection runs the gamut of vintage collectables, from '50s Goldtops to Korina Flying Vs and, of course, his own stage-used guitars. Now a new book, The Collection: Kirk Hammett catalogs Hammett's rarest and most iconic pieces over 400 pages, including new and archive photography from Ross Halfin, and the history behind the guitars from Hammett himself and author, Gibson Editor-in-Chief Chris Vinnicombe. One of many notable examples in the tome is a 1959 ES-335 in a then-almost unheard-of factory black finish. This is its unlikely story. The following is an extract from The Collection: Kirk Hammett, now available from Gibson Publishing and reproduced with permission. Now here's something you don't see every day. Although black guitars are plentiful today, back in the vintage era, unless your Gibson guitar was a Les Paul Custom, a black finish would either have to be purchased through a dealer by special order or the result of an employee request. And when it comes to models such as the ES-335, original factory black examples are vanishingly rare, with perhaps as few as two or three known to exist. For a collector like Kirk, these are the guitars to get really excited about. 'The super-rare Gibsons, maybe one of two or three known to exist, that's the type of stuff I tend to gravitate to,' he says. 'Low supply, high demand. As a collector since I was five or six years old of like, comic books, toys… I just know that things like that will always hold their value. There will always be a demand, and as time goes on the demand gets bigger and bigger, which means more value or more worth. 'But I don't really think about the value or worth; I just like to think about how cool the instrument is.' And what is Kirk's favorite custom color from the 1950s and '60s? None more black, of course. 'If we're talking old-school? I love black Gibsons. They're just epic… there's nothing like a black guitar. A black guitar is like black clothing; every time you put it on, it goes with whatever you are wearing and it just means business.' Even the case for this guitar means business. Housed in a huge custom-fitted flightcase known as 'The Monolith,' Kirk has begun referring to his black '59 ES-335 by the same nickname, 'Because it's so big-sounding.' You can tell I've played it onstage because it has sweat stains all over it! Other than the addition of some gaffer tape to protect Kirk's picking hand from the sharp bottom corner of the pickguard, which has become characteristically warped with age, the guitar is in remarkable original condition. 'When I first got it, there wasn't as much yellowing as there is now,' he says of the guitar's body and fingerboard binding. 'It's only gotten more yellowing because it's seen more time out of the case. You can tell I've played it onstage because it has sweat stains all over it! But it's a killer. When I really think about it, and I'm really, really honest with myself, it's probably my second-best-sounding guitar.' Image 1 of 3 Image 2 of 3 Image 3 of 3 Kirk bought the guitar from a friend in London, but its previous home in Chicago provided a breadcrumb trail leading back to the Gibson stand at the NAMM Show (the annual convention held by the National Association of Music Merchants) in 1959. 'There's a famous picture of the 1959 NAMM Show in Chicago,' Kirk explains. 'There's a Flying V, a Les Paul, and right behind them is this guitar, sitting in the background. I'm 99 percent sure it's the same one, because the one I have came out of Chicago.' Thanks to a famous Luis Vuitton advertising campaign in 2008 featuring an iconic Annie Leibovitz portrait of Keith Richards in a hotel room with his original factory black ES-355, it's impossible to talk about rare black Gibsons without Keith coming up in the conversation. 'I wanted a black ES-335 ever since I saw Keith Richards' black ES-355,' Kirk admits. 'I suspect this is the guitar Keith has been looking for all of his life! It's one of my favorite guitars and it doesn't feed back. I've played it onstage, full fucking volume, hitting tremendous powerchords – super-full, no feedback. It holds up, man. 'Great rhythm sound, great lead sound, great clean sound. You can't go wrong with a 335. It sounds so big and full. It sounds like two guitars, really!' The Collection: Kirk Hammett is available now from Gibson Publishing in Standard hardcover, Deluxe slipcase and Custom boxset editions. See for more info.
Telegraph
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Metallica's Kirk Hammett: ‘Matriarchal societies are very, very successful'
In 2004, Kirk Hammett said he's always been the 'nice guy' in Metallica, and the way he came across in that year's rockumentary Some Kind of Monster backed that up. Where Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's film portrayed singer/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich as the band's feuding alpha males, Hammett was seen playing peacemaker, just trying his best to get the two co-founders on the same page. When the lead guitarist calls me from San Francisco, he lends further credence to that 'nice guy' quote. 'I don't know if you know about this or not, but the state of newspapers in America is screwed right now!' the 62-year-old says once we're introduced. 'So, I'm actually really glad to be talking to The Telegraph.' We're talking ahead of the release of his new coffee table book, The Collection: Kirk Hammett. Published by guitar manufacturer Gibson, it explores Hammett's famously extensive array of instruments, featuring interviews from the man himself plus new pictures by long-time Metallica photographer Ross Halfin. It's when I ask about Hammett's favourite guitar – a 1959 Les Paul nicknamed 'Greeny', formerly owned by Fleetwood Mac player Peter Green and Gary Moore of Thin Lizzy – that the side of him the documentary didn't capture starts coming out. Despite his depiction as a mild-mannered moderator, he's instantly loud, passionate and verbose. 'Greeny is a cut above the rest!' he declares. 'My friend said to me, after we'd jammed for two or three hours, 'That guitar is your Excalibur!' It's been offered to other major players, and they passed on it for whatever reason, but when I saw Greeny, I knew in less than a minute that I was never gonna give it back! I had such an instant connection to that guitar, it's such an amazing source of inspiration and it's my best-sounding guitar.' Being able to own such a storied guitar is just one of the perks of playing in metal's biggest-ever band. Hammett is calling from his home in Hawaii – 'I hate being indoors for any extended amount of time and love to surf' – and has sold more than 125 million albums worldwide. At least 30 million of those are Metallica's self-titled 1991 chart-topper, AKA The Black Album. The Four Horsemen rode towards heavy music's peak in a fireball of male rage. Their songs are d--k-kicking, testosterone-packed blasts. The Black Album features the snake from the Gadsden flag on its cover and has a track called Don't Tread on Me: a slogan that's become synonymous with libertarianism's chest-beating bluster. And, in Some Kind of Monster, Ulrich and a fresh-out-of-rehab Hetfield slam doors and scream 'F--k!' at each other. Hammett confessed to The New Yorker in 2022, 'Toxic masculinity has fuelled this band.' When I mention the guitarist's peacekeeper reputation, he says it should instead go to bassist Robert Trujillo, who joined in 2003, and does nothing to distance himself from the Metallica machismo. 'I have to say, I do have a temper,' he admits. 'And I can butt heads with people. I butt heads with James and Lars occasionally.' Over what? 'Oh, everything. It's just part of being in a band and being with someone for 40-plus years.' Hammett got the offer to join Metallica in 1983 – on April Fool's Day, of all days. Hetfield and Ulrich formed the band in Los Angeles two years prior. Their classic-era bassist was Cliff Burton, who died in a 1986 bus crash aged only 24 and was replaced for 15 years by Jason Newsted. Burton urged his cohorts to relocate to San Francisco and link up with the nascent 'thrash metal' scene, where Hammett, who started the now-veteran Bay Area band Exodus in high school, was already well known. He jumped ship to Metallica after they fired original lead guitar player Dave Mustaine, a result of Mustaine's angry, violent behaviour when drunk. I say that Mustaine has been portrayed as 'prickly' over the years, and I ask whether Hammett's seemingly more measured personality appealed to his bandmates. 'I was equally as ornery as Lars and James,' he answers. 'When I joined the band, I was right in there talking sh-t and doing crazy stuff, just as much as James and Lars and Cliff were. Sometimes prickly people turn on other people around them.' Reflecting further on the toxic masculinity that 'fueled' Metallica, Hammett says: 'We were like a gang of youths and just looking for somewhere to belong. I came from a broken home, James came from a broken home, Lars came from a broken home. The most well-adjusted person was Cliff Burton. We were all basket cases! But we created this thing called Metallica that's been our refuge. It's been the one constant in our lives.' Hetfield's father abandoned the family when the frontman was 13 years old and his mother died when he was 16. Meanwhile, Ulrich was a displaced Dane: the son and grandson of tennis legends Torben and Einer Ulrich, he rebelled against family tradition to make music. As for Hammett, he told Playboy in 2001 that his father 'beat the sh-t out of me and my mum quite a bit'. He elaborates today, 'My dad was a full-blooded Irishman who liked to drink and liked to scrap. He was always fighting people, even fighting his friends. He would get together with my uncles and it was just one big f---ing toxic soup of masculinity, and that's what I came out of.' In 2025, toxic masculinity is a hot-button topic. Donald Trump has reclaimed the White House following a series of appearances on such 'manosphere' podcasts as The Joe Rogan Experience and Logan Paul's Impaulsive. At the same time, Andrew Tate remains a figurehead for alienated young men, despite facing sexual misconduct charges (he denies all allegations) and shows such as Netflix's Adolescence dig into the pervasive 'incel' culture. 'In the last two or three years, I've gotten way into ancient history, and the interesting thing is that, back then, almost all the major civilisations were led by women,' Hammett responds. 'Matriarchal societies, they are very, very successful. This patriarchal society, with all this f---ing masculinity stuff, it's ingrained in all us males that, if males are leading at the top, that means all males in our culture need to be a leader.' That's a lot of pressure, I reply. 'That's such pressure, bro! We can't all be leaders and that's where the masculinity comes in: 'Who's the best to lead, the strongest, the fastest, the meanest?'' You must have felt those things in Metallica, too? 'Oh, yeah! We're just products of our culture.' With our allotted time nearing its end, our conversation turns to the future. Hammett hopes for his Collection book to inspire a new generation of guitarists. As for what's next, he will embark on a North American tour with Metallica in April, and he says that they aren't yet ready to think about a follow-up to 2023's 72 Seasons album. Even though the band may not enjoy an argument-free union after all they've endured, he's committed until the bitter end. 'Leaving Metallica is not an option,' Hammett says. 'If I ever left Metallica, everyone in the world would remind me that I used to be in Metallica!'
