Latest news with #TheCollection:KirkHammett
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kirk Hammett to support book, art while in Toronto for Metallica's two shows
Heavy metal vets Metallica will spread their influence in Toronto beyond their upcoming April 24 and 26 shows at Rogers Centre. Guitarist Kurt Hammett will appear at TIFF Lightbox on April 25 to support his new coffee table book, The Collection: Kirk Hammett, where he will be joined by Mark Agnesi of Gibson for a live discussion. Meanwhile on the same day, The Art of Squindo, a Q&A with Hammett about his cartoon-style fine art and sculpting, will take place at the Lounge at Live Nation. And lastly, the Metallica tribute band, Sandman, will perform at the Velvet Underground on April 25. Tickets for all three events are on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Metallica's Kirk Hammett to Release His Debut Solo Album at Age 62: 'A Fusion of All Sorts of Styles'
Kirk Hammett is making some career moves. In an interview with Rolling Stone on Sunday, March 23, the legendary Metallica member — who has been the band's guitarist since 1983 when Dave Mustaine left — revealed he's working on his debut solo album. While speaking about his new book, The Collection: Kirk Hammett, which offers fans a rare glimpse into his extensive collection of guitars, Hammett, 62, explained how he's getting the ball rolling on the LP. 'I'm just actively getting ideas together for my [first] solo album,' he told the publication. 'I guess the best way to describe it is it's gonna be a fusion of all sorts of styles…. All of a sudden I'm writing classical progressions, and all of a sudden I'm writing more heavy stuff and all of a sudden I'm writing like a funk thing…." Related: Kirk Hammett Says His New Gibson Book Is a 'Tribute' to the 'Wonderful' and 'Awe-Inspiring' World of Guitars (Exclusive) He added: 'There will be vocals because the songs that I wrote scream for vocals this time around. So I'm like, okay, who's gonna be doing the vocals? I don't know. I hope I'm not—I already have too much to do on stage…." "I have an instrumental piece that to me sounds like it's 2000 years old called 'The Mysterion.' It's based on all this stuff that I've been reading, the ancient Greek texts, and it's amazing to me because I wouldn't have had this instrumental if I didn't start reading these ancient texts," the "Enter Sandman" artist concluded. Hammett dropped his first solo LP in 2022 with the Portals EP, a four-song, 27-minute instrumental project Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Related: Metallica Extends M72 World Tour with 2025 North American Dates and Fans Are Excited: 'Absolutely Not a Drill' On Friday, March 21, the "Master of Puppets" musician spoke to PEOPLE about his new book The Collection: Kirk Hammett, written by Chris Vinnicombe, Gibson's Editor-in-Chief, and released via Gibson Publishing on Thursday, March 20. "The idea with this book is to just put together the guitars that I love the most and share 'em with everyone out there and hope that there's some cool, unexpected results that come out of this," he said of the book. Hammett added: "I love guitars, and I know there are people out there who love guitars just as much as I do and will just stare at a picture of a guitar forever." Ultimately, The Collection: Kirk Hammett is for people who have "a real passion for the greatness of electric guitars, or guitars in general." Read the original article on People
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!'
