Kirk Hammett

Born on November 18, 1962, in San Francisco, Calif., Kirk Lee Hammett is an American musician. Hammett has a passion for horror movies that stretches back to the late 1960s. Hammett began showing an interest in music after listening to his brother's record collection, which included Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and UFO. At 15, Hammett began playing the guitar. After purchasing a 1978 Fender Stratocaster copy, Hammett attempted to customize his sound with various guitar parts before eventually buying a 1974 Gibson Flying V. In 1979, Hammett formed the band Exodus with vocalist Paul Baloff, guitarist Tim Agnello, bassist Geoff Andrews and drummer Tom Hunting. In 1983, Hammett received a call from Metallica and was asked to audition. Hammett has written several riffs for Metallica since "Ride the Lightning." One of his riffs was used on "Enter Sandman." The bridge for "Creeping Death" was originally an Exodus riff that Hammett took with him to Metallica. Hammett studied at San Francisco State University, focusing on film and Asian arts. Hammett went through a "blues period" and also began listening to a lot of jazz music. On April 4, 2009, Hammett, along with Metallica bandmates Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Robert Trujillo and former bandmates Jason Newsted and the deceased Cliff Burton, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On October 1, 2012, Abrams Image published Hammett's first book, "Too Much Horror Business." In 2016, Hammett provided the foreword to Greg Prato's book, "German Metal Machine: Scorpions in the '70s." On April 23, 2022, Kirk Hammett released an extended play entitled "Portals."