Kirk Hammett

Kirk Lee Hammett (born November 18, 1962) is an American musician. Hammett has been the lead guitarist of heavy metal band Metallica since 1983; prior to joining Metallica, he co-formed thrash metal band Exodus in 1979. In 2023, Hammett and Metallica bandmate James Hetfield were co-ranked 23rd on Rolling Stone's list of Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2009, Hammett was ranked number 15 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists.

Hammett was born on November 18, 1962, in San Francisco, California, and raised in the town of El Sobrante. He is the son of Teofila "Chefela" Hammett (née Oyao) and Dennis L. Hammett (a merchant mariner). His mother is of Filipino, specifically Cebuano, descent and his father was of English, German, Scottish, and Irish ancestry, although he has referred to him as a "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 fucking toxic soup of masculinity, and that’s what I came out of."

He attended De Anza High School in Richmond, California. While attending De Anza High School, he met Les Claypool of Primus, and they remain close friends.

Hammett has a well-known passion for horror movies that stretches back to the late 1960s. After spraining his arm in a fight with his sister at age five, Hammett's parents placed him in front of the television. It was during this time that he first watched The Day of the Triffids. After that, Hammett found himself drawn to his brother's Frankenstein figures and began spending his milk money on horror magazines. For the better part of the next decade, Hammett dove deep into the horror scene.

Hammett began showing an interest in music after listening to his brother Rick's extensive record collection (which included Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and UFO). He began selling his horror magazines to buy music records, which led him to properly picking up the guitar at age 15. Hammett's first guitar was (in his own words) a "wholly unglamorous" Montgomery Ward catalog special, which was accompanied by a shoebox (with a four-inch speaker) for an amp. 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.

Hammett's musical interests eventually drew him into the fledgling thrash metal genre. In 1979, he formed the band Exodus at the age of sixteen, along with vocalist Paul Baloff, guitarist Tim Agnello, bassist Geoff Andrews, and drummer Tom Hunting. Hammett named Exodus after the Leon Uris novel of the same name, and played on the band's 1982 Demo and its successor Die By His Hand from 1983.^{[citation needed]} Exodus was an influential band in the Bay Area thrash movement. During the Exodus phase Hammett took lessons from Joe Satriani who was based in Berkeley, California at the time.

In 1983, Metallica traveled to the east coast to record its debut album, Kill 'Em All. Due to lead guitarist Dave Mustaine's substance abuse and violent tendencies, he was fired shortly after their arrival, and would eventually form the band Megadeth. Hammett received a phone call from Metallica on April 1, and flew out to New York for an audition on April 11, the same day Mustaine was let go. Vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield said: "The first song we played was "Seek and Destroy", and Kirk pulled off this solo, and it was like ... things are going to be alright!". Hammett was instantly asked to join the band.

Hammett has written a number of riffs for Metallica since Ride the Lightning (the band's second album).^{[citation needed]} One of his riffs was used on "Enter Sandman" - which went on to become one of Metallica's most popular songs.^{[citation needed]} It was the first track and the first single on the band's self-titled album (also known as The Black Album), and was ranked 399th on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The bridge for "Creeping Death" was originally an Exodus riff that Hammett took with him to Metallica.^{[citation needed]}