KIRK HAMMETT Says He Has 767 Riffs For METALLICA's Next Album: 'It Is Such A Nightmare Going Through This Stuff'

During an appearance on the latest episode of the "Rolling Stone Music Now" podcast, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett spoke about his songwriting process. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I've found over the years that the stuff I don't think about is usually the best stuff, because it just comes to me, and if it just comes to me in a natural way, there's kind of like an organic sort of feel to it. And so that's how I come up with everything these days, bro. I just sit there with my guitar and see what happens. I refuse to work hard on anything. I mean by 'working hard', just like analyzing it and trying to see, 'Oh, if I change this note' and 'this has to work with this' — it feels like I'm doing algebra after a while. I don't want it. I failed algebra two years in a row. I'm not gonna fucking wanna do algebra when it comes to music. I wanna sit there and see what the universe and the muse sends me. And, bro, in the last 10 years I've gotten great results. And all I really have to do, and I do this practically every day, I go, okay, I sit here, clear my mind and start just moving my fingers, moving my hands, and inevitably something comes. And it's a beautiful thing. And I feel so blessed and lucky that this is happening. 'Cause I'm 62 fucking years old, and a lot of artists, when they're 62 years old, they're winding things down. I feel like I'm still fucking climbing the summit, bro. I haven't reached the top of the mountain yet. I still feel like I'm improving and I still have a lot of fricking creative momentum and energy in me, to the point where it's just, like, I'm creating more work for myself. And I had to be careful. [Laughs]"

When the interviewer noted that Kirk supposedly had 700 riffs for the last METALLICA album, "72 Seasons", Hammett said: "Oh, it's ridiculous, bro. Because, okay, let me see how many riffs I have at this point [for the next METALLICA album]. Okay. Oh, man. All recordings — 767. New ones. New ones, bro. Oh God. It is such a nightmare going through this stuff, too. I can't do it. And I'm the one responsible for all of it, and I can't do it."

Hammett continued: "[METALLICA bassist] Rob Trujillo is an extremely patient individual, and he doesn't mind taking on a task like that, and I just shake my head and say, 'God bless you, man. You're my bro. There's a reason why you're so much my bro,' because it's just a lot of material to go through."

Asked for a possible timetable for the next METALLICA album, Kirk said: "When we have a band meeting, and it's usually [METALLICA drummer] Lars [Ulrich] who says the line, 'Okay, boys, time to create the riff bank,' that's when we all step up.' But I don't foresee that happening for at least another year, 'cause we're still finishing the '72 Seasons' tour. And once we fully finish this and go to all the outlying places like Asia and Australia and New Zealand, whatnot, I think we're gonna take a little bit of a break — not too much of one — and then we're gonna get right back into it. Hopefully — that's what I see. But in METALLICA, any fucking thing can happen. I mean, COVID really just fricking surprised the hell out of us and threw our whole cycle off. We managed to get our heads together and figure out a way to to work during COVID, and the result of that is '72 Seasons'. And '72 Seasons' turned out better than any of us expected, given the circumstance of fucking COVID and writing via Zoom, writing songs via Zoom. It's not ideal, man. I wanna feel that kick drum in my gut, but you can't get that through Zoom. But still we managed to fucking focus and be as precise as we could under the circumstances. And we made what I think is a pretty decent album."

When the interviewer suggested that it would be interesting for METALLICA to pursue a 1990s direction again with a bluesier, simpler songwriting approach, Kirk said: "Yeah, who knows? We might just say, 'Okay, let's go back to the '90s again.' It's not a bad idea. We haven't said that to each other yet. And it's interesting because when 'Load' and 'Reload' came out, there was a lot of derision, there was a lot of backlash. It was too much change. We changed our appearance, we changed our sound, we changed the way we recorded. I was even playing different guitars and fucking tuning to E flat and listening to a lot of blues and jazz. And so all those factors came out on 'Load' and 'Reload' to make what 'Load' and 'Reload' are, and 'Load' and 'Reload' are so different from anything that came before it. It's interesting, 'cause nowadays I run into fans and they love that era — they love'Load' and 'Reload'. But when those albums first came out, it was, like, 'Fuck 'Load'. Fuck 'Reload'. Fuck METALLICA.' But nowadays we play 'Fuel' and people go nuts."

Hammett continued: " When I was a teenager, I listened to all the [LED] ZEPPELIN albums except '[Led] Zeppelin III', because it was more acoustic and I just wanted the high-energy, aggressive stuff, 'cause that's what I'd like when I was a kid. But over time, I really came to embrace 'Zeppelin III' and how wonderful it is. And now I fucking fully understand it and its place in ZEPPELIN's catalog. And I think a similar theme kind of happened with 'Load' and 'Reload'. After people got over the initial shock and the challenge, people kind of sat down and gave an honest listen and said, 'Oh, it's not really that bad at the end of the day.'

After the interviewer opined that METALLICA's nail polish and short hair affected people's opinion of those albums more than the music, Kirk said: "One of the reasons why I cut my hair, bro, is 'cause I didn't think I looked good with long hair when I wore a suit jacket. So I cut my hair so I looked better when I wore a suit jacket. I swear to God. That was one of the only reasons. There wasn't like any fricking huge thing. I showed up and I cut my hair. Then literally the next day, Lars cut his hair, because he was already thinking about it. And so James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] saw that Lars and I cut our hair and he fucking went for it. It just seemed like a cool, kind of nice change. And [then-METALLICA bassist] Jason Newsted already had short hair by that point."

Hammett also talked about his plans for new solo music, explaining: "Right now I'm just actively getting ideas together for my second solo album. And I guess the best way for me to describe it is it's gonna be a fusion of all sorts of styles, but not necessarily a fusion album. It's not [gonna be] jazz fusion… All of a sudden I'm writing fucking classical progressions and all of a sudden I'm fucking writing more heavy stuff and all of a sudden I'm writing like a funk thing. I'm like going, 'Okay, I guess this is what it is. This is what it is.' It's a fusion of different styles. And it's gonna be a full-length album. My last one, called 'Portals', it's still a half hour worth of music, but this is gonna be a full album's worth of music… There will be vocals [on it], because the songs that I wrote just 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, 'cause I already have too much to do on stage."

Regarding what he is drawing inspiration from for his solo music, Kirk said: "It's interesting because I started to read Ancient Greek. And I've been obsessed with a lot of ancient Greek texts. Pythagoras, he's the father of fucking musical theory. And I'm discovering that, that the guitar, the liar and the cathara are ancient, so ancient that they can't figure out the origins of these instruments and the Greeks just say that Gods, they just showed up with them. and Dionysus and Apollo, they just showed up playing these things. And so there's so much reference to music in the ancient text in regards to rite, ritual and magic, and it's so interesting to me because I see parallels. The Greeks used to use music to augment the rituals, their secret rites. And music was so highly regarded back then. And I'm reading all this and I'm shaking my head going, 'Yes, I can see how they would use all this.' 'Cause I firmly believe that if there's any true, real true example of what magic is in this world, it's music, bro. Music is magic. Magic is music. Music is magic, because all you need to do is sit in front of someone and play an instrument and they're moved by it. You have the ability to change the situation in the room by playing music. When people hear certain types of music, they're transformed. If you don't think that's magic, what is it? Science. Come on, give me a break. It's more than that. And so I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff like this. Sorry to say."

On the topic of a possible release date for his next solo album, Kirk said: "I'm hoping to bring it out at a time where it doesn't conflict with METALLICA's schedule, so it's probably gonna be sometime next year. I'm gonna try and finish it by the end of this year. And because I've been reading all these ancient Greek texts, they've influenced the music. I have an instrumental piece that, to me, sounds like it's 2000 years old, called 'The Mysterion'. And it's based on all this stuff that I've been reading, the ancient Greek texts. And it's amazing to me, bro, because I wouldn't have had this instrumental if I didn't start reading these ancient texts. So something's happening, something unseen and invisible is happening, bro, to me, because I'm being sent all this music."

Kirk continued: "I feel like an antenna or a vessel. The muse whispers music into my ear every single fucking day. I need to act on it or else I'll stop. And that's kind of where I'm at these days. And I'm having my own fricking weird experience, my own musical experience in the close confines of my house when I'm writing and doing demos for this music. And it feels almost like stemming on paranormal, bro, because, like I said, I refuse to work hard on anything. But the music's still coming, and it's taking shape into songs, tracks, great musical ideas, and all I can really do is say 'thank you' to whoever, because I refuse to take my ego and put it into this and take responsibility for this thing. And I created all this. 'Cause it doesn't even feel like that. Honestly, it does not feel like it. I'm just fucking passing something along. It's craziness. I'm having problems wrapping my head around it because I need to understand things. I'm a seeker of knowledge, so I need to understand things, and this I can't fully understand, so I'm looking to other ways to explain it. And it's living somewhere in the unseen. And people are gonna think I'm crazy. But you know what? I'll just play you the fucking music and you guys figure it out.

"I see music as an invisible temple," Hammett added. "When you listen to the music, the four walls come up: harmony, tone, rhythm and melody. And you're in this temple listening and experiencing it. And then when the song ends, the walls come down and you're left with an experience.

"I've been struggling with all this stuff the last two or three years. I don't have any answers that sound logical. And any answer that I can give you that's steeped in some sort of sensibility just sounds like bullshit to me. And I'm not a bullshitter."

"Portals" was released in April 2022 via Blackened Recordings across digital platforms, on CD, and as a Record Store Day-exclusive ocean blue vinyl EP (including a download card).

Produced by Kirk, "Portals" was comprised of the songs "Maiden And The Monster" and "The Jinn" on side A, followed by "High Plains Drifter" and "The Incantation" on side B. The latter two were co-written with Edwin Outwater, whom you may remember from "S&M²". Outwater also contributed keyboards and led the orchestral players from the LA Philharmonic on "Portals".

Other familiar names amongst the "Portals" players included drummers Jon Theodore (Kirk's fellow WEDDING BAND member) and Abraham Laboriel, Greg Fidelman on bass, Emmy-winning arranger Blake Neely and producer Bob Rock.

As previously reported, Kirk has partnered with Gibson Publishing to release "The Collection: Kirk Hammett", available in three premium formats now in The Metallica Store, on Gibson.com and in Gibson Garage locations. The 400-page luxury coffee table book explores Kirk's arsenal of guitars in unprecedented detail, including exclusive new interviews with Kirk conducted by Gibson editor-in-chief Chris Vinnicombe and director of brand experience Mark Agnesi. The book features photos from Ross Halfin, shot on location in Hawaii and Los Angeles, alongside rare images from the photographer's archives.

Hammett was a member of EXODUS's original lineup before replacing Dave Mustaine in METALLICA in 1983. In fact, Hammett was not only the person who came up with the EXODUS name, but also the first from the band to meet original EXODUS singer Paul Baloff and brought him into the group. With Hammett on guitar, METALLICA went on to record its debut album, "Kill 'Em All", later in 1983.

Photo credit: Epiphone