METALLICA's KIRK HAMMETT: 'Because Of My Family History, I Always Felt Like An Outsider'

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett, who has staged his own horror convention in the San Francisco area for the past two years and also published a book about his extensive memorabilia collection, identified with the horror genre as a young outcast growing up in San Francisco and felt particular sympathy for Frankenstein's monster, a misunderstood misfit who wanted to connect to his dad, because Hammett's relationship to his own father was "not strong."

"Believe it or not, I'm a totally introverted person," Hammett tells Collectors Weekly. "People see me onstage and see that I walk out in front 50,000 people not even batting an eyelash, but I'm just used to that. Because of my family history, I always felt like an outsider. I was super shy as a kid, very quiet and observant. I had trouble fitting into a lot of situations, and I felt like a monster myself. A lot of the stuff I saw the monsters experiencing on the screen, I had a version of that in my own life."

Hammett told The Pulse Of Radio that he takes his love for the horror genre very seriously. "I like to think of myself as someone who, like, has a real passion for this stuff and is knowledgeable," he said. "You know, I like to think of myself as a horror movie historian and, you know, I like to think of myself as someone who actually means it. I really love this stuff."

Hammett promoted a ghoulish collectible figure of himself, looking a little green, at last year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. The limited-edition figure was part of Hammett's Famous Zombies Jr. line of his Kirk Von Hammett Toys.

Hammett told The Pulse Of Radio that he put the "Von" in the name of his toy line to keep that business separate from the rest of METALLICA's affairs. "I'm really trying to like keep them separate — my musical career and my horror career," he explained. "It's really important that one does not bleed into the other, because they're two completely different things. And even though they're two of my main passions, horror movies and music, I still feel the need — just out of respect for, you know, my other bandmates — to keep it separate."

METALLICA has reportedly been working on its tenth studio album, which will follow up 2008's "Death Magnetic".

METALLICA has not revealed when it plans to begin recording or tentatively release the new album.