In a recent interview with The Rock, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett talked about beer, his Greeny guitar, the upcoming TOOL album, and more.
Few excerpts from the interview follow below (as transcribed by Ultimate-Guitar.com):
Congratulations on releasing your first beer. How does that work out for you? Do you just get it for pre-show, or are you, like, ‘I’m gonna be drinking my own beer’?
“We don’t really drink before a show. That’s, like, asking for real trouble. There was a time when we used to drink quite a lot before we went onstage, but you know, responsibility and professionalism have become a priority here in Metallica land.
“So when it comes to stuff like that, we’re pretty responsible and boring these days. But having said that, there’s always a refrigerator filled with the Enter Night beer at every one of our shows that people can just walk up and help themselves with.
“I personally stopped drinking four years ago, but you know, I know that Enter Night is a good beer because I smelled it.”
You’ve gone into surfing over the last decade. How’s that been for you in terms of your mental health and your physical health?
“Surfing is so important to me in my life. I found a real balance with surfing. It balances out my professional life.
“I used to get off tour and feel like so bored and I was constantly searching for things that would be exciting and that would give me the same sort of adrenaline rush like the one I get when I got on stage.
“And I discovered surfing gave me that same feeling, same enthusiasm, and adrenaline.”
Yesterday we had Halestorm on the show and we asked them if they wanted to ask you anything. Here’s what they said: ‘I’d ask Kirk if I could play Greeny, his ’59 Les Paul.’ What is Greeny?
“Greeny is a very unique Les Paul Standard that I have? It’s a 1959 Les Paul Standard, it has a really unique sound.
“When Peter Green took it in to get it fixed back in 1965, he brought it to a shop that really knows how to fix guitars, so what they ended up doing is they put the pickup in the reverse position and so, instead of picking up sounds towards the neck, it started picking up sound towards the middle of the strings, and it created a unique sound.”
What other memorabilia do you have in your possession?
“As far as the music stuff is concerned, that’s kind of, like, my most impressive thing. I have a guitar from Peter Todd, I have a guitar that was once owned by Richard Gere, I have a guitar that was owned by the guy in Cheap Trick.
“You know, those kind-of pale in comparison to Greeny. I mean, Greeny is truly a legend in its own right. For me, that’s the best piece of memorabilia I could possibly have.”
You guys have now released 10 albums. Do you have any advice for Tool on how they can finally finish their f*cking next album?
“Well, I talked to Adam Jones quite a bit, you know, and the last thing I knew, he was dealing with artwork, so that’s great. If they’re finishing the artwork, it must be close.”
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