METALLICA’s KIRK HAMMETT: ‘Junior Dad’ From ‘Lulu’ Album Is ‘A Real Accomplishment, Just As Much As ‘Ride The Lightning’ Is’

Kirk Hammett

While speaking to Marin Independent Journal, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett once again defended Lulu, the band’s controversial collaborative album with Lou Reed, calling it “a real accomplishment.”

He said: “I have always been a big supporter of that album, even when all my friends are shaking their heads and looking at me going, ‘Bro, what were you thinking?’

“It was a real accomplishment as far I was concerned. We were there to help Lou Reed fulfill his vision, and I think we did that 100 percent. This was not a METALLICA album and it was not a Lou Reed album. It was Lou Reed and METALLICA together, doing something completely different.

“It’s not for everyone,” Kirk added. “But ‘Junior Dad’, I think, is one of the best things we’ve ever been associated with, in terms of real art and literature and music coming together. That, to me, is a real accomplishment, just as much as ‘Ride The Lightning’ is.”

When asked what it was like playing guitar with LouKirk responded: “He’s a really, really good rhythm guitar player. He had a good, solid rhythm pulse to his playing.

“He was really not into lead guitar playing, and he was really, really not into wah-wah. In fact, one time during a rehearsal, I set the wah pedal and he just walked up to the microphone and said, ‘Noooooo. No guitar solos. No wah-wah.’ And I was blown away. [Laughs]

“He had his musical preferences,” he added. “He had his musical boundaries. And he was not shy in letting us know what those preferences and boundaries were.”