Date of Birth : 8 November 1962 , San Francisco, California, USA
Birth Name : Kirk Lee Hammett
Nicknames : The Ripper,Kirk Hampster
Height : 5' 7¼" (1.71 m)
Mini Bio
Born on November 18, 1962, the son of a merchant seaman. Learned guitar at age 15. Joined Metallica to replace Dave Mustaine in 1982. Has won several Grammys with Metallica and participated in their class action law suit against Napster. His father had Irish, English, Scottish, and German ancestry, and his mother's family is Filipino.
Trade Mark
Heavy guitar solos
ESP Kirk Hammett guitar
Trivia
Took guitar lessons from Joe Satriani.
- Has his birth date and place tattooed on his stomach
- Vegetarian
- Avid surfer
- Collects horror film memorabilia
- Has one dog, Darla
Known for his custom made guitars with horror film graphics
In a 1998 issue of Guitar Legends: The Top 100 Guitar solos, Kirk is credited with 3 songs: "One" (No. 7), "Fade To Black (No. 24), and "Master of Puppets" (No. 51).
Previous band before Metallica was the trash metal band Exodus.
His musical influences are Led Zeppelin, UFO and Jimi Hendrix.
Replaced Dave Mustaine as permanent guitarist for Metallica in 1983.
In November 6, 1998 he suffered from appendicitis when Metallica was on tour in England. He went to a London hospital, recovered, and couple of weeks later flew back to San Francisco.
Son Angel Ray Keala, born October 6, 2006.
Officially endorsed by ESP Guitars (a Japanese company). He has several signature ESP guitar models (mostly identified by "KH" letters) and he has worked with the company since the late 80s.
Son, Vincenzo Kainalu was born on June 28, 2008.
His father had Irish, English, Scottish, and German ancestry. His mother's family is Filipino.
Lives in San Francisco, California.Personal Quotes
A life lived unexplored is a life not worth living.We were very, very frightened. I had to sit down and take stock of my life and see if I had a life outside the band, because I was questioning if there was even a future for Metallica. That was a scary thought; when you've been in a band for as long as we have, you take for granted that it's always going to be there. alling the uncertainty of Metallica's future, after Jason Newsted left the band and James Hetfield entered rehab]
There was a lot of anguish after Cliff died, and basically Jason was the punching bag. We vented so much on him, and it wasn't really fair. [on how Metallica coped with the transition from bassist Cliff Burton to Jason Newsted]
I think it's morally wrong to keep someone away from what keeps him happy.In the spring of 1983, Hammett received a phone call from the boys in Metallica -- which included singer/guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, and bassist Cliff Burton -- asking if he'd be interested in trying out for the band (their original guitarist, Dave Mustaine, was about to be booted due to erratic behavior).
The group arranged for Hammett to fly out to their new home base of New York, where he passed the test after a single run-through of their early classic anthem, "Seek & Destroy," with Burton comparing Hammett's playing to such Euro-metal guitarists as Michael Schenker and Ritchie Blackmore -- two of the band's fav players. The new lineup instantly began work on their debut album, Kill 'Em All, issued the same year -- since Hammett joined just a short while earlier, he didn't have a chance to put his own stamp on the material, opting instead to stick to the riffs and approach that Mustaine had already laid down.
This would change on the band's next two releases, 1984's Ride the Lightning and 1986's Master of Puppets, as Hammett developed his own style on what many consider to be among metal's all-time great albums. Metallica was fast becoming one of metal's premier bands, yet Burton's tragic death mid-tour in September of 1986 almost ended the group. With former Flotsam & Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted taking Burton's place, Metallica soldiered on, issuing two mega-hit albums, 1988's And Justice for All and 1991's self-titled release, and establishing themselves as one of rock's biggest acts. Further sold-out tours and hit releases continued throughout the '90s -- 1996's Load, 1997's Reload, 1998's Garage Inc, and 1999's S&M -- as the group reinvented their former image from long-haired heavy metallists to snappily-dressed, short-haired GQ men (Hammett in particular even wore eyeliner and nail polish around this time, something that would have warranted automatic termination from the band a decade earlier!). Throughout the '90s, Kirk's guitar playing also shifted focus from his early metal roots to a more earthy (almost bluesy) Jimi Hendrix-esque style, as Hammett's own "signature series" line of six-strings were manufactured through the ESP guitar company.
