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The Latest Breaking News from Kirk Hammett

“I just wasn’t ready to spend $250,000 on a guitar at that stage in my life and my career”: Butch Walker turned down the opportunity to buy the Greeny Les Paul before Kirk Hammett bought it

The singer-songwriter has since come to regret the decision, even if his bank balance thanks him for it

Guitar World

“It inspired a whole generation of hard rock guitarists to pick up the instrument, not least Metallica’s Kirk Hammett”: How a broken string, a loan from his brother and a fresh paint job helped Michael Schenker turn this Flying V into an icon of rock

Gibson used 3D scans to create this stunning Collector's Edition replica of the black-and-white Flying V that defined Schenker's work with UFO and Scorpions

MusicRadar

"It'll be a fat cheque!" This thrash guitarist reckons he's due some cash from Metallica for his role in writing Creeping Death — and it's not Dave Mustaine

Gary Holt jokes that his lyrics on Exodus' 1983 demo Die By His Hand should entitle him to a cut of those sweet Metallica royalties

Metal Hammer

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“I can put them in every guitar, and it’s gonna sound exactly like I need it to”: Metallica has rolled out something special to help celebrate 50 years of EMG

Updated sets for James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo will only be available in 2026

Guitar World

“In terms of the guitar solo, he just keeps going! You think, ‘OK, surely it’s time to wrap it up?’ But no, he keeps going and it’s great”: The genius of David Gilmour in Pink Floyd’s greatest songs – by Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Stu Mackenzie and more

Plus! Comfortably Numb or comfortably dumb? Find out with our Pink Floyd quiz challenge

MusicRadar

"I could feel the power behind me and it was like being in front of a locomotive." The Swedish metal icons whose biggest hit was so confusing even Metallica's Kirk Hammett struggled to keep up

It's safe to day that even the most patient music teacher struggle to explain the polyrhythms that provide the backbone of this Meshuggah classic

Metal Hammer

“12 seconds into the opening night with U2, I thought, ‘We have to do this’”: Metallica announces Sphere residency – and they’ll be spared from the issues all other guitar bands have faced so far

John Mayer, Bob Weir, Trey Anastasio and The Edge have all been confronted the same issue when playing at the Sphere – but it should be a smoother ride for Metallica

Guitar World

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Metallica announces eight-show residency at Las Vegas Sphere

‘Surprise! The world’s worst-kept secret is now official,’ the heavy metal band announced

The Independent UK

"Breaking the Law is a revolution song." Watch Rob Halford discuss conflict, rioting and rage in trailer for forthcoming documentary The Ballad of Judas Priest, starring Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Grohl, Billy Corgan, Kirk Hammett and more

"You cannot cage this music, you cannot put this music behind bars"

Metal Hammer

“Developed with Kirk Hammett’s guidance and built from specifications taken directly from the actual PAF humbuckers on that world-renowned guitar”: Gibson unveils the $449 Custom Shop humbucker set that will make your Les Paul sound like ‘Greeny’

Limited to 100 units worldwide, exclusive to Gibson, these are aged by the Murphy Lab to look just like the real thing

MusicRadar

"Not that Kirk doesn't get enough solos, but Cliff took his solo, which I think is just so cool": Robert Trujillo on the time Metallica mixed up their solos

He says Orion is “the closest thing to the spirit of Cliff Burton”

MusicRadar

“That whole thing of doing the trades with other players is a really nice thing”: Vernon Reid says he hopes he and Jack White have started a trend for pro guitarists swapping signature models

It all started with a chance meeting at the airport but now the Living Colour guitarist says he's already lined up more high-profile trades

MusicRadar

“Every song we came up with was like the greatest thing. Every time we’d write another it was like, ‘Oh my god’”: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and more remember how thrash metal took over the world 40 years ago

1986 was the year where thrash metal broke through. We got the genre’s leading bands to look back on those whirlwind 12 months.

Metal Hammer

“I wouldn’t say I’m an alcoholic – but then, you know, alcoholics say they’re not alcoholics”: The chaotic and confusing story of Metallica’s abandoned album

In 2001, Metallica hired an old army barracks in California to try and record album eight. The songs were scrapped when James Hetfield entered rehab, but many fans still want to hear them finished.

Metal Hammer

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Guitar World

“For James Hetfield fans, this guitar is a no-brainer”: Epiphone Explorer 80s EMG review

Epiphone's latest Explorer delivers the ultimate unofficial tribute for Metallica fans

Guitar World

“Whether it’s mounted on your pedalboard or standing at the heart of your shrine, this pedal is a torch held high for rock ’n’ roll”: Jim Dunlop drops an Iron Maiden Killers edition of its Cry Baby wah

Emblazoned with the album’s unmistakable art, the pedal celebrates the band’s gritty beginnings

Metal Hammer

"It did surprise us. People started calling us sell-outs." How Metallica wrote the metal power ballad that saved Miley Cyrus - and that Elton John called 'one of the best songs ever written'

James Hetfield wasn't sure about letting his Metallica bandmates hear Nothing Else Matters. Thank goodness he did

Guitar World

“Kirk Hammett’s in front of me with a guitar trying to teach me stuff. They’re like, ‘Get your stuff. You’re flying on the private jet with us’”: Daron Malakian on the time he saved a Metallica gig – and ended up filling in for an injured James Hetfield

Malakian stepped up to sub for Hetfield at the last minute while on tour – and stuck around until he was fully recovered

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Metal Hammer

"I'll never forget it. It still brings goosebumps." System Of A Down's Daron Malakian on being asked to fill in for injured James Hetfield on Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour in 2000

System Of A Down had yet to make their breakthrough – but guitarist Malakian was thrust onto the stage with metal royalty

Guitar World

“The first thing I said to him was, ‘You bought Greeny.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I’ve got it. You want to play it?’” Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith had a chance encounter with Kirk Hammett – and ended up babysitting his iconic Les Paul

The fabled Gibson has been making plenty of big-name players weak at the knees recently

Metal Hammer

“I was trying to write something heavier than the bands I was listening to, and that felt like the first time that I’d done it”: How Metallica broke the thrash metal mould with biblical barnstormer Creeping Death

Pinching a riff from Kirk Hammett’s former band and inspired by a Charlton Heston film, Metallica reached a new level with their 1984 single

Metal Hammer

“The teacher would say, ‘OK, get out your health books,’ and I would have to leave. My parents told me a little speech to say about our religion and why, and I didn’t believe it”: How Metallica turned childhood trauma into a decades-spanning trilogy

Inspired by James Hetfield’s isolated upbringing (and a little bit of Chris Isaak), Metallica made an honest, inverted ballad and kicked off a 27-year-long series

BANG Premier

Kirk Hammett's guitar far exceeds selling expectations

A guitar Kirk Hammett played during Black Sabbath‘s final gig has sold for a staggering $76,800 - more than 12 times the predicted sale price.

Metal Hammer

“Our manager basically kicked us out of his house. We were supposed to go to Europe for the first time, and our gear had gotten stolen”: How Metallica turned tragedy into Fade To Black – the acoustic epic that put the elitists in their place

Inspired by the time Metallica’s gear was pinched, Fade To Black threw the metal scene into an uproar – but the band had the last laugh

Guitar World

“It was the perfect guitar for him to pay tribute to Tony”: Kirk Hammett’s guitar auction shatters expectations – with his mystery Back to the Beginning SG fetching $70,000 more than anticipated

Around 150 of Hammett’s guitars were part of Julien’s latest Played, Worn & Torn auction

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