Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has admitted that playing the guitar solo from ‘Master Of Puppets’ drives him “nuts”, adding that he is “freaking bored with it”.
Hammett was making these comments in a recent interview, where he admitted that “what I’m going to say people are probably gonna hate”.
According to statistics released via the Metallica website, ‘Master of Puppets’ has been played 1,689 times since its debut in 1985.
To be more precise, the track was debuted on New Year’s Eve of that year, as Metallica returned for their homecoming show at the Auditorium at San Francisco, a week after the band had finished recording their third studio album.
Check it out below.
The track itself also received a new music video by Metallica, following its recent resurgence in the charts since the small matter of ‘Stranger Things’. Find out more here.
“freaking bored of it”
However, Hammett stated that the monotony of playing the solos note-for-note on these tracks over the last three to four decades can get to you.
“What I’m going to say people are probably gonna hate, but it drives me nuts having to play that fucking guitar solo in Master of Puppets every time”, the guitarist said.
He also added, “People love that guitar solo and they come to see that. That’s fine. For that part of our career, all those solos are locked in. I don’t view them as solos anymore; they’re parts. I’m freaking bored of it, but it’s exciting for people to hear”.
Despite this revelation, Kirk Hammett insisted that he is not bored with playing the solo itself, but playing the same song over and over again.
“I’m not bored of the solo, Hammett stated. “I just get bored of playing the same thing all the time”.
“You guys edit them!”
Speaking on Metallica’s new album ’72 Seasons’, Hammett has revealed that he has taken a more improvisational approach to it.
“With this album I went in intentionally to improvise 20, 30 solos, give them all to Lars and Greg [Fidelman, producer], and go, ‘You guys edit them!”, he said.
The guitarist also added, “I know I’m gonna play something completely different live. That’s my thing these days and if people don’t like it, that’s just tough. But I can offer something a lot different than what people hear on the album, and I can offer something different every time you see Metallica. When you buy a ticket to a Metallica show you’re gonna hear different versions of the songs. You’re not gonna hear carbon copy versions of the album”.
Hammett also admitted that this approach is not without a risk.
“Usually, I surprise myself,” he said, “sometimes I die a f*****g death”.
Last November, Kirk Hammett claimed that “toxic masculinity” was the glue that binded Metallica together. More on this here.
