Metallica’s members may all be in their 60s, but lead guitarist Kirk Hammett has made it clear that retirement is not on the horizon. In a recent interview on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Hammett shared his thoughts on the band’s longevity and their ability to keep rocking despite their age.
“As long as we have our health and our mind, I think we can just keep on going,” Hammett said, explaining that he doesn’t feel his age. “Sometimes I forget how old I am, because I don’t feel like I’m 62 years old. I feel like I’m still somewhere in my thirties.” The guitarist, known for his energetic stage presence, emphasized that his active lifestyle, including surfing, biking, running, and practicing yoga and meditation daily, keeps him in top physical shape. He also praised Metallica’s drummer, Lars Ulrich, noting, “Lars is in really great shape too. As long as we’re all healthy, I think we can keep going.”
Hammett continued, speaking about Metallica’s bassist, Rob Trujillo, who “doesn’t even have gray hair,” and jokingly suggested that their continuous success could be attributed to their “fountain of youth” provided by the band and its music. “I have no plans to give up anything. This is my life,” Hammett affirmed.
In the wide-ranging interview, Hammett also recalled how Metallica’s Black Album (1991) resonated with the emerging grunge scene. He credited the riff for “Enter Sandman” to his early exposure to the Seattle music scene, having discovered the Sub Pop label and bands like Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden in 1987. “James [Hetfield] was listening to a lot of it too. I knew things were happening,” Hammett said, reflecting on the band’s awareness of the grunge movement before it exploded.
Hammett also shared stories of his interactions with the late Kurt Cobain, revealing that the Nirvana frontman was a fan of Metallica. Cobain had asked Hammett if they would play “Whiplash” at one of their shows, and even expressed his love for Ride the Lightning, with Hammett noting a riff on Nirvana’s Bleach album that reminded him of it.
While Hammett’s authorship of the iconic “Enter Sandman” riff is well-known, he explained that fans often struggle to identify which riffs are his in other Metallica songs. “It’s literally a crowd of riffs and people trying to randomly pick out which ones I wrote,” he said. He also pointed to Death Magnetic (2008) as an album “chock full” of his riffs, with the bridge riff in “The Thing That Should Not Be” standing out as one of his favorite compositions: “To this day, I still think it’s one of the heaviest things we ever did.”
In addition to his musical achievements, Hammett also spoke about his passion for collecting vintage guitars, which is the subject of his new coffee-table book, The Collection: Kirk Hammett. Unlike the competitive world of horror movie poster collecting, Hammett prefers trading guitars over buying them outright. “When you trade, everyone’s happy, man. When cash is involved, there’s something empty-feeling about it,” he said.
Hammett also expressed his gratitude to blues guitar legend Joe Bonamassa, who helped him acquire a rare 1959 Les Paul Standard that he had been searching for for years. “I have to thank Joe for that opportunity,” Hammett said, acknowledging Bonamassa’s gesture of not purchasing the guitar for himself and allowing Hammett to add it to his collection. In return, Hammett sent Bonamassa a replica of his most prized guitar, Greeny—a 1959 Les Paul Standard once owned by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green.
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