Hammett was born in San Francisco, California on November 18, 1962, to Teofila and Dennis L. Hammett, a merchant seaman. He learned guitar at age 15 and joined Metallica to replace Dave Mustaine in 1982. He 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.
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 mothers family is Filipino, of Cebuano, and some Chinese, descent.
Lives in San Francisco, California.
When he plays the guitar wearing a bandage on the hand to avoid scratching.
As part of his enormous horror memorabilia collection, purchased a costume, allegedly worn by Boris Karloff in The Black Cat . However, the original jacket from that screen-worn costume was torn to shreds at the end of the movie.
A life lived unexplored is a life not worth living.
I love horror movies in space. I love it when the genre switches over and what was sci-fi becomes horror.
