Kirk Hammett says upside of COVID is "half a billion new guitar players"

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett says the downtime from the lockdown of COVID has created “half a billion new guitar players” which is promising for the future of music.

Speaking to Classic Rock, the legendary musician pointed out what he believes is the silver lining of the pandemic.

“It is harder for these younger bands to get their music out there,” he began. “I’ll tell you one thing: because of covid there’s upwards of half a billion new guitar players in the world, bro. That bodes very well for the future of music. It was inspirational for me just knowing there’s gonna be that many more musicians in the world trying to make great music.”

He added, “There’s so much disorganisation in the world right now, so much division. Music brings people together. Music organises people and their thoughts. Maybe because there’s more musicians it’ll make for a better future for everyone. I’m just being optimistic [laughs].”

Hammett spoke to the publication to promote his first-ever solo record Portals, which he released in April of this year. The guitarist explained that it was “restlessness” that pushed him to create the EP.

“[I was] just a bit creatively restless,” he said. “I had this music that was initially started for my museum exhibition [horror/sci-fi movie-art event It Lives!]. The goal was to continue writing for that, and that became two instrumentals, The Monster And The Maiden and The Jinn.

“I met [composer/orchestrator] Edwin Outwater when we were making [Metallica’s 2020 orchestral live album] S&M2. We connected over our love for horror movies, soundtracks and classical music. In a flash of inspiration, I asked him to collaborate. And I was super-pleased with the results.”

Hammett explained that he was inspired to release Portals to show a side of his music that’s different from Metallica’s typical style.

“I’ve been playing guitar most of my life, a wide range of styles – classical, jazz, country, rockabilly, rock, blues – but people only hear the Metallica stuff. There’s a lot of guitar styles within the Metallica idiom, but when people hear this album they’re gonna hear a lot of sides of my playing they’ve never heard before, another side of my musical personality.”