(Credit: Rodrigues/Andres)
Wed 8 October 2025 3:00, UK
When a gig as big as Metallica lands on your doorstep, the last thing you’re going to do is turn it down. Just ask Kirk Hammett.
Metallica’s transition from new kids on the block to metal gods is one for the books, especially when you take into account some of the more sceptical reviews from those James Hetfield admired. Rudolf Schenker, someone Hetfield once described as “the best at what he did”, once had some choice words to say about his fellow rock guitarist.
He essentially felt that Metallica burst onto the scene without much know-how, especially when it came to their instruments, which he felt they played pretty poorly. Eventually, though, he watched as they learned how to play them “extremely well”, excelling in their field at a speed like no other. What worked for them in the beginning might not have been their abilities, at least as far as Schenker was concerned.
What worked for them was actually their eye for talent and dedication to bettering themselves at every turn. It’s sort of how they got Hammett on board. A member of Exodus at the time, it’s almost like Hetfield knew the amount of chemistry he’d share with Hammett before he even became an official member. A suspicion confirmed when he came in and absolutely smashed the audition.
But like countless other revolutionaries, Hammett had to crush some dreams before he officially made the move over. Recalling the situation with leaving Exodus during an interview with Howard Stern, Hammett made light of the situation. But perhaps unsurprisingly, the remaining members were pissed at his decision to step into Dave Mustaine’s shoes.
“I told the guys in Exodus and they were pissed,” Hammett later recalled to Ultimate Guitar. “They were pissed. I remember Paul Baloff was so pissed that he poured a beer over my head.” Hammett felt guilty, of course, but he knew he loved Metallica since the moment he heard them. He also knew they’d sound even better with him, so he jumped at the opportunity to join, even if he thought the offer at the time was some sort of April Fool’s joke.
On Howard Stern, he joked about hugging the members of Exodus in an intoxicated state before they “all started wrestling”. But he was also forthcoming about how different it felt playing with Metallica. He felt more at home, more at ease and like this was his true calling. He felt “better”, which, as a musician, simply means he felt he had the space to do well with people who shared his vision of progressing in a genre that needed a complete shake-up.
Although angry at first, Exodus eventually understood. Formed in high school, there was likely a feeling around the band that there would be an inevitable endpoint at some point anyway. Most bands formed in the early stages of a musician’s career end up either going through significant transformations with lineups or fizzling out entirely, and it seems Hammett’s Metallica gig came at just the right time.
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