Kirk Hammett reveals who is one of his favorite guitarists

Born in San Francisco, California in 1962, Kirk Hammett was only a teenager when Hard Rock and Heavy Metal really became big in the 70s, so he grew up listening to all those famous groups which were fundamental for years later the Thrash Metal movement be created and developed by bands like Metallica.

In an interview with Metal Mayham (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), Hammett revealed who is one of his favorite guitarists of all time, which is Lars Ulrich‘s favorite one.

Kirk Hammett reveals who is one of his favorite guitarists

“Lars and I love Deep Purple. I’ve always loved it; Ritchie Blackmore is one of my favorite guitar players. Ritchie Blackmore is also Lars’ favorite guitar player of all time. When I was 15 years old, and I heard ‘Highway Star’, I thought (it was) mind blowing. It spoke to me — obviously [laughs]. Between Lars and I, we know a lot of Purple material, and yes, we jam occasionally on that stuff.”

“Deep Purple is really hard to cover. It’s actually easier to cover Rainbow than it is to cover Deep Purple. The guitar parts are always kind of difficult, but Ian Paice’s drum parts? Crazy. And then you have the whole contents of John Lord’s keyboards… Keyboards were such a heavy part of Deep Purple; if you cover Purple, you’ve got to have the keys!” Kirk Hammett said.

Ritchie Blackmore is 17 years older than Kirk Hammett and started his musical career two years before the American guitarist was born. He helped to form Deep Purple in the late 70s and was part of the band for the first time until 1975 when he decided to leave. In the same year he formed his own band Rainbow, which also became one of the most important Hard Rock bands of all time.

The group was active until 1984 when the reunion of the classic Deep Purple line-up happened. The guitarist was in the band until 1993 when he left the band for the last time.