​Metallica are playing two nights at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin this weekend. Between Friday and Sunday gigs, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett sat down with The Irish Times journalist Ronan McGreevy at Dublin’s Academy Theatre to discuss his love of music, guitars and his book The Collection which he has published with photographer Ross Halfin. Below are edited highlights from the event.RMcG: How was the concert last night (Friday) in the Aviva Stadium? KH: It was great. What was so special about playing Black Rose is that song is actually recorded on Greeny (his 1959 Les Paul Standard). And Black Rose is my favourite Thin Lizzy album, one of my all-time favourite albums. I saw Thin Lizzy when I was 14-years-old in San Francisco. It was the first concert I ever saw. And I couldn’t believe that was the band on stage. The guys that I would stare at on the album cover were actually up there on stage.These people were real. To me, they’re like comic book superheroes, come to life. I’ll never forget that concert. And Phil Lynnott, Brian Robertson, Scott Gorham, Brian Downey it was amazing I have to say. It was fantastic. RMcG: There was a lot of rain. Often at outdoor gigs it’s the band stays dry and the audience get wet. How was it last night?KH: I didn’t even notice the rain half the time. I only notice it when it’s typhoon style like in Munich two years ago. That show was the equivalent of me putting on my guitar, and stepping into the shower. We’re on transmitters, so there’s not that much of a risk of getting electrocuted. And if there was, our production manager has this long hooked cane and he just pulls us off stage. [ Metallica at the Aviva review: no encore, no One, no Enter Sandman. Not tonightOpens in new window ]RMcG: Can you tell us a bit about your musical education from when you picked up the guitar? KH: I started off learning off records, just trying to develop my ear and learning songs and guitar solos from playing records over and over again. It’s a monotonous, tedious process, especially with the records. But I learned so much. And all my friends were doing the same thing. We didn’t have tablature, we didn’t have music books. All we had was our ears and the albums. And it was a real challenge because if you got three different guitar players together and said, okay, play I’m The One on Van Halen’s first album, all three guitar players would play it differently. There was some charm to that.I kind of lament those days when people had to really struggle to learn, because it’s all in the struggle. And it’s all in the determination and being inspired at the same time that forces you to come up with your own stuff and eventually your own sound and style. I just worry about, how things are so perfect these days, the musicianship. It’s great that all these guitar players have all this vast knowledge of technique at their fingertips. I wonder where it’s leading to. I hope it leads to a better quality of pop music, popular music, and just a better quality of songwriting. Because right now, songwriting and pop music is crap. I’m hoping that all these great musicians who can teach themselves through the internet step up and put all that great learning and all that great inspiration into creating new stuff, new songs, the future of music, and at a higher standard than what it is now. Because I’ll say it again, K-R-A-P. Crap. Sorry for all you pop fans out there.RMcG: Let’s talk about Greeny, the 1959 Les Paul standard guitar that was once owned by Peter Green and Gary Moore. (Kirk Hammett travelled to meet Peter Green, the founder of Fleetwood Mac, to try to persuade him to take part in a benefit concert in his name, which took place in February 2020.) It was bestowed upon myself to invite him to the benefit. Mick Fleetwood called me up and said, you have to try and get him to come. I’ve been talking to him and he’s halfway there. Just see if you can get him to come. I was really nervous about meeting Peter Green. But when I stepped into the livingroom of his house, I looked down and there was a Master of Puppets album right there. And I was like, oh, great. I’m in somewhat. But he was somewhat quiet, somewhat reserved, really kind of guarded. Eventually he came out of his shell. We talked about fishing, because I fish. I’ve always fished ever since I was a kid. So I knew what to say to him about fishing. And then I took Greenie out and I said, hey, here’s your old guitar. And he said, that’s not my guitar. My guitar had a lot of red in it. And I was like, okay. I wasn’t about to argue. Then I said, Peter, it’d be really, really great if you can just come to the tribute, you can be the guest of honour. And he requested the Queen’s box. And no one sits in the Queen’s box except the Queen. So to me, that was kind of his way of saying no. (Peter Green died in July 2020 five months after the tribute concert). RMcG: What is it about Greeny that makes it so special? KH: I’ll never forget the first time I saw a picture of Greeny. It was on the back of the very first Gary Moore album. And it was a picture of Gary Moore playing a solo. Greeny sleeps where I sleep. Other guitar collectors like to geek out on Greeny. And Greeny is just one of those guitars that people love. And I’m not going to get in the way of that. I’m her babysitter. RMcG: I was looking at some of the songs you play it on live – Orion, Nothing Else Matters, the Unforgiven to name a few. KH: All the emotional songs I play on Greeny because it’s a great emotional guitar and it brings out such an emotive factor in me. I was watching a Gary Moore video in 1990 in a hotel room in London, thinking, that’s an amazing sound. I grabbed my guitar and came up with the verse part of The Unforgiven from hearing Greeny on the video. Greeny somehow sent me some inspiration that caused me to write that part in The Unforgiven that made it possible for me and gave me the resources to actually buy Greeny. Now I play The Unforgiven on Greeny.RMcG: So while we’re in Ireland, we have to talk about Rory Gallagher. KH: What a guitar player, very visceral. You could tell he’s just pulling out of his heart and out of his gut and out of his soul. I love players like that – super passionate. The interesting thing is Rory Gallagher had a real connection to San Francisco and the Bay Area. He played there a lot. There’s a live album that was recorded in San Francisco. And he recorded at the record plant too. RMcG: Gallagher’s guitar – the 1961 Fender Stratocaster – was bought at auction last year by the MCD concert promoter, Denis Desmond.He gifted it to the Irish State and it’s now at the National Museum of Ireland. KM: It is a national treasure for sure. RMcG: You mentioned that you had some Irish ancestry. So I asked the Epic Museum, the Irish Immigration Museum, and they traced your paternal great-grandmother, Sarah Fulton, to a small townland of Lisdorf near the Tyrone-Armagh border. KM: It actually gives me goosebumps, you know, just knowing that I have roots here. Because it’s a beautiful place. And you know, I love Thin Lizzy okay? McGreevy and Hammett (left) during Saturday's event. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien RMcG: You speak about the people who inspired you as a musician, Gary Moore among them. What’s your advice to all those young people who want to be guitar players. KH: The most important thing is practice. You got to practice. You got to play and play and play. But you also need to have a direction and a focus. So all that time you’re putting into playing actually takes you to the next logical step – knowing what sound you want to have, knowing what factors are involved in that kind of sound. I had a very clear vision of what I wanted to achieve. But then I heard UFO, and that changed everything. Because back then, in the late 1970s, UFO was the heaviest band out there. There’s this one guy I know who had almost the exact same musical upbringing as I did, listening to the same stuff, was influenced by the same person – that guy’s name is Rob Trujillo (the fourth and current bassist with Metallica). And it’s amazing because we talk about it so much– our musical trajectory and how it was so similar. There is something exponential when you’re in a band and you’re collectively working on something, there’s so much brain power. That’s the great thing about Metallica, we always have so many ideas that it’s a task just to get through all the ideas. Metallica play their second concert at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday evening. Kirk Hammett – the Collection with Ross Halfin is published by Gibson books.