That Time Lou Reed Banned Kirk Hammett (Metallica) From Playing Guitar Solos: “No guitar solos. No wah-wah”

Sep 4

Metallica keep promoting their latest S&M2 live album and this time, while doing an interview with Jim Harrington from the Marin Independent Journal, Kirk Hammett revealed some curious details about the S&M2 album recording plus other details about past events during Metallica’s career.

About S&M2, Kirk Hammett revealed how the collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony come about:

“It was an idea from Michael Kamen, who added a string arrangement to “Nothing Else Matters” back in 1990, when we were recording it. Then about 1995-1996, he came to us with this concept about doing something with an orchestra and the band. And we said, “Yeah, sure.” But it actually took a couple of years for Michael to get the wheels turning. Orchestra schedules are done like two, three years in advance.

We were able to get all of our ducks in a row, so to speak, and pull off that first show. That’s how it all started.”

When asked about 2011’s “LuLu” album that Metallica recorded with Lou Reed, Kirk Hammett had some interesting words to say:

“I have always been a big supporter of that album, even when all my friends are shaking their heads and looking at me going, ‘Bro, what were you thinking?’ It was a real accomplishment as far I was concerned. We were there to help Lou Reed fulfill his vision and I think we did that 100 percent. This was not a Metallica album and it was not a Lou Reed album. It was Lou Reed and Metallica together, doing something completely different. It’s not for everyone. But ‘Junior Dad’, I think, is one of the best things we’ve ever been associated with, in terms of real art and literature and music coming together. That, to me, is a real accomplishment, just as much as “Ride the Lightning” is.”

One of the most surprising moments about the recording of “LuLu” happened when Lou Reed told Kirk Hammett that he didn’t want the Metallica guitar player to perform guitar solos or use his signature wah-wah pedal.

“He’s a really, really good rhythm guitar player. He had a good, solid rhythm pulse to his playing. He was really not into lead guitar playing, and he was really, really not into wah-wah. In fact, one time during a rehearsal, I set the wah pedal and he just walked up to the microphone and said, ‘Noooooo. No guitar solos. No wah-wah.’ And I was blown away. (Laughs) He had his musical preferences. He had his musical boundaries. And he was not shy in letting us know what those preferences and boundaries were.”

Read the full interview here.

Metallica just released their new live album S&M2. The record was recorded on two nights in September last year. It was a celebration of the 20 years of a classic concert that happened with an orchestra in the late nineties. The reunion took place at the Case Center, California. The first time Metallica played with the San Francisco orchestra was in 1999.

In October, "S&M2" was shown in more than 3 thousand theaters worldwide.

Metallica’s S&M2 Setlist

Set I

1. The Ecstasy Of Gold (performed by the San Francisco Symphony)
2. The Call Of Ktulu
3. For Whom The Bell Tolls
4. The Day That Never Comes
5. The Memory Remains
6. Confusion
7. Moth Into Flame
8. The Outlaw Torn
9. No Leaf Clover
10. Halo on Fire

Set II

11. Scythian Suite, Op.20, Second Movement (performed by the San Francisco Symphony)
12. Iron Foundry
13. The Unforgiven III
14. All Within My Hands (acoustic)
15. (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth
16. Wherever I May Roam
17. One
18. Master Of Puppets
19. Nothing Else Matters
20. Enter Sandman