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Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett has revealed that when he was asked to join the band he was sat on the toilet.
The lead guitarist for the metal legends was reminiscing about the time leading up to joining the band, at which point he was in thrash metal band Exodus, when he received a call on April Fool’s Day.
He told Loudersound.com: “It was April 1st, April Fool’s Day, and I was sitting on the toilet. I got the call from [Metallica sound engineer] Mark Whittaker, and after I hung up, I was like, ‘I can’t believe I just got that phone call. Was that an April Fool’s Day prank?’ A couple of days later I got this tape from them, but I already had the demo and I already knew two thirds of the songs on there.”
Kirk went on to explain how his Exodus bandmates took the news that he was leaving them to join Metallica.
“They were pissed,” he said. “I remember Paul Baloff was so pissed that he poured a beer over my head. He said, ‘[angry-hurt voice] I can’t believe you’re doing this Kirk’, then poured his beer over my head. I just took it, ‘Yeah, yeah, I know…’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kirk spoke about how confident he was, should he ever get the chance to join Metallica, that he’d prove himself a more than worthy addition. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, but I thought, ‘These guys are great, but they’d be so much better with me.’
“Around that time, Exodus were going through some personnel changes. We just got rid of the previous bass player, and brought another bass player in, and it was a different dynamic within the band. We weren’t rehearsing for some reason or another – I don’t know, maybe Paul Baloff was off doing something. We were kind of going through a hiatus when I joined Metallica.”
In other news, it was recently revealed that Metallica signed up to an investment fund to purchase acts’ music. The aim of the Worldwired IP Fund, which cribs its name from the band’s recent world tours, is to purchase song catalogs and drive up their values.
Meanwhile, a YouTuber has created their own virtual meeting of two metal giants after imagining what Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ would sound like if it was covered by Iron Maiden. See footage here.
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