“He’s my Yoda”: Kirk Hammett on why praise from former teacher Joe Satriani means more

Kirk Hammett has spoken of his admiration for his former teacher Joe Satriani and why praise that comes from him matters more.

Hammett received lessons from Satriani back in the ’80s even as Metallica were hitting the big time, continuing to play with him even up until 1988.

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In a recent episode of the podcast The Metallica Report, host Steffan Chirazi points out that both Satriani and Steve Vai have covered Metallica’s hit Enter Sandman and the former had said that he loves the solo within that song.

“That’s absolutely, totally, completely wonderful,” a clearly flattered Hammett says. “I love so many of his solos. He’s Yoda, he’s my Yoda, okay? Every time Yoda says ‘Luke, Luke, you’re doing it!’, that’s how I kind of feel.”

Earlier in the episode, Hammett admits he doesn’t find Metallica music especially difficult to play, but jazz and bebop represents a whole other challenge. Although Chirazi suggests it’s rare for a guitarist of his calibre to have “no fear of mistakes”, it turns out that fear comes from not finding the band’s discography a struggle to execute live.

“I gotta tell you. I know that people are going to kill me but Metallica music isn’t that difficult for me to play!” he insists. “It’s difficult for me to play bebop – now that’s difficult shit to play, okay? There are jazz progressions out there where there’s a chord change every beat, that’s difficult bro! That’s mind-bending, learning how to solo over that. That’s where my head is at – or looking at great classic solos from great soloists and trying to get deep into the theory side of things and looking at it musically and seeing what their approach was.

“Metallica music, I’ve been playing it for the last 40 years. Of course it’s going to be easy for me. It’s because I’m a guitar player.”