Kirk Hammett got hired by Metallica as a young guitarist but knew he wasn't ready. He took weekly lessons with Joe Satriani for two years, learning techniques that transformed his playing and helped make thrash metal global. Talent without the willingness to learn won't get you far.
Chapters
Become a Student. A single day became one guitarist's nightmare and another's dream. Without notice, members of the underground metal band Metallica informed their guitarist Dave Mustaine he was being thrown out of the group. That same day, a young guitarist Kirk Hammett, barely in his 20s and member of a band called Exodus, was given the job. Thrown right into a new life, he performed his first show with the band a few days later. Kirk came to a humbling realization: that despite his years of playing guitar and being invited to join Metallica, he wasn't as good as he'd like to be. Despite joining his dream group and turning professional, Kirk insisted that he needed more instruction, that he was still a student. Joe Satriani, the man Hammond chose as his instructor, would himself go on to become known as one of the best guitar players of all time. Satriani's playing style made him an unusual choice for Hammond. That That was the point. Kirk wanted to learn what he didn't know. Satriani explained that what separated Hammett from the others was his willingness to endure the type of instruction they wouldn't. Satriani's system was clear: that there would be weekly lessons, that these lessons must be learned, and if they weren't, that Hammett was wasting everyone's time and needn't bother to come back. For the next 2 years, Kirk did as Satriani required, returning every week for objective feedback, judgment, and drilling. Even after that 2-year study period, bring the Satriani licks and riffs he'd been working on. Each time he improved as a player and as an artist. The result, no matter what your musical tastes happen to be, was that Hammett became one of the great metal guitarists in the world, taking thrash metal from an underground movement into a thriving global musical genre. Think about what Hammett could have done, what we might have done in his position were we to suddenly find ourselves a rock star. The temptation is to think, "I've made it. I've arrived. They tossed the other guy because he's not as good as I am. They chose me because I have what it takes." Had he done that, we'd probably never have heard of him or the band. There are, after all, plenty of forgotten metal groups from the 1980s. You can't learn if you think you already know. Become a student.
