Kirk Hammett

He has twice been in a nuptial relationship. The first was to Rebecca in 1987. The marriage lasted for only three years and was annulled in 1990.

In 1998, he married Lani, his second wife. They have been blessed with two sons, Angel and Vincenzo.

He studied Film and Asian arts in the San Francisco State University during the gap between promoting his albums.

Kirk Hammett was born to Teofila "Chefela" Oyao, a Filipina mother and Irish Merchant marine father in San Francisco.

He completed his preliminary education from De Anza High School, where he met Les Claypool of Primus. He befriended Primus for the rest of his life.

He took up work at the Burger King but did not continue for long and quit working in the fast food chain once he had saved enough money to buy a Marshall amplifier.

Early musical interest led him to pursue a career in music. He was interested in the fledging thrash metal genre and hence tried to make a career out of the same.

In 1980, he formed a five-member band, Exodus, which had Paul Baloff as the vocalist, Gary Holt as the guitarist, Geoff Andrews as the bassist, and Tom Hunting as the drummer.

In 1982, he played on the Exodus’ Demo. The band went on to gain an influential status during the Bay Area Thrash movement.

In 1983, he was offered a position in the band Metallica after Dave Mustaine, the lead guitarist, left the band to form his own band, Megadeth. Immediately after him joining Metallica, the band released their debut album, ‘Kill ‘Em All’. At that time, he was taking private lessons from guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani.

For Metallica’s second album, ‘Ride the Lightning’ he wrote and contributed riffs. His riff was used in the track, ‘Enter Sandman’ which went on to become one of the most popular Metallica songs

In 2009, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with other bandmates of Metallica Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, and Robert Trujillo.