Kirk Hammett

Kirk Hammett is an American musician and lead-guitarist of the American heavy-metal band Metallica whose four-decade music career has produced multiple defining late-20th and early-21st-century international heavy-metal music — particularly his foundational 1986 Metallica album Master of Puppets. He was born Kirk Lee Hammett on November 18, 1962, in San Francisco, California, into a working-class American Filipino-Irish-American family. His father Dennis L. Hammett was an Irish-American merchant-marine sailor, and his mother Teofila "Chefela" Oyao was a Filipina-immigrant homemaker.

His teenage and early-adulthood music career across 1976–1983 — across multiple San Francisco-area garage-rock-and-thrash-metal bands (particularly the band Exodus, which he co-founded in 1979 alongside Tom Hunting and Geoff Andrews) — preceded his April 1, 1983 audition for the Los Angeles, California-area thrash-metal band Metallica.

His April 1, 1983 hiring as Metallica's lead-guitarist — replacing the band's previous lead-guitarist Dave Mustaine, whom Metallica had fired four days earlier on March 28, 1983, in El Cerrito, California — launched his 1983–present 40-year Metallica career. Hammett's 1983 hiring launched the foundational Metallica lineup of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burton, and Kirk Hammett — which produced Metallica's first three commercial albums.

The 1983 first commercial Metallica album Kill 'Em All — released July 25, 1983 by Megaforce Records — launched his 1980s American thrash-metal-genre public profile. The 1986 third commercial Metallica album Master of Puppets — released March 3, 1986 by Elektra Records — has been continuously cited as one of the foundational documents of 1980s American thrash-metal music. The September 27, 1986 sudden death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton (in a Sweden tour-bus accident) shaped his later biographical narrative.

His subsequent Metallica career has produced 11 commercial Metallica albums across 1983–2023 — particularly the 1991 fifth commercial album Metallica (the "Black Album"), which sold over 32 million copies worldwide and is one of the bestselling albums of all time. The 1991 "Black Album" produced his 1990s American heavy-metal public profile. His most recent commercial Metallica album was the 2023 12th commercial album 72 Seasons. He has been with American homemaker Lani Hammett since 1998 (married 1998), and the couple has two sons.

His name Kirk derives from the Old Norse and Scottish-Gaelic place-name meaning "church." Kirk has been a popular American boys' name across the mid-to-late 20th century.