Guitarist Kirk Hammett recently spoke with FasterLouder about his journey through life with Metallica. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Q: What do you think is the appeal of Metallica to a 16-year-old now, in 2017, versus a 16-year-old in, say, 1986?

Hammett: "That pissed off 15 year old, or 16 year old — or, actually I should say, that 15 or 16 year old who might be pissed off — might find a great release through our music, might find our music to be a great cathartic sort of process for them to get out any anger or frustration that they have. Our music has historically been able to do that… at least for myself, our music helps me in a very cathartic sort of way, and the hope is that it would help people in the same fashion.

The big difference between 1986 and now is, yeah man, things are a lot more divided and things are a lot more uncertain, a little bit more unpredictable; the world is just unpredictable much more nowadays and changing really, really quickly. So yeah, I would say for all the uncertainty in the world and disenfranchisement that uncertainty can create, maybe Metallica and our music is something real and solid and predictable that people can latch on to and use to help them. Maybe they come to a point where they can use our music in a cathartic way and hopefully find a way to cope with the world after experiencing our music.

Another thing I have to say is that our music has stood the test of time, I mean, Master Of Puppets, if that album came out today it would pass muster as far as, y’know, sounding contemporary. Even though it came in 1986, I think if it came out today it would stand up to any of the other contemporary releases."

Q: Not many bands make it past 30 years together. The relationship between you, James and Lars: is there a secret to making you three work? What do you think you can attribute your longevity and ability to come out of stuff like Cliff’s death, or the St Anger and Some Kind of Monster period and just keep on going?

Hammett: "We started a long time ago, when we were really, really young, and we’ve experienced so much stuff together, and we really are kindred souls: there’s something in all of us that I think we recognised on an unconscious level that bonded us together. We’ve experienced so much, so many incredible things — incredibly great things, incredibly awful things — and we’re still standing… and what keeps on pushing us forward and further on down the road is each other. Just knowing that we’ve experienced so much and we have such a deep bond, playing music, experiencing life, growing up, becoming parents, going into middle age, we’ve done all else things together. Metallica is a job, it is a career, but it is also our lives. And it’s so deep within us the thought of not doing what we’re doing is more of a jolt than just continuing to do what we do. 

What we do is what we know: it’s in us.  And every time we play music, it sounds like us… so why would we not get together and make music, it’s just what we do, it’s like living and breathing and walking and talking to us… playing in Metallica, playing shows, playing together, going out on the road, recording, it’s just something we’ve always done, and something we’ll always do, because we’re just set in the routine of Metallica… and sure it looks attractive to go do your own thing, but could it really be better than something we do together? I highly doubt it. So knowing that, why would I even think of a life without Metallica? I know that now. I know I’m probably in the best position I could manoeuvre myself in to make music, so why would I change that?"

Click here for the complete interview.

World-renowned Chinese concert pianist, Lang Lang, who performed “One” with Metallica at the Grammy Awards in 2014, once again joined the band for a performance of the song during their January 18th concert at LeSports Center in Beijing, China. Pro-shot video of the performance can now be seen below:

Metallica are scheduled to perform at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards show, which will air live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 12th at 8 PM, ET on CBS.

Says the band: ”First, it was a total honor to be nominated, but now this?!!? We’re beyond excited that we have been invited to perform on the 59th annual Grammy Awards telecast on Sunday, February 12, 2017. It’s been three years since we were lucky enough to participate in the awards show when we last performed with world-renowned Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang and we’re thrilled to be asked back. We have something very unique and special planned for this celebratory night, so tune in to watch on CBS-TV... check those local listings for your timezone and keep watching here for more information. "