Kirk Hammett has long drawn the ire of guitarists on the Internet, namely for his wah-heavy solos. Now in an interview with Total Guitar, Hammett is addressing the idea of a “bad solo” and how they don’t really exist anymore. The sentiment certainly makes sense, but let’s not fool ourselves – dudes like Corey Feldman are out there ripping some real bad ones.
“I don’t think anyone really sucks. These days, I don’t think bad guitar solos even exist anymore because everyone is just so much better than they used to be,” Hammett observes. “Like, in the ’60s there were bad guitar solos. You would find them in pop songs, where you’d go, ‘Urgh! Nice try. Next!’ But that’s the past, and that’s a good thing.”
Hammett later argued that you don’t get to be successful if you’re terrible, which is fair. Not entirely accurate given some disparities between recorded performances and live performances, but overall yeah.
“My attitude is that if you’re out there and you’re touring, and you’re making albums, and you’re recording, there is no way you suck. And so I can’t stop being bewildered by all these people who say, ‘This guy sucks! That guy sucks!’ Hey, I’ve got news for you – you don’t get to where you’re at if you fucking suck! Okay? These people are talking on 10 per cent of what they see in all of these people musically. It’s incredible.”
Anyway, here’s that Feldman solo. You sit there and tell me this is good.
