Kirk Hammett Height, Weight, Age, Body Statistics

Kirk Hammett is an American musician who is best known for being the founder of an American thrash metal band Exodus, and later being the lead guitarist for the popular American heavy metal band, Metallica. Besides being a musician, he is also a published author and a solo artist. Some of his famous songs include Now That We’re Dead, Broken, Beat & Scarred, The Day That Never Comes, All Nightmare Long, and many more. He has a huge social media fan base with more than 1 million followers on Instagram and more than 1 million followers on Facebook.

Born Name

Kirk Lee Hammett

Nick Name

The Ripper, Kirk Hampster

Sun Sign

Scorpio

Born Place

San Francisco, California, United States

Residence

San Francisco, California, United States

Nationality

Education

Kirk has been a scholar at the De Anza High School in Richmond, California.

Occupation

Musician, Songwriter, Author

Family

• Father – Dennis L. Hammett
• Mother – Teofila “Chefela” Oyao
• Siblings – Rick Hammett (Older Brother), Tracy Hammett (Older Sister)
• Others – Ward Dennis Hammett (Paternal Grandfather), Adda Lee Louise Wright (Paternal Grandmother), Abundio Oyao y Quiamco (Maternal Grandfather), Baleriana (Maternal Grandmother)

Manager

Kirk is represented by Q-Prime Management.

Genre

Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Hard Rock, Speed Metal

Instruments

Guitar

Labels

• Warner Bros. Records Inc.
• Elektra Records
• Vertigo Records
• Megaforce Records
• Blackened Records

Build

Slim

Height

5 ft 7¼ in or 171 cm

Weight

72 kg or 159 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Kirk has dated –

1. Rebecca Hammett (1982-1990) – Kirk dated Rebecca Hammett for 6 years starting from 1982. The couple got married in 1987 and remained married for 3 years before getting divorced in 1990 during the recording of The Black Album.
2. Sarah (1992-1995) – Kirk was romantically involved with a woman named Sarah for almost 3 years. The relationship, however, ended in 1995.
3. Julie (1996) – In 1996, he dated a woman named Julie.
4. Lani Hammett (1997-Present) – Kirk began dating Lani Hammett in 1997. After dating for almost a year, the couple got married on January 31, 1998. They are proud parents to 2 sons named Angel Hammett (b. September 29, 2006) and Vincenzo Hammett (b. June 28, 2008).

Race / Ethnicity

Multiracial (Asian and White)

He has Filipino and some Chinese ancestry on his mother’s side and is of English, German, Scottish, and Irish descent on his father’s side.

Hair Color

Salt and Pepper

Eye Color

Dark Brown

Sexual Orientation

Straight

Distinctive Features

Long curly hair

Best Known For

• Being the founder of the American thrash metal band, Exodus
• Being the lead guitarist of the popular American heavy metal band, Metallica

First Album

Kirk released his debut album Ride the Lightning on July 27, 1984, along with the band Metallica. The album was declared 6 times ‘platinum’ by The Recording Industry Association of America, The Australian Recording Industry Association, and Music Canada.

First Film

He made his theatrical film debut in The Darwin Awards as himself in 2006.

First TV Show

He made his first TV show appearance on Headbangers Ball in 1995.

Kirk Hammett Favorite Things

• Childhood Musical Influences – Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, UFO
• Guitar – ESP KH-2 M-II “Boris Karloff Mummy” #I

Source – Wikipedia

Kirk Hammett Facts

1. He is obsessed with horror movies and this obsession roots from the late 1960s.
2. At the age of 5, he sprained his arm while he was on a flight with his sister. During the recovery, his parents made him sit in front of a television so he could pass his time and during this time, he first watched the film The Day of the Triffids.
3. As he grew up, he discovered his immense interest in the Frankenstein figures that his brother owned.
4. He used to spend his pocket money on horror magazines and for almost a decade, he remained immersed in the horror fantasy.
5. He was first introduced to music by his brother Rick who owned Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and UFO’s music records. Once Kirk listened to it, he got over horror magazines and began selling them in order to buy music records.
6. He first began playing the guitar at the age of 15 and his first guitar was Montgomery Ward catalog special, accompanied by a shoebox with a 4-inch speaker as an amplifier.
7. He tried other guitars such as the 1978 Fender Stratocaster copy and finally switched to 1974 Gibson Flying V.
8. As a young boy, he also took a job at Burger King just to earn enough money to buy a Marshall amplifier after which he quit the job.
9. After developing a fondness for the thrash metal genre, he formed a band called Exodus in 1979 when he was 16 years old. He named the band on Leon Uris’s novel Exodus.
10. In 1983, he got a phone call from Metallica management after their lead guitarist was fired and he took this chance, flew to New York for the audition, and was instantly asked to join the band which took him by a surprise.
11. He was trained to play the guitar by the famous American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Joe Satriani.
12. He also remained a member of Exodus while he joined Metallica and has performed as a member of both the bands on multiple occasions.
13. Kirk went on to be ranked 11th on Rolling Stone‘s list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” in 2003 and was also ranked at the 15th spot in Joel McIver’s book “The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists” in 2009.
14. On October 1, 2012, Kirk released his first book titled Too Much Horror Business published by Abrams Image. The book happens to be a collection of photos detailing his lifelong love of monster movies and all of the horror memorabilia that he has amassed over the last 30 years of his life.
15. In honor of his lifelong love for the horror genre, he has created his own horror convention called the Kirk Von Hammett’s Fear FestEvil.
16. He spends his spare time in activities like reading comic books, surfing, and of course playing guitar and collecting horror memorabilia.
17. Like many rock stars, Kirk was also involved in drugs as he thought he would have fun and he revealed that in 1988, during Metallica’s 4th concert tour Damaged Justice Tour that he was going through a cocaine addiction.
18. He came out of his cocaine addiction because he felt depressed but again began with it in 1996.
19. One of the reasons that he spends a heavy load of money on comic books is that they keep him distracted from drugs and they are much more fun and healthier to be addicted to.
20. He also attracted a lot of attention for his strong disagreement with then U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
21. As of 2015, he has used more than 20 different guitars in his entire career including ESP KH-2 M-II “Boris Karloff Mummy” #I, ESP Michael Schenker Flying V, ESP M-II Standard, ESP KH-2 M-II “Greenburst”, and many more.
22. Jackson Randy Rhoads Model RR1T was a guitar custom made for Kirk and was used in songs such as Sad but True and The Memory Remains.
23. He also owns a collaboration with ESP Guitars, called the ESP Kirk Hammett, a range of electric guitars based on his custom models.
24. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Featured Image by Gage Skidmore / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0