Kirk Hammett (Metallica) Explains His Mistake Playing “Nothing Else Matters” Last Year: “I Screwed Up, So What?”

Kirk Hammett (Metallica) Explains His Mistake Playing “Nothing Else Matters” Last Year: “I Screwed Up, So What?”
The guitarist made an error with the introduction of the song during the first date of Metallica’s American leg of the “M72” tour last year.

In a recent interview with Guitar World (via Ultimate Guitar), Metallica’s guitarist, Kirk Hammett, has shed light on why he made a mistake while playing the intro to “Nothing Else Matters” live during the first date of the band’s American leg of the “M72” tour last year. Right off the bat, Hammett makes it clear: “I’m not a damn perfect machine.”

Discussing the stage setup for this new tour, where the entire band is visible almost all the time, Kirk states, “There’s nowhere we can hide. We are exposed all the time, so we make the most of it and go like, ‘Hey, everyone! Here we are.’ And it’s crazy because when I’m facing the stadium, it looks like a stadium show, and when I turn around and look towards the inside of the stage and see the Snakepit, it feels like we’re playing in a nightclub!”

However, this exposure leaves the band susceptible to any mistakes, as they have tens of thousands of people not only listening but also recording. And so, last summer, Hammett made a mistake. It wasn’t anything serious, considering it was the introduction of the song, which, after missing a few notes, he repeated, this time without a hitch.

Now, Kirk reflects on that moment: “What I was definitely doing was preparing myself for a lot of comments afterward! But I didn’t care, man. At that moment, I thought, ‘Damn! I’m going to play it decently because you deserve to hear it well.’ Yes, I screwed up. So what? I don’t take myself that seriously. I’m not going to get up there and say I’m a damn perfect machine.”

In the midst of this, Kirk provides an explanation for why he slipped up while playing the song: “So, I thought, ‘Damn! I’m dehydrated. That’s why. I’m not as nimble as usual.’ Playing in dry heat, in the middle of the desert, I didn’t drink enough water.”

New Album and Concert in Spain
’72 Seasons,’ Metallica’s latest album, was released on April 14 through Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, it marks Metallica’s first album since ‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct.’

Here is the complete tracklist for ’72 Seasons’:

72 Seasons
Shadows Follow
Screaming Suicide
Sleepwalk My Life Away
You Must Burn!
Lux Æterna
Crown of Barbed Wire
Chasing Light
If Darkness Had a Son
Too Far Gone?
Room of Mirrors
Inamorata

Metallica will be visiting the Cívitas Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on Friday, July 12, 2024, alongside Architects and Mammoth WVH, and on Sunday, July 14, 2024, with Five Finger Death Punch and Ice Nine Kills.