Q&A: Metallica's Kirk Hammett

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What do you remember about Metallica's first European tour in 1984?
We played with a band called Venom — masters of black metal! [Smiles] We were super-psyched. I thought I was worldly, because I'd stayed in New York for a few months. But to go to Europe, for James, Cliff and I, the culture shock hit us pretty hard. It was the food, the language barrier, the fact that stores were opening and closing at different times of the day. On Sundays, you couldn't get anything. The television was different. You couldn't read anything when you looked around. We got over it after awhile, but it was so different than any of us expected.

Was Lars, being Danish, the mediator?
He was like, "Oh, no problem." He'd go to the train station, buy the tickets. "You give it to that geezer there." "This is the good beer to drink." "This is the best hot dog stand in Copenhagen." "These are my pals in Mercyful Fate." And I'm like, Mercyful Fate? That's my all-time favorite band.

Six months previous to that, I was sitting in my Volkswagen, drinking vodka, driving over the Bay Bridge, cranking Venom on my way to hear some metal bands play in a club in San Francisco. Now I'm on tour with them. It was quite a leap for me. I went from being an uber-heavy metal fan to being a heavy metal musician, to being in it.

When did you meet your first bonafide rock star?
We played a show in 1984 with Ozzy, Dio, [guitarist] Gary Moore, that band No Heavy Petting, maybe Virgin Steele. It was in Paris, the Breaking Sound Festival. We called it the Breaking Wind Festival. I can remember being backstage and freaking out because there's Gary Moore! We went into his dressing room, and I could hear him warming up on a little practice amp. My jaw dropped as he was ripping these licks off. He only warmed up for five minutes, then came out and looked at me as he walked to the stage. I was like, "Woah!" I jumped.

I saw Ozzy, [his guitarist] Jake E. Lee, Ronnie James Dio. I actually knew Jake E. Lee's guitar tech, this guy from the Bay Area. He goes, "Bro, it's alright, they're just normal people like you and I." I looked at him and thought to myself, "No, they're not!" We were pretty low on the bill, but I was so nervous, knowing they were backstage and might be listening to us. I remember quaking in my shoes, going out and playing. That was one of the best shows we had played up to that point, and a lot of it had to do with the fact that all those people were there.