METALLICA's KIRK HAMMETT Remembers GARY MOORE

February 9, 2011

Days after the news came down that legendary guitarist Gary Moore died, METALLICA's Kirk Hammett called RollingStone.com from his home in Hawaii to talk about his guitar idol. An excerpt from his remembrance follows below.

"Gary Moore is definitely in my list of top five guitar influences, right up with Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Michael Schenker. His influence is strong to the point that the opening lick of the guitar solo of 'Master of Puppets' is a variation of a lick that Gary Moore played a lot. I remember the first time hearing his blues album and just getting totally blown away — not only by the playing but by the sound of it too, his tone. And I remember being so inspired that I wrote a couple riffs just based on his sound and his feel. And those riffs ended up in 'The Unforgiven' on 'The Black Album'.

"I first heard of him in the late 1970s. I was a big THIN LIZZY fan then. I had seen them on the 'Dangerous' tour and not long afterwards I heard there was a new album out called 'Black Rose'. I heard 'Waiting For An Alibi' on a college radio station and I was amazed because I instantly knew that they had a different guitar player. That was not Brian Robertson playing or Scott Gorham playing that guitar solo. It was…something else. I went to the record store and picking up 'Black Rose', looked at the cover, turned it over and saw a guitar player named Gary Moore."

Read the entire tribute at RollingStone.com.

(Thanks: Carl Alvarez)

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