Inside Metallica Guitarist Kirk Hammett’s ‘Horror Business’
Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has long maintained a spooky hobby: collecting horror memorabilia. Now fans can get a peek at his vast assortment in Too Much Horror Business: The Kirk Hammett Collection, a 224-page book that includes photos of his souvenirs and interviews between Hammett and writer Steffan Chirazi. He also plans to release a series of tie-in toys through his Kirk Von Hammett line.
"I've been into horror movies ever since I was five years old. I started collecting horror-related stuff when I was six years old – monster magazines, comic books and whatnot," Hammett says. "Over the last five years or so, I started to get a few items that made my collection just that much better. I mean, really raised the overall quality of my collection." Here, he gives Rolling Stone a peek at his memorabilia.
-
Scares Inside
"Too Much Horror Business is a book of vintage horror movie posters, vintage monster toys from the Sixties and Seventies, and also horror-related artwork," explains Hammett. "Basically, it's my collection – everything that's in the book is stuff that is actively in my collection."
-
For the ‘Horror Nerds’
"I thought, "I can't be 'the solitary collector.' It's time for me to share it with the world," Hammett says. "Because there was so much of it, and there's so much cool stuff. So this book is my gift to all the other monster kids and all the horror nerds out there, who love this stuff as much as I do."
-
‘Kirk Von Hammett’
There's pictures of me with my collection, and there's also a picture of my horror persona, 'Kirk Von Hammett' – which is me in ghoul makeup," notes Hammett. (Nice cane.)
-
Kirks for Sale
The first of Hammett's toys will be based on his spooky Kirk Von Hammett persona. "It's going to be pretty cool, because I've always wanted to make toys," he says. "I've always wanted to have my own toy line. So this is what KVH toys is now – it's my attempt to have a cool toy line, that makes cool horror-related monster toys."
-
Every Last Detail
"I'm really pleased with how it turned out," Hammett raves of his book. "I should be – I fucking went through every little positioning of all the pictures and every little word and grammatical stuff. Everything from cover to cover. It really has been a labor of love, and I'm just very proud of it."