Metallica’s lead guitarist Kirk Hammett revealed his thoughts about legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix in the recently published book by Greg Prato, ‘Avatar of the Electric Guitar: The Genius of Jimi Hendrix.’
In the book, Kirk was asked if Jimi is the greatest guitarist of all time, and Kirk started to respond to this question by praising the talent of Jimi and showing his respect to another iconic guitarist.
Kirk compared Jimi with the other legendary guitar players and said that most of the guitarists dedicated their whole life to do what Jimi accomplished in a short period before he died.
Kirk stated that Jimi did so many things and stayed influential in five years that affects today’s music. Because of that, it is easier to say Jimi is the best guitarist of all time, compared to the other players.
Here is what Kirk Hammett said:
“Yeah, I would say that. Only because it’s hard to put anybody else in that position. And it’s easy to put Jimi in that position – because he died at 27, and look at all he accomplished in that short amount of time, like, five years, maybe.
To accomplish all of that in that short period of time and be so influential, to leave a body of music that is still vibrant and influential to this day – to this minute – I would say yes, he is probably the greatest guitar player.”
He continued:
“To be able to do all that in that short of time… I mean, there are lots of great guitar players out there. But they had the benefit of their whole lives playing and getting better and exploring and shifting and changing.
Jimi didn’t have that. He came out and he was all he was in those five years.”
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