Monday, March 12, 2007

Kirk Hammett: Why the taped hand?

See that tape around Kirk's picking hand? I have seen a lot of bizarre (or sometimes reasonable) reasons that people thinks he tapes his hand. Someone e-mailed me asking about it and I dug this bit out of 20th Anniversary of Master of Puppets edition of Guitar World (January 2006). The definitive answer from the man himself:

[Question] There have been many theories spread on the Internet about why you tape your hands. So once and for all, why do you do it? --Jerry Glass

If you look at the side of your hand, right below your pinkie, you'll see there are some wrinkle lines. At least there are on my hand... [laughs] Because of my playing style, I'm constantly hitting the strings and palm muting and, generally, beating up my right hand. Over the course of a tour, those wrinkles start busting open and bleeding. I put tape over the wrinkles so they don't break open and bleed all over my guitar, 'cause if a string gets in there once your hand is cut --wow!--that stings! Plus, it lets me play faster since it reduces drag between my hand and the strings.

Once, when we were on tour, I looked out into the audience and saw a kid with both his hands taped up like mine. I was cracking up so much I had to give him a backstage pass. --Kirk Hammett, Guitar World, January 2006, 112.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliant

Anonymous said...

Lucky kid lol

Anonymous said...

Giving the kid a backstage pass because he taped up his hands lol. That's quite a nice thing to do.

Ze [Zuplemento.com] said...

Cool post

Ze

Unknown said...

where can i get some of the tape??

Vladimir Mihajlović said...

yeah, what's it made of, where to get it? I want one! :P

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna start doing that, cuz my hand often gets really irritated from rubbing against the strings

Jasmine said...

Good idea come back to canada

Anonymous said...

He plays his guitar until his hands bleed..... how cool is that

Zenobius said...

Duct tape, you can't go wrong with this one

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

For your information. First show with the taped hand - 4/16/1992 Hartford Civic Center Arena, Hartford, CT, United States.

Unknown said...

Stop playing from the elbow. Didn't Joe teach you anythng?

Unknown said...

Stop playing from the elbow. Didn't Joe teach you anythng?

Cade said...

Thats why at the beginning of the movie Through The Never Kirk's guitar had blood on it