My musical tastes change every week.

A life lived unexplored is a life not worth living.

I've been into horror movies ever since I was five years old.

The movie 'Black Cat,' from 1934, is one of my favorite movies.

We never see ourselves as being on a higher level than our fans.

The main riff for 'SandMan' was just something I wrote one night.

One of my favorite horror films of the Nineties was 'Event Horizon.'

My guitars are my umbilical cord. They're directly wired into my head.

I was really, really wild in my early twenties and a bit self-destructive.

I think it's morally wrong to keep someone away from what keeps him happy.

I love 'True Blood.' I love 'The Walking Dead.' Those are fantastic series.

Jeff Beck is one of my heroes and has been since I first picked up a guitar.

Everyone has a side to them that's kind of unexplained and feels misunderstood.

I think it goes without saying that a lot of big horror fans are just nerds and geeks.

It's definitely true that Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my all-time favorite guitarists.

We wanted to offer something new to our audience. I hate it when bands stop taking chances.

Guitar players in the nineties seem to be reacting against the technique oriented eighties.

Guitar playing is both extremely easy for me and extremely difficult for me at the same time.

It really shocked me just to hear of the fans' response to 'St. Anger' not having guitar solos.

I'm death obsessed. You know, I have death all over my house. I have a stuffed two headed sheep!

Just because you know umpteen billion scales, it doesn't mean you have to use them all in a solo.

If a guitar is too easy for me to play, it makes me too laid back. I like to battle with my guitar.

I love this pedal to death. The only way you could keep me from playing one is by chopping off my legs!

I went through a whole blues period in the Nineties, and that had some influence on 'Load' and 'ReLoad.'

When people are confronted with something they've never seen before, they really don't know how to react.

Although I'm a lead guitarist, I'd say that a good 95 percent of my time onstage is spent playing rhythm.

I love horror movies in space. I love it when the genre switches over and what was sci-fi becomes horror.

I fix things all the time. Every time I do a solo, I re-check it and correct things that don't hit the mark.

I'm very fortunate to be doing the thing I do best, which is play guitar. There aren't many other things I could do.

Metallica is a very complicated, fragile thing. On the outside, it's all metal, but on the inside it's very delicate.

The same sensations that you get in heavy metal are in horror movies. Heavy metal sounds evil and horror movies are evil, ha ha!

I didn't want to fall into the trap of competing with all these other great guitar players. I just want to sidestep the whole thing and get out of the race.

For 'Death Magnetic,' I used what I always use, which is my standard touring rack, which is filled with some Boogie stuff and a Marshall that I've had forever.

When I see my kids totally into their Legos, it brings me back to the days I was hanging out and playing with my monster models. It brings me there in a second.

The only problem I've had with my Vox wah is its tendency to move around on the floor. So now it sits on a rubber mat that says in big letters, 'Kirk's Wah-Wah Rug.'

Much of my playing is rhythmic and choppy; I use a lot of double stops. The wah just accents all those stops and chops and brings out the rhythmic aspect that much more.

Metallica is like the phoenix rising from the ashes. We set everything on fire, and this is what has risen from it - St. Anger being the fire and Death Magnetic being the phoenix.

For me, one of the most perfect times to watch a horror movie is when it's cold and raining outside and there's pretty much no outdoor activity to be done. It kind of sets the mood.

I feel like I've matured more musically than I have personally. But I totally embrace what becoming older has to offer. I find the wisdom that comes with each passing year is a trip.

Metallica is like the phoenix rising from the ashes. We set everything on fire, and this is what has risen from it - 'St. Anger' being the fire and 'Death Magnetic' being the phoenix.

A good horror movie should have peaks and valleys, a good horror movie should move you emotionally; a good horror movie should be exciting to watch and energizing in a weird kind of way.

I don't think success has changed us as people at all. We are the same lunatics that we were when this band first got going. We never see ourselves as being on a higher level than our fans.

Because of things like iTunes and streaming and social networking, it's destroyed music. It's destroyed the motivation to go out there and really make the best record possible. It's a shame.

I'm not into that whole Satanic thing. It's just something to fall back on if you don't have much imagination. Singing you fiftieth song about having lunch with Satan--I'm not into it. It's silly.

Getting sequestered and not really knowing what to do with your time and then discovering, 'Oh, I can watch a bunch of horror movies' has probably played out in a lot of people's discovery of horror.

Deep Purple definitely belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 'Cause they had great songs, great musicianship, they had an impact, and they're a huge influence on the heavy metal community as a whole.

Ampeg made incredible guitar heads in the early Nineties and then stopped. And I don't know why. The one we used had a nice clean, warm sound, and it blended well with the other amps that were in the studio.

When I got my first Marshall amp, it was so empowering. No one ever forgets their first Marshall amp if you're a guitar player pursuing a big powerful sound. I mean, no one ever forgets their first Marshall amp.

I would have to say I'm bored with the standard rock, guitar solos, but I've done it for five albums now, and this time I wanted to go in a completely different direction. I wasn't interested in showing off any more.

If I had unlimited funds, wall space and storage, I would collect a lot more things, like 'Planet of the Apes,' 'Star Wars,' science fiction stuff, autographs, and prop guns and weapons. I have to draw the line somewhere.

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