Between Big 4 shows and their own dates this year, the calendar keeps filling up for the metal legends; things are getting so busy that Metallica keep thinking they’ll get around to working on new music – time permitting, of course.
“We haven’t really started yet; we’re thinking about it though [laughs],” Kirk Hammett tells Gibson Guitar India. “There’s just a bunch of other things that we’re doing right now. We keep telling ourselves that we’re going to get ’round to start writing songs but you know, something comes up. Normally it’s a show or us having to travel to India to play or something or the other, and then the album gets put on the backburner for a bit. But I think personally, the new album will just happen when it happens.”
Metallica will play shows in India this October, including dates in Delhi and Bangalore. Hammett was asked if Indian metal fans can expect any new material for the shows.
“Well, as far as new material is concerned we’re just now starting to think about writing new material,” he says. “I guess if anything is going to be finished between now and the end of October, who knows? We may play a new song, we may not, but because India’s kind of a special place and it’s the first time we’re playing there, we might even break out a song that we haven’t played for a while.”
Indian metal fans have waited for Metallica to play their country, which Hammett is totally into.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing India as a country and as a culture, and from there seeing how our fans and our music fit into all of that,” says Kirk. “Indian culture, for me, is very interesting and very provocative. It’s spiritual and mystical; it’s the birthplace of Buddhism and Hinduism as well as yoga, so I’m very excited to go to the spiritual birthplace of those three disciplines. Also, we’ve gotten a lot of fan mail that had a lot of people asking us to come to India and now we’re finally doing it. So it’s going to be pretty cool and I’m really looking forward to it.”
And why is this fall the time for Metallica to finally make its way to India?
“Well [laughs], mainly because we have the time to do it! We’re officially off tour but, for some reason or the other, this year we’ve managed to fill our calendars with a bunch of shows in places we’ve either never gone to before or rarely go to. So because we had the time and we had an offer to play India, all of us decided now’s the time to do it. We feel pretty good about coming over there and playing because it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a long, long time.”
Metallica Metallica – Wherever I May Roam
S&M (1999)
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