Metallica’s Kirk Hammett on Pink Floyd’s Shine on You Crazy Diamond

Kirk Hammett on David Gilmour
(Image credit: Didier Messens / Getty)

“I love Shine On You Crazy Diamond because there is a riff in that song, but it’s so sideways and so around the back. When you listen, it’s actually blues. 

“It’s a freaking blues progression but it doesn’t sound like it, and that in itself is a real accomplishment. So I really think that song is just amazing. With the opening to it, that weird ringing opening chord, Shine On You Crazy Diamond is just epic, and there’s so much that I love about that.

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Ellie Rogers

Since graduating university with a degree in English, Ellie has spent the last decade working in a variety of media, marketing and live events roles. As well as being a regular contributor to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and GuitarWorld.com, she currently heads up the marketing team of a mid-scale venue in the south-west of England. She started dabbling with guitars around the age of seven and has been borderline obsessed ever since. She has a particular fascination with alternate tunings, is forever hunting for the perfect slide for the smaller-handed guitarist, and derives a sadistic pleasure from bothering her drummer mates with a preference for “f**king wonky” time signatures.