KIRK HAMMETT VS. MRS. SMITH
CRY BABY BATTLE ROYALE
March 8 at The Senate in Columbia, SC
Kirt Kammet has had a long love of the wah-wah pedal. Now he’s getting challenged my the guitar prodigy alter-ego of actor musician David Hanbury’s Mrs Smith.
This will be at the “Cry Baby Battle Royale” on March 8 at the Senate in Columbia, South Carolina. There will also be performances by the guitarists from Metallica – The Wedding Band covers project featuring Robert Trijilo and Ugly Kid Joe singer Whitfield Crance.
In January 2019 Mrs. Smith planted the seed by saying in an interview on The Mark Agnesi Show “I’m the number-one wah-wah abuser. I abuse the wah more than Kirk Hammett and I’ve challenged him multiple times to a wah-off. Why are you hiding behind your wah-wah pedal, Kirk Hammett?”
It wasn’t long till Hammett replied on Instragram “Challenged received and accepted,” He finished the post with the hashtag “#wahoff
Other guitarists are getting their word in on the up and coming #wahoff too. Joe Satriani has given his support to Mrs Smith, he told Rolling Stone “This is the crux of what makes Mrs. Smith so funny: There’s this woman, who doesn’t look right, who’s doing this stuff in the wrong place, in a cabaret or on a street corner and yet is out-shredding the person who is totally dedicated to shredding, who’s got the pants and the hair and the right amp and the pointy guitar.”And Joe Satriani actually gave lessons to Kurt Hammett back in the 80s.
Hammet told Metal Hammer back in 2018 that his inspiration for the love of the wah-wah pedal came from Thin Lizzy.
“To me, the wah-wah is a lot like the human voice,” he said. “It isn’t so much about the ‘wah-wah’ sound, it’s being able to manipulate the tone however I feel it in that moment. It actually creates a better connection to the deeper part of me. And Hendrix wasn’t actually the first person I heard use a wah-wah pedal — that was Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy.” Recalling that life-changing moment, he went on: “The first time I became aware of it was the song ‘Warriors’ on ‘Jailbreak’. He comes in with this totally wah-ed out two-three notes, and I said to my friend, ‘What is that?!’ He said, ‘That’s a wah-wah pedal.’ ‘Wow, fantastic!’ I made a mental note of that…”
