Metallica’s Kirk Hammett Discusses the Band’s Finances in New Interview

In a new interview in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett discusses the band's finances.

Discussing the band's upcoming Orion Music + More festival, Hammett tells writer David Fricke: "Whenever we go on these kinds of endeavors, it's never to make money," laughed the guitar deity. "We want it to be fun and exciting. Maybe break even. Or lose money. Whatever. It's not a financial thing. We're trying to come up with something cool."

Orion Music + More festival will take place on June 23 and 24 at Bader Field in Atlantic City, N.J. Besides headlining sets from Metallica both nights, the fest will also feature performances from Arctic Monkeys, Avenged Sevenfold, Modest Mouse, The Gaslight Anthem, Volbeat, Sepultura and many other acts.

Later in the interview, Fricke asked Hammett if Metallica finances their state of the art studio in Northern California with their proceeds from touring: "Yeah. The merchandise. We basically take funds from wherever we can. This is a real luxury. But great things come out of this," said Hammett.

The guitarist also told the writer that the band have to hit the touring circuit to pay their huge overhead: "The cycles of taking two years off don't exist anymore. We were able to do that because we had record royalties coming in consistently. Now you put out an album, and you have a windfall maybe once or twice but not the way it used to be -- a check every three months."

Check out the rest of the Metallica interview in the latest issue of Rolling Stone which features the thrash titans on the cover.