METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett recently spoke with Metal Magnitude about his collection of vintage movie posters, many of which were recently on display at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts in an exhibit called "It's Alive! Classic Horror And Sci-Fi Art From The Kirk Hammett Collection". The full chat can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): On collecting: Kirk: "There's a whole field dedicated to restoration and preservation of movie posters, and there's a complete field of experts that all they do is restore and preserve movie posters for museums, for collectors, for business and whatnot. I'm connected to all the best people, because I want all the best work done on my posters. I don't do that stuff myself — I was told not even to attempt to do anything like that myself because I'd probably do more harm than good — but knowing that there's incredible people out there, when I find a movie poster and it's, like, tattered, and it looks like it's about to fall apart into a million pieces, I know that I can take it to someone who can put it together and, like a Frankenstein monster, piece it into something that comes alive again. "There's posters that when I first started collecting 25 years ago, I only dreamed of having, because there was no known copies of it. I used to dream of having a 'Frankenstein' three sheet and a 'Mummy' three sheet, and I have them now, and it's amazing. It just goes to show that if you're patient enough and you stay in a hobby long enough, good things eventually show up. Good things happen." On whether he has plans for similar exhibits elsewhere: Kirk: "For me, the collection, I'm always looking to expand it. I'm always on the hunt for future stuff, so whenever people ask me about the collection, the very first thing I ever think about is, 'What are my plans for recent acquisitions?' That's what I think about first — 'How do I contribute to the collection?' The idea is to bring this collection all over the world in whatever way we can, to get it seen by as many people as possible." On METALLICA's immediate future: Kirk: "We're going to be on tour for the next couple years. Hopefully we won't take eight years to put out another album. Things are moving ahead on that, and right now, our main thing is to make it through the tour in one piece." Hammett released a coffee table book in 2012 called "Too Much Horror Business" that featured photos of his extensive collection of monster and horror memorabilia. He displayed a portion of his collection in the "Kirk's Crypt" exhibition during the 2012 and 2013 Orion Music + More festivals. The METALLICA guitarist is also known as the Fear FestEvil horror convention organizer. Photo credit: Allison White
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