The guitarist reveals that they were both excellent students.
Before releasing his album Surfing With The Alien in 1987 and gaining fame, Joe Satriani was a guitar teacher and revealed that he gave lessons to Kirk Hammett and Steve Vai.
He reveals that he met Steve Vai when he was only 12 years old and knew nothing about playing guitar, “He showed up at my door with an unstrung guitar in one hand and a box of strings in the other and said, 'You're teaching my friend, can you teach me to play too?'”
Kirk Hammett, he says, was in Exodus when he met him and already played well, "And soon after he joined Metallica, so the lessons were very important for him. He already knew how to play, but going into the studio and recording albums is different."
In a recent interview, Hammett spoke about the lessons he received from the guitarist and revealed that the lessons were great and that he tried to absorb everything Satriani knew about playing.
"From the first time I saw him, he played like that. He's always played incredibly. He's unique ," says Hammett.
Satriani taught many other musicians such as Alex Skolnick, Andy Timmons, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Charlie Hunter, Jeff Tyson, and Kevin Cadogan.
