A few days ago, on Saturday October 12th, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammet joined U.F.O. on stage and played the classics “Doctor, Doctor” and “Shoot Shoot”. The event took place at the Megacruise party in Avalon, Hollywood. The British band has always been one of Kirk’s favorites, influenced by Michael Schenker. In an interview with Guitar World magazine a while ago, Hammett spoke about how his life was changed when he first heard UFO’s 1975 album “Force It”, which featured Michael Schenker on guitar: “I was 15 years old and a friend of mine brought it over to my house insisting I had to hear it, I was still living at my parents’ house at the time, and they had a very loud stereo system. My friends would come over and we would blast it up to what we thought was concert level. Boy, was I naïve! The first track my friend played was ‘Mother Mary’, and I thought, wow, these guys are just as heavy as Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, Montrose and all the other hard rock stuff that I was listening to before I got into heavy metal. When it got to the guitar solo, I was just blown away by Michael Schenker’s tone, phrasing and technique. By the time the second solo came on with the fastest descending lick I’d ever heard, I was totally hooked! I immediately grabbed the album cover and saw the picture of Schenker playing a Flying V”.
