Metallica's Kirk Hammett On Napster Lawsuit: "We're Still Right"

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett doubled down on the band's 2000 lawsuit against filesharing platform Napster during an interview with Sweden's TV4 program "Nyhetsmorgon," saying that "we're still right." The Bay Area thrash legends infamously sued Napster after they discovered a leaked version of their song "I Disappear" on the platform before it was released. While the band settled out of court with the company, over 300,000 users were banned from Napster - a huge blow to the once-massively popular filesharing service and one of the biggest PR blunders in any band's history. The group took a huge hit to their "everyman" image and spent years after trying to regain their fans' trust.

When asked about Metallica's hesitance to put their music on streaming services, Kirk brought up their Napster lawsuit (via Blabbermouth). "Oh, yeah. I mean, the whole Napster thing definitely… it didn't do us any favors whatsoever. But you know what? We're still in the right on that — we're still right about Napster, no matter who's out there who's saying, 'Metallica was wrong,'" he said. "All you have to do is look at the state of the music industry, and that kind of explains the whole situation right there. There was a time when the streaming thing was kind of weird, and it's not that great of quality. I don't care what anyone says about modern streaming and whatnot, and all these bits and whatnot, it's never gonna sound better than vinyl," the guitarist continued. "Having said that, we wanna be accessible, and you need to make sure that you're accessible on all the modern fronts."

Kirk also discussed Metallica's recently being honored with Sweden's Polar Music Prize, saying: "there was a time when people just didn't understand us. To get recognized and vindicated for what we do as a band is phenomenal. That's an incredible vindication of all the hard work we've been doing over the years. And to join all these other esteemed recipients of this award, it's incredible." 

Watch Kirk talk about their lawsuit against Napster at the 1:45min mark below: 

Photo Credit: Getty