FUSE TV - Metallica's Kirk Hammett on Buying & Wearing Boris Karloff's 1934 Costume

"I've always felt like an outsider, like a bit of an outcast. When I first started watching horror movies, I was always able to relate to the monsters or villains or mad doctors," Metallica's Kirk Hammett. "I felt a kinship with these monsters and it never left me since I was a child."

That's how Hammett explains the genesis of his life-long love affair with horror movies and culture to Fuse when we sat down with the legendary guitarist. After telling us how Green Day asked Metallica to pinch hit for them at Voodoo Music Experience, Hammett told Fuse about his first book, Too Much Horror Business, which details his love of horror movies and his expansive memorabilia collection. According to Hammett, the idea for the book stems from a 78-year-old Boris Karloff outfit.

"One of my favorite pieces is the outfit Boris Karloff wore in The Black Cat from 1934," Hammett says. "When I acquired it, it made me seriously think about making a book. But once it arrived at my house, I put it on. I actually put it on and walked around and pretended I was Boris Karloff's character for about two, three hours."

Once Hammett did start working on the book, he worked on it with the obsessive, fastidious precision of one of his beloved mad scientists. "I put as much work into it as I would a Metallica album," Hammett says. "Having no previous experience as an author and because of the breadth of my collection, it took me three years."

For the full interview—and Hammett's explanation of his Kirk Von Hammett toy line—check out the video above.