Metallica lead guitarist and thrash legend Kirk Hammett has been dethroned as the king of Wah-Wah pedal! He was challenged by Mrs. Smith, the guitar virtuoso alter-ego of actor-musician David Hanbury, and defeated last night (Sunday, March 8) at the Senate in Columbia, South Carolina at the “Cry Baby Battle Royale”. The event also included a performance by Kirk’s The Wedding Band, a covers project, also featuring his Metallica bandmate Robert Trujillo and Ugly Kid Joe singer Whitfield Crane, Doc Coyle of Bad Wolves, among others. The seven-minute battle was introduced by Gibson’s Mark Agnesi, who arranged the event during an interview with Mrs. Smith, and saw Hammett and Mrs. Smith trading licks over a reimagining of Isaac Hayes’s Oscar-winning “Theme From Shaft”, the original recording of which became infamous for the mind-blowing wah-wah guitar of the late Charles “Skip” Pitts. In the end, Hammett conceded that he had “just been out-wah’d,” proclaiming, “A moment in history has just occurred.” Watch it now!Continue reading →