Music news: Metallica's Kirk Hammett forgets notes, and Ed Sheeran doesn't need AI

Our favorite musicians that we might also see as minor gods are also human too. That's part of what endears them to us, right? They make mistakes and that is OK because we all do. And Metallica's Kirk Hammett made a small mistake this past week, but he completely owned it as well.

That's what made Hammett's mistake so much more interesting. What happened was Metallica was playing a show in New Jersey last week and Hammett took center stage to play the intro to "Nothing Else Matters" - an intro he has probably played thousands of times before and clearly knows how to play - and Hammett, well...he forgot what he was doing. Just a few seconds into the intro, it was clear something was off.

Hammett then stops playing, gives a wry smile, holds his fist in the air, and then turns and walks to a microphone where he ends up saying that wasn't good enough for the fans who showed up. He then restarts the intro and plays it perfectly. In other words,

Metallica guitar god Kirk Hammett makes a mistake and Ed Sheeran talks AI

Hammett is human and he made the moment a human one and made his mistake a communal moment that basically reminded us even guitar gods flub moments at times. (Rarely, but sometimes.)

As far as Ed Sheeran is concerned, he was asked in an interview with Audacy about using AI in his music. This was also a recent issue with Paul McCartney when McCartney seemed to imply a "new" Beatles song he is working on might have some AI used to create the vocals. (McCartney later clarified that the song will be "all real.")

Other music news and analysis

Sheeran's response to the AI question was to say, "I just don’t see why you need it...If you’re taking a job away from a human being, I think that’s probably a bad thing..." He also made a joke about how most films in the last 60 years tell us AI will eventually "kill us."

Let's hope that last part doesn't happen, obviously, but let's also hope our favorite artists keep making real music. AI might be smart, but any of its emotion is fake.