Which Metallica member plays the guitar solo on “Nothing Else Matters”?

James Hetfield plays the guitar solo on Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.”

The song is unusual in the band’s catalog because Kirk Hammett does not play on the studio recording. Hetfield performs the vocal, rhythm-guitar, and lead-guitar parts, including the solo. Hammett appears in the music video and has performed the song live with the band, which can cause listeners to assume he played the original solo.

“Nothing Else Matters” began as a private guitar idea Hetfield played while on the telephone. He initially did not plan to present it as a Metallica song, but Lars Ulrich encouraged him to develop it. The finished recording became one of the album’s most prominent ballads.

Michael Kamen later arranged orchestral parts for the song, adding strings to its closing texture. That orchestral contribution is another reason the studio recording is sometimes remembered as more elaborate than its original guitar-and-vocal idea. The guitarist on the album’s solo, however, is Hetfield.