As an environmentalist and surfer, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett is concerned about the effect the policies of President-elect Donald Trump will have on the oceans. In a new interview, Hammett said that he’s considering taking a more active role in politics if he’s unhappy with Trump.

Speaking to Yahoo! Music, Hammett took issue with Trump’s long-running denial of climate change. “What does that tell you about the man?” said. “What does that tell you? Any normal, educated person who has a pretty good grip on reality -- evenly balanced, could even be a centrist sort of person, not left or not right, any person who I just described -- upon hearing something like that would just think, ‘What the f—in' fairy tale did that come out of?’”

The guitarist then defined a good leader as “someone with integrity, honesty and altruism, and a general sense of what is right and what's wrong. We don't have that in our leadership right now, and that puts me in a state of awareness and attentiveness, and it puts me in a state of wait and see what will happen. But if anything happens that I'm not okay with, I'm going to be super vocal about it for the first time in my life.”

However, he made it clear that he will not use the stage as a platform for his views, and that it’s coming from him and not the band. “Metallica appeals to such a wide range of people,” he continued. “We have people on the left, people on the right, in droves. Part of the reason why we don't consider ourselves a politically oriented band is because when you start talking about politics you draw a line in the sand, and all of a sudden [there's] division, and that's not what we want. We want everyone to be in this together, experiencing the music together. … I -- not Metallica, but I -- will take it upon myself to get involved, if there is something I see that is seriously wrong, and I really feel that it's my job to say something, and to call out people who need to be called out.”

And if that means resorting to social media to try to make a change, he says, so be it. “I could pick up my phone right now and say exactly what I said and provoke a fight with the President [Elect] of the United States,” he said, “and chances are he'll fall for the bait. That's a sad thing, right there.”

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