"I put riffs on my iPhone, but something very unfortunate happened to me about six months ago," Hammett tells Jasta on the podcast. "I lost my iPhone containing two hundred and fifty musical ideas. And I was crushed. It didn't get backed up. And when it happened, I was bummed out for about two or three days. I walked into the house. My wife saw me and she said, 'Uh-oh, what's wrong? Did you get a phone call from a relative?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'What's going on?' I told her, and she understood."

"I just plain lost it," he continues. "I can't find it. I'm still looking for it to this day. I just set it somewhere and� It still might turn up. I'm hoping it will. To try to remember those riffs�? I can only remember, like, eight of 'em. So I just chalked it down to maybe it just wasn't meant to be and I'll just move forward with it."

Hammett says he uses the phone to capture ideas whenever inspiration strikes. "For me, music comes at all times of the day. When I get a riff, sometimes it's a complete riff and I can just play it and there it is, sometimes it's half a riff and I have to tweak it. Sometimes it's just a rhythm or a note selection. Or sometimes it's just something that I hum in my head. But it can come from anywhere, and I put it on my phone, and I make sure the phone is f***ing backed up. All you musicians out there who use your phone, make sure it's backed up. Right?!"