Dave Mustaine isn’t holding back.
The Megadeth frontman, now 63, is once again calling out Metallica for allegedly using his music after firing him from the band back in 1983. In a recent appearance on The Shawn Ryan Show, Mustaine opened up about the fallout and how it still bothers him today.
Before founding Megadeth, Mustaine was Metallica’s original lead guitarist. He says the band used his material even after telling them not to. “When I left, I told them, ‘Do not use my music.’ And of course, they used it,” Mustaine said.
He claimed he had left the band with a tape of riffs he recorded himself. “Just me playing and playing and playing… We took that tape player and the reel of tape with us out to New York,” he explained. After two shows there, Metallica woke him up one morning and kicked him out with no warning.
Mustaine insists his exit wasn’t just about drinking. “We all drank. That’s why they called it Alcoholica. I mean, they didn’t call it Dave-Alcoholica,” he joked. “We all drank. And they continued to drink like that even after I was gone. But that was, I think, the beginning of the end.”
His biggest grievance seems to be the music. Mustaine believes several early Metallica songs contain his riffs, including Ride The Lightning, The Call Of Ktulu, Phantom Lord, Metal Militia, Jump In The Fire, and The Four Horsemen. He also claims to have written parts of Leper Messiah off Master of Puppets.
“You listen to the riffs, you know they’re my riffs,” Mustaine said. “It’s, like, you think I’m gonna all of a sudden hear my riff and say, ‘That’s not me.’”
He didn’t stop there. Mustaine also took a shot at his replacement, Kirk Hammett, claiming all the solos on Metallica’s debut album were originally his. “The best Kirk could try and do was copy them,” he said bluntly.
The feud between Mustaine and Metallica has spanned decades, and this latest interview adds more fuel to the fire. While Metallica has acknowledged Mustaine’s contributions in the past, especially on early tracks, tensions clearly remain.
For Mustaine, it’s personal. “I thought that was unfair. And it showed a grotesque lack of character,” he said of how the band fired him. “And so that p***** me off and was a huge part of the fuel.”
Whether fans side with Mustaine or Metallica, one thing is clear-the riffs that shaped thrash metal’s early sound came with a whole lot of baggage.
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