Megadeth 's Dave Mustaine gave an interview to The Shawn Ryan Show , where he spoke about his brief time in Metallica , recalling not only the friendly moments but also the conflicts that led to his dismissal, stating that he "wrote many of the songs that made them famous."
During a 3-hour conversation with Shawn Ryan , former Navy SEAL, Mustaine recounted how he was hired by Metallica [Transcript via Blabbermouth ]: “I had just finished with my previous band PANIC and said, ‘I’m going to find something else to do.’ So I picked up a newspaper called The Recycler , and it’s just a little newspaper from Los Angeles. It’s like a county classifieds magazine. And I was looking at the classifieds. Go figure. The biggest band in the world would advertise in that newspaper.”
So I looked and it said, 'Lead guitarist wanted' and mentioned some bands. So I called and spoke to Lars [ Ulrich ] on the phone, and I said, 'Yeah, well, I like Motörhead and Budgie .' And he said, 'You like Budgie?' And I said, 'Yeah, I really do.' And that was the icebreaker, because
Budgie is a Welsh band. […] So, we were on the phone, and he mentioned that I knew them, I said, 'Yes.' Soon after, we talked about meeting in person.”
“I went to where he lived, to a place called — I think it was called Park Newport. And the funny thing is, my mother was a housekeeper and had worked at a catering event in the condominium where he lived. And I thought, 'Go figure. My mother was a housekeeper here and your mother has a house here. What a story, two sides of the same coin.'”
Metallica didn't write "Hit The Lights".
Mustaine continued talking about when he arrived at Lars' house and heard him playing the song
"Hit The Lights": "The song was written by a guy named Lloyd Grant . Metallica didn't write that song. Lloyd Grant wrote it, he was a friend of Lars', so Lars introduced him to James [ Hetfield ] and then they started playing 'Hit The Lights'."
“That was the first song I heard from them and I said, ‘Wow, this song needs a lot more lead solos.’ And he was trying to figure out if I was serious. And then we went to rehearsal. He said, ‘We’re going to test you.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ I mean, I knew how well I played. I have a talent, and I know it’s not my own fault, so I don’t try to take any credit for it. And I went there with Lars, set up my amps, plugged in my guitar, and started warming up.”
Mustaine went on to say that he “knew” he would get the spot in Metallica when he first auditioned for the band. “Because I knew how to play it,” he explained. “I mean, there weren’t many guitarists like me at the time.”
Mustaine also reflected on the 1983 US tour with Metallica, which resulted in his dismissal from the band. Addressing allegations that his excessive alcohol consumption was the main reason for his departure from Metallica, the guitarist clarified: “We all drank. That’s why they called us ‘Alcoholica.’ We all drank. And they continued to drink that way even after I left.”
“When we got to New York, I had a reel of tape, a quarter-inch tape, that probably had two days’ worth of guitar riffs on it, just me playing, playing, and playing. We did two shows there, and after those two shows, they woke me up one morning and said, ‘Look, you’re out of the band.’ And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You’re out of the band.’ I said, ‘No warning? No second chance?’ And I thought that was unfair. And it showed a grotesque lack of character.”
Dave Mustaine and the songs he wrote for Metallica
Dave explained how truly angry he was and that he didn't want to forgive them for what they had done, and claimed to have written most of Metallica's tracks.
“I told them when I left: Don’t use my music. And of course they did. ‘Ride The Lightning,’ I wrote. ‘The Call Of Ktulu,’ I wrote. Let’s see, what else? There’s ‘Phantom Lord,’ ‘Metal Militia,’ ‘Jump In The Fire,’ ‘The Four Horsemen.’ And ‘ Leper Messiah ’ [from the album Master Of Puppets ] too. They didn’t give me credit for it. You hear the riffs, you know they’re my riffs. It’s like you think I’m suddenly going to hear my riff and say, ‘That’s not me.’ So, yeah, I wrote a lot of their songs that made them famous, and all the solos on that first record were mine—the best
Kirk [ Hammett ] could do and copy them.”
Finally, regarding what he did after being fired, Mustaine said: “I went home, contacted a friend and said, ‘I quit my job.’ She replied, ‘No, you didn’t. You were fired.’ And I said, ‘Yes, I was fired. I quit. I was fired, whatever. I went home.’”
Regarding his current band, Megadeth, Mustaine added: “Because we may not be as big as them. Heck, their most famous song, 'Enter Sandman,' look up the band Excel right now. Look up their song—I think it's something 'for the unknown.' The track is actually called 'Tapping Into The Emotional Void.' Pretty similar.”
The song “Tapping Into The Emotional Void” by the band Excel was released in 1989 on the album The Joke's on You . Listen here. Meanwhile, “Enter Sandman” was released in 1991 on the self-titled album, also known as the Black Album.
READ ALSO: Kerry King on Tom Araya: “He’s not the same guy I started the band with”
