Gibson TV 's Icons series , Dave Mustaine was invited to talk about his career and recalled the car accident that caused (directly or indirectly) his departure from Metallica .
In 1983, Mustaine was driving his bandmates to New York when he skidded on ice in Wyoming, causing a dangerous accident that, fortunately, did not injure any of the band members, but put everyone's lives at risk due to other minor accidents that subsequently occurred at the scene.
“I think the accident in Wyoming made me the guy who had to leave,” says Dave Mustaine. “I was probably destined to leave [the band] before that because of the word 'destiny' and also because there was so much personality and so much talent among the four of us. I don't know if we would have survived. We were destined for some kind of explosion at some point.”
Mustaine admitted to being upset by the event and revealed that he had “never felt special” before Metallica, which left him feeling lost and stagnant. “They could have given up metal and gone to bake cookies and I would still be envious because we were friends and suddenly we weren’t anymore,” he recounts.
After much deliberation, young Dave Mustaine decided he would form his own band and that it would be "more metal than Metallica," which eventually led to the creation of Megadeth .
“I’m happy to say that our friendship today is very different from what it was back then. We’re all different. We’re parents and we’re older now,” he reflects. “I think the most shocking and difficult thing to tolerate was that when the band stopped, I felt like I had stopped too. I know it’s not true, but it’s something a young person would think.”
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