Dave Mustaine revealed the last time he spoke to James Hetfield after their fight, and also explained the reason for the whole mess.
It's unclear exactly when the conversation took place, but the disagreement began while they were working on the longer version of Metallica No Life 'Til Leather (1982) . Dave and drummer Lars Ulrich clashed over songwriting credits.
“Now, those two songs, you and I split them 50/50. Lars didn’t write on that song – you know that. I don’t know why you gave him credit, but I’m not going to. I’m not going to sign another contract confirming that because I never agreed to it. And James said, ‘Look, Lars has a different recollection of it,’ and I said that’s fine – there’s his side of the story, mine, and the truth somewhere. And that surprised him, and we haven’t spoken since. You know, I was trying to be friendly with him,” Mustaine commented in an interview with Guitar.com .
Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica in 1983 due to drug and alcohol use, which led him to form Megadeth soon after. The tension between the bandmates thus lasted for almost three decades. It is believed that it eased during the Big 4 in 2010, which brought together the four biggest thrash metal bands. A reunion also occurred in 2011, when Metallica played a show celebrating the band's anniversary.
Finally, the founder of Megadeth confirms that he would like to work with James again someday: “I think the world really wants us to do that, and I think there’s a good chance that it will happen in the future.”
Listen below to the demo that caused all this confusion, No Life 'Til Leather :
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