There are actually three things you can always count on being certain in life. Those things are: death, taxes, and Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine talking shit about Metallica.
The thrash metal icon recently appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show and reflected on his time with Metallica. While discussing the band firing him over his heavy drinking, he claimed that he “wrote a lot of their music that made them.”
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“We did two shows out there [in New York]. And after those two shows, they woke me up one morning and said, ‘Look, you’re out of the band,’” Mustaine recalled. “And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You’re out of the band.’ I said, ‘No warning? No second chance? You’re not gonna give me a warning? You’re just gonna kick me out?’ And I thought that was unfair.”
He went on to say that “at the time,” he “was really mad and I didn’t wanna forgive them for what they did.” Mustaine says he “told them when I left, ‘Do not use my music. And of course they used it.”
Mustaine then listed some songs he says he wrote, including “Ride The Lightning, “The Call Of Ktulu,” and “Phantom Lord.” He also mentioned “Metal Militia,” “Jump In The Fire,” and “The Four Horsemen.” Mustaine also claimed to have written portions of “Leper Messiah” from Master Of Puppets.
“They didn’t give me credit on that,” Mustiane said. “You listen to the riffs, you know they’re my riffs. It’s, like, you think I’m gonna all of a sudden hear my riff and say, ‘That’s not me.’”
Mustaine played in Metallica in the early ’80s, before being fired from the band
“So, yeah, I wrote a lot of their music that made them,” he said. “And all the solos on that first record were mine. The best Kirk [Hammett, Metallica guitarist] could do was try and copy them.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Mustaine offered some other interesting comments. He alleged that James Hetfield once kicked his dog. The guitarist also criticized the band for singling out his drinking when they were all heavy drinkers. Finally, Musiatine cited a winter car accident as being part of what led to his firing. Check out the full episode here.