Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has opened up about being kicked out of Metallica back in 1983.
In a trailer released by Gibson TV for the Dave Mustaine episode of the Icons series, the rocker recalled how he spent the bus ride back from New York to California after being fired by Metallica.
“The ride home from New York was long. I knew it was gonna be long,” Mustaine said.
“The ride out was long. The ride out was dangerous,” he said in reference to the incident when Metallica almost died in Wyoming while travelling cross-country en route to New Jersey.
“The ride out was bad. Because of the crash in Wyoming, I think that that’s what made me the guy that had to go. I don’t know. I probably was destined to leave before that because of, you know, the word ‘destiny’ and the fact that there was just so much talent and so much personality between the four of us.
Mustaine continued: “I don’t know that we could have survived. There was destined to be some kind of an explosion at some point.
“I did a lot of soul searching on the way home. Did I wanna play guitar? Did I wanna keep doing this? What am I gonna do? I got it. I’m gonna make a band that’s more metal than Metallica.”
Love Metal?
Get the latest Metal news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Back in 2009, Mustaine told Lydverket that he was “so hurt” by getting kicked out of the band for allegedly drinking too much.
“I said, ‘What?! No second chance, no warning? C’mon, we all drink. C’mon.'” he said, adding, “And they were like, ‘No, that’s it. You’re gone.’ And I was like, ‘All right.'”
Mustaine also claimed that a disagreement with frontman James Hetfield led to him being ousted from the band.
“I was selling pot,” Dave said. “When I would go play in concert, people knew that my pot was sitting in my apartment just saying, ‘Go ahead and keep me company.’ So I was broken in on. People stole everything that I had; all my stash.
“And I figured, screw this. I’m gonna get some dogs to stay in the apartment when I leave. So I got two dogs and I took one of them up to a rehearsal one time and she put her paws up on Ron’s car. And James kicked it right in the side. And I was like, ‘What did you do? It’s a dog, it’s what they do. You don’t kick animals.’
“So we went into the house, and we started arguing some more. And I ended up punching him in the face and I think that was the root of why I lost my job.”
You can read more about this topic on the Metal Observer.
Check out Dave Mustaine on the trailer for Icons:
