Dave Mustaine has opened up about the one thing that bothered him the most about being let go from Metallica in 1983.
The musician disbanded Panic to join Metallica as the lead guitarist back in 1981, but he only lasted two years before being dropped for Kirk Hammet. Mustaine formed Megadeth shortly after being kicked out in an attempt to rival Metallica.
“I think in my mind I went right into Megadeth, but at the time I was still kind of trying to digest everything that took place,” Mustaine told Joe Rogan about the transition from Metallica to Megadeth.
He continued, “The thing that bothered me the most was I had all my music, and I left it behind and I said, ‘Don’t use my music.’ And of course they did. They used it on the first record [1983’s ‘Kill ‘Em All’], on the second record [1984’s ‘Ride The Lightning’]. There’s parts of my music on a song on the third record [1986’s ‘Master Of Puppets’]. All the solos on the first record are mine, except that they’re just performed by Kirk [Hammett]. And [they’re] close but not the same. And he’s not a bad guitar player.”
During the interview, Rogan quizzed Mustaine about whether he still receives royalties for the songs he wrote with Metallica.
The guitarist replied, “Well, most of ’em, yeah, but Kirk got my royalties for [the song] ‘Metal Militia’ [from ‘Kill ‘Em All’] for many, many years. And he has to see the check, so I know somebody saw that I wasn’t getting paid.”
However, despite the assumed narrative to the contrary, Mustaine stressed that he no longer has any bad blood with Metallica.
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“Not bitterness – I’m over it. It’s just money. At the end of the day, my happiness and my family and my wife and my children are more important to me than anything in this world. I love our fans. I have so many things in this life that I’m happy about. But, man, it’s my family. And obviously my relationship with God. I take that very, very personal. And I don’t talk to people about it; I don’t push it on ’em at all. It’s my thing.
“And I just look at it like where I’m at right now… Yeah, [I was] 20 [years old] in Metallica, and now, look at me, I’m 60 [years old] in Megadeth. And I’m a Grammy winner. I’m a New York Times best-selling author – all these things.”
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