But what does Dave Mustaine think

Any fan of metal history knows the long storied past of Dave Mustaine and Metallica. Mustaine was of course a founding member of the band, and then unceremoniously kicked

Now that the new Metallica album is out, Mustaine’s opinion on Metallica and vice versa has all of a sudden become relevant.

Mustaine and Kirk Hammett discussed each other in interviews, Mustaine reviewed the new Metallica album, and now James Hetfield has come out to say that he’s an “old friend” in an interview with Musik.

“He’s an old friend of ours for sure and he has done very well for himself in Megadeth. And after him getting kicked out of Metallica he went on to have an amazing career.

“Dave is an amazing guitar player, great songwriter and he has done some amazing stuff in his band.”

It’s a nice sentiment, and it’s cool that Mustaine and Metallica don’t seem to have any bad blood between them, but ultimately both have done extremely well for themselves.

Mustaine could flip Metallica the bird, Metallica could tell Mustaine to go fuck himself, and all would go home to nice houses and paychecks.

Dave Mustaine suggests James Hetfield is ‘afraid of Lars Ulrich’

Just when everybody thought the animosities between Dave Mustaine and Lars Ulrich had finally been laid to rest after Megadeth‘s leader took part in Metallica‘s 30th anniversary concert as well as the ‘Big Four’ concert tour, which featured Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth. Seems like Dave’s grudge against former band mates, Lars in particular, has not disappeared and there is a new cause for conflict.

From left to right: J. Hetfield, L. Ulrich, D. Mustaine

Metallica were planning to release the legendary 1982 “No Life ‘Til Leather” demo in an expanded version, but it seems like the whole project has been arrested. Dave Mustaine sheds some light on that in an interview for the Greek Rock Hard magazine:

“I’m not gonna give [Lars] my credit, so I’m not gonna be part of it. I wrote all of ‘Mechanix’, I wrote all of ‘Jump In The Fire’, so me giving any percentage of that to Lars Ulrich, he can pound sand. And as far as the song ‘Phantom Lord’, I wrote every note of that music, James [Hetfield] wrote all the lyrics. That’s 50/50.”

“If James wants to give his percentage up to Lars because he’s afraid of him, that’s up to him. I’m not afraid of Lars Ulrich, and I’m not giving him my percentage. And the same thing with ‘Metal Militia’ – I wrote every single note of that music, James wrote every note of that lyric – that’s 50/50. If James wants to give Lars his percentage, that’s fine if he’s afraid of him. I’m not afraid of him. I’m not giving nothing to Lars Ulrich.”

“Now, they took it in the past [apparently referring to Metallica’s ‘Kill ‘Em All’ album, which features re-recorded versions of the tracks from ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’] – everybody knows that – and the past is the past. But I could not willingly enter into a new agreement with these guys predicated on Lars getting credit for something that not only he did not do but he was incapable of doing. He was incapable of writing songs that good back then.”