Home Featured DAVE MUSTAINE Was ‘Bothered’ That METALLICA Used His Music After He Was Fired

DAVE MUSTAINE Was ‘Bothered’ That METALLICA Used His Music After He Was Fired

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August 23, 2022September 21, 2022
dave mustaine, DAVE MUSTAINE Was ‘Bothered’ That METALLICA Used His Music After He Was Fired

MEGADETH’s Dave Mustaine says he was “bothered” that METALLICA still used his music after he was fired

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine recently reflected on his 1983 firing from METALLICA on a recent interview with Joe Rogan on “The Joe Rogan Experience“.

When Dave was asked if he went “right into” MEGADETH after his split with METALLICA, he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “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.

“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 [‘Kill ‘Em All‘], on the second record [‘Ride The Lightning‘]. There’s parts of my music on a song on the third record [‘Master Of Puppets‘]. All the solos on the first record are mine, except that they’re just performed by Kirk [Hammett, METALLICA guitarist]. And [they’re] close but not the same. And he’s not a bad guitar player.”

When asked if he received royalties for the music, Mustaine said: “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.

Rogan went on to note that Mustaine seemed to feel both “sadness and bitterness” over his firing from METALLICA, Dave said: “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.”

You can check out the interview below.