MEGADETH’s Dave Mustaine recently answered some fan-submitted questions for Revolver magazine and touched on that time he got into a physical altercation with METALLICA frontman James Hetfield

During the interview, which you can check out below, Mustaine discussed his relationship with his former bandmate, METALLICA frontman James Hetfield.

While touching on the circulated video of Hetfield from last May which saw the METALLICA frontman tell an audience in Brazil that he was “feeling a little bit insecure” prior to taking the stage, Mustaine, who played lead guitar in METALLICA for 11 months before being fired in April of 1983, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I saw the thing with James on stage where he was saying that he was going through a rough patch. I was sad to see that because it’s been one of those really weird love-hate relationships. And the whole reason that I ever even pursued any of this was I really liked those guys. If I didn’t like ’em, I would just say, ‘Fucking flush the toilet and be done with it.’ He’s always been somebody that I really liked playing with. I wished things wouldn’t have ended the way that they did. But que sera, sera. It was a dumb thing that I did by taking my dog up to practice, and it was even dumber to punch [James]. I really respect him and I respect his playing. And I hope he knows that there are a lot of people out there, like me, that like him as a person and don’t give two fucks about him being in METALLICA.”

Although Mustaine is known as a one-time guitarist for METALLICA, prior to Kirk Hammett joining the band, Dave does not appear on any of the band’s albums and was not a part of their induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame back in 2009.

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich would go on to explain to The Plain Dealer that Mustaine was not included because “you’ve got to kind of cap it somewhere. Dave Mustaine never played on any METALLICA records. No disrespect to him. But there [were] half a dozen other people that were in the lineup in the early days. We thought . . . the fair thing to do would be to include anybody that played on a METALLICA record.” He added: “Dave Mustaine was in the band for 11 months, predominantly in 1982… I’m not trying to play it down. I have nothing but respect and admiration for his accomplishments since.”