Dave Mustaine distances himself from Metallica feud: “I’ve put that to sleep”
Dave Mustaine has insisted that he doesn’t want to feud with Metallica, and he has nothing but respect for his former band.
Mustaine recently covered Metallica’s ‘Ride the Lightning’ on the final Megadeth album, Megadeth. In a recent appearance on the Brazilian podcast, Ibagenscast, the musician was asked once again to explain the artistic decision.
Mustaine explained his connection to the song amidst much praise for Metallica, sharing, “We always thought that James [Hetfield] was an excellent guitar player, so when we set out to do the song, we figured we needed to do it as good or better than the original. And we figured, how are we gonna do that? Metallica’s an amazing group.”
Therefore, they chose to include the cover as a means of respect, or in Mustaine’s own words, the single is “kind of closing the circle, paying my respects to the band that I was a founding member in.”
More specifically, Mustaine was an early member of Metallica, but was kicked out of the group in 1983 due to erratic behaviour, in part from excessive drinking.
In a nod to the tumultuous past, he went on, “And love me or hate me, they’ll never be able to erase me. And I think that when people can look with acceptance and fondness of the two bands and not try and keep something that I don’t wanna keep going.”
In plain terms, he explained, “I don’t wanna have a feud. I’ve put that to sleep so many years ago. So, yeah, I wanted to do something that was — just show some respect, ’cause it doesn’t matter to me if he cares, if he likes it; it matters what I do and that I show respect and close the circle.”
This is an echo of comments Mustaine made in January, where he called for the two bands to tour together as a means of easing the tension: “I think what needs to happen is there needs to be a Megadeth-Metallica tour. Period. That would, I’m sure, make everything right.”
