The tour that made Metallica fire guitarist Dave Mustaine
The entire story of Metallica seems like one band’s mission to take on the world. It was never going to be easy trying to break into the industry as a metal act, but by touring everywhere they could think of for years at a time, the thrash legends managed to see stadium levels of success before they even had a single hit on the radio. That didn’t come without some hardship, and on one of their final road trips to the East Coast, they realised that guitarist Dave Mustaine was never going to go the distance with them.
If there’s one thing that people should know about Metallica at that time, it was that they liked to drink. Making the bold claim that a rock musician loves a cold one every now and again is like saying that the sky is blue today, but even in an era dominated by excess, the metal icons chose alcohol as their drug of choice before anything.
In fact, the press often dubbed them ‘Alcoholica’ due to their heavy drinking while on the road. So how does someone end up in a band with that reputation and still get kicked out for being too messed up?
Well, it’s also important to know the context. Mustaine wasn’t just a fly-by-night guitarist with Metallica, having written many of the riffs that would end up on their debut album, Kill Em All. He even served as the stage presence every time they played live, usually taking the frontman role away from James Hetfield for a little while.
Mustaine could also be a violent drunk, though, and when he started to come to blows with people on the road, his days became numbered. In When Metallica Ruled the World, Hetfield remembered that the final cross-country tour to secure a record deal was the moment when everything fell apart, saying, “On our way out to the East Coast, we were staying at houses of friends, and Dave, he was trashing their houses and really disrespecting [them]”.
When looking at those final shows, it’s hard not to think that the group also had a specific agenda when looking to axe Mustaine from the band. He did write some incredible riffs, yes, but there were bound to be a few issues down the road if they continued performing with him as the frontman instead of Hetfield onstage.
So, by the time the group finally made it to New York from San Francisco, they had a bus ticket already in hand for Mustaine to leave. The band would continue partying until they hit it big, but Mustaine’s anger gave him a greater fire to outdo what his friends had done to him, eventually forming the basis of Megadeth with him as the new frontman.
Then again, Metallica probably made the right call when they decided to remove Mustaine from the situation. Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were already turning into the two alphas of the band, so having one more on that tour bus in the early 1980s was the moment when they realised that version of the group wasn’t going to go the distance.
