Why did Metallica fire Dave Mustaine?
What started with an audition that consisted of Dave Mustaine merely warming up ended two years later with an unceremonious split from Metallica on the brink of their debut album. Over 130 million record sales later, a feud still understandably rumbles on between the two parties. So, what really went down?
It’s a strange paradigm of rock ‘n’ roll that the folks who often make millions for the music industry are, on paper, dreadfully unreliable engines of income. This makes it the world’s rarest business arena, whereby some of the most debauched behaviour can still give you grounds for unfair dismissal; this is something Mustaine has been clinging to since 1983.
In 1981, Mustaine was in a little-known band called Panic. However, this outfit struggled to match his skills and expectations, so he disbanded the band and responded to an ad in a local Los Angeles newspaper, The Recycler, looking for a guitarist to join the new heavy metal band called Metallica. Mustaine was quick to respond, and he was invited into the fold even quicker.
“I was in the room warming up,” Mustaine recalls, “And I walked out and asked, ‘Well, am I gonna audition or what?’, and they said, ‘No, you’ve got the job.’ I couldn’t believe how easy it had been and suggested that we get some beer to celebrate.” This token gesture to toast a triumph would later be his downfall in the band.
Over the next two years, Mustaine helped to develop the crunching sound of the group and propel them through the metal circuit. However, it wasn’t just his music contributions at the time that helped to put them on the map; he also brought a level of attitude that was vital amid the scene at the time. With this combination of artistry, originality, and swagger all established within a few months of playing live, the band quickly found themselves signed up and heading to New York to record their debut album.
Sadly, the sense of impending success only furthered the dark side of Mustaine’s lifestyle. He had been a gigging musician for years prior to Metallica and picked up a few bad habits on the road. Now, as he approached the brink of leaving that rumble and tumble lifestyle behind, things were beginning to get haywire.
So, why was Dave Mustaine eventually fired?
As Brian Slagel, the owner of their first label, Metal Blade Records, explains: “Dave was an incredibly talented guy, but he also had an incredibly large problem with alcohol and drugs. He’d get wasted and become a real crazy person, a raging megalomaniac, and the other guys just couldn’t deal with that after a while.”
Mustaine was two years older than the rest of the group, and they struggled to curtail his wild ways. “I mean, they all drank of course, but Dave drank more… much more,” Slagel continues. “I could see they were beginning to get fed up of seeing Dave drunk out of his mind all the time.”
While his habits at the time remain undisputed, Mustaine has often bemoaned the way that the band seemingly turned on him. The rest of the group have stated that his position was untenable owing to his problems with drink, drugs, and aggression towards fellow bandmembers, but he says he could’ve changed with a bit of communication. He has since referred to the incident as “no warning, no second chance”. And he has referred to it a lot.
In his view, everyone was drinking and partying as they approached an unprecedented precipice that he had helped to launch them towards. Admittedly, he might have been more extreme, but he felt he was culled without warning once his contributions had already been banked. Needless to say, the group refute this and claims his stance is further evidence of his inability to take accountability for his actions.
This recently led to his former Megadeth bandmate, David Ellefson, telling Heavy Talk: “I’ve watched how he’s treated his dismissal from Metallica, still bitching about it 40 years later, and I think it looks fucking pathetic. And it’s, like, ‘You know what? Fix your shit and move on.’ And that’s how I’ve chosen to deal with it: fix your shit and move on.”
What songs did Dave Mustaine write for Metallica?
But does Mustaine still have cause to be grouchy over the matter? Well, while he has since built up an esteemed career of his own, he has still failed to reach anywhere near the 130+ million records that Metallica have sold, and all the money that comes with that, since he left. As a vital cog in their early machinery, it is clear to see why his dismissal still sticks in his craw, given that he was able to clean up quickly after he was fired.
Proof of his contribution to the sound of Metallica comes from the songs for which he receives writing credits. These are ‘The Four Horsemen’, ‘Jump in the Fire’, ‘Phantom Lord’ and ‘Metal Mania’, all from their debut Kill ’em All, and subsequent carry-overs ‘Ride the Lightning’ and ‘The Call of Ktulu’ from Ride the Lightning. However, he feels like there are more songs lingering in their back catalogue that he wrote, and even when it comes to the nods he has received, he still feels unfairly credited.
Moreover, there are notable similarities between his work with Megadeth – such as the opening riffs for ‘In My Darkest Hour’ and ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ – that have gone undisputed by Metallica.
This has resulted in a continued feud between Mustaine and his replacement Kirk Hammett who he claims not only “stole his job” but has also “ripped off every break I’d played” ever since. All the same, you still sense that there is a begrudging respect between Mustaine and the band at large, the comparable styles alone should tell you that.
Yet, he remains unable to bury the hatchet. In his latest attack, he claims the the group’s signature tune, ‘Enter Sandman’ was ripped off from a local Los Angeles band. He has also stated that the group’s output has never been as good since his departure, quipping, “I wrote a lot of their music that made them, and all the solos on that first record were mine – the best Kirk could do was try and copy them.”
