Dave Mustaine has claimed he penned “a lot of” music that “made” Metallica.
Before he co-founded thrash metal band Megadeth, Mustaine was the lead guitarist for Metallica, though he was dismissed from the band before their debut album in 1983.
In a recent interview, the 63-year-old rocker admitted he was left “p***** off” after the band allegedly went ahead and used his riffs – despite him telling them not to use his music.
Asked whether it was his booze habit that led to his departure, Mustaine told ‘The Shawn Ryan Show’: “We all drank. That’s why they called it Alcoholica. I mean, they didn’t call it Dave-Alcoholica. We all drank. And they continued to drink like that even after I was gone. But that was, I think, the beginning of the end.”
Mustaine then shared that he had left Metallica with a tape of his riffs.
He went on: “Just me playing and playing and playing… We took that tape player and the reel of tape with us out to New York.
“We did two shows out there, and after those two shows, they woke me up one morning and said, ‘Look, you’re out of the band.’
“And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You’re out of the band.’ I said, ‘No warning? No second chance? You’re not gonna give me a warning? You’re just gonna kick me out?’ And I thought that was unfair. And it showed a grotesque lack of character. And so that p***** me off and was a huge part of the fuel.
“But at the time, I was really mad and I didn’t wanna forgive them for what they did.
“And I told them when I left, ‘Do not use my music. And of course they used it.”
Mustaine claims Metallica tracks such as ‘Ride The Lightning’, ‘The Call Of Ktulu’, ‘Phantom Lord’, ‘Metal Militia’, ‘Jump In The Fire’, and ‘The Four Horsemen’ contain his riffs.
He added: “And I wrote a bunch of Leper Messiah [on Metallica’s third album, Master Of Puppets] too. They didn’t give me credit on that.
“You listen to the riffs, you know they’re my riffs. It’s, like, you think I’m gonna all of a sudden hear my riff and say, ‘That’s not me.’ So, yeah, I wrote a lot of their music that made them, and all the solos on that first record were mine – the best Kirk [Hammett, Mustaine’s replacement] could try and copy them.”