Dave Mustaine Reflects On The Call That Once Again Derailed His Relationship With Metallica’s James Hetfield

Megadeth vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine has reflected on the phone call that once again derailed his long-running, on-again, off-again relationship with Metallica frontman James Hetfield, as well as drummer Lars Ulrich.

Mustaine was an early member of the thrash metal giants before being fired in 1983 due to substance abuse issues and aggressive behavior. In the decades since, the relationship between Mustaine and his former bandmates has been notoriously strained, with occasional periods of reconciliation followed by renewed tension.

As Mustaine has previously explained, the most recent fracture occurred around 2015–2016, stemming from a royalty dispute connected to Metallica’s planned reissue of their ‘No Life ’Til Leather’ demo. According to Mustaine, Hetfield and Ulrich attempted to diminish his songwriting credits in order to give Ulrich a percentage of songs Mustaine claims he largely wrote himself.

Speaking with Classic Rock, Mustaine revealed that he has not spoken to Hetfield since that conversation took place. He explained:

“I wrote all the music on ‘Phantom Lord’, all the music on ‘Metal Militia’, all the music on ‘Jump In The Fire’ and ‘The Mechanix’. And I wrote the lyrics for ‘Jump In The Fire’ and ‘The Mechanix’. So do the math: if I wrote the music and James [Hetfield] wrote the lyrics, then the credit is 50 per cent me, and 50 per cent James. Well, that’s not what went down when I left. James and Lars figured out that they were going to give Lars some percentage of the songs he didn’t write anything on, and that happened on all four songs.

“This was a bone of contention for me going forward with Metallica on anything because, you know, it just wasn’t fair. You guys got more money than God, why do you have to take my money?

“So James called me up, ‘Hey, man, we want to release this ‘No Life ’Til Leather’ thing, and we want to get all this publishing stuff straight, and, you know, we really don’t remember what went down.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s good, because I do. I remember what went down, and I can help with that.’

“And then the conversation took a turn. James goes, ‘Well, that’s not the way that we remember it.’ And I went, ‘Well, James, honestly, there’s three ways to look at this: there’s your way, my way, and the truth, which is some combination of the two.’ And that was the end of the conversation. He took offence to that, and we hung up, and I don’t remember speaking to him since then.”

The dispute ultimately led Metallica to scrap their plans for a deluxe reissue of ‘No Life ’Til Leather’. While the relationship between the parties appears to have remained frozen since, Mustaine has continued to express interest in reconciliation, even recently floating the idea of Megadeth touring with Metallica.

As Megadeth embarks on what Mustaine has described as a three-to-five-year farewell tour, he has also paid tribute to his former bandmates in his own way. The band’s newly released final studio album features a cover of Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning,” a track Mustaine co-wrote despite having been dismissed from the band prior to its 1984 release.

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