“He took offense to that”: Dave Mustaine on why he and James Hetfield don’t talk anymore
Even decades later, the relationship between Dave Mustaine and former bandmate James Hetfield remains… complicated.
In a new interview, the former Metallica guitarist shares how a long-simmering dispute over songwriting credits on some of the band’s earliest material became a lasting “bone of contention” – and ultimately the reason he no longer speaks to Hetfield.
While Metallica has spent the last few years reissuing just about everything from Kill ’Em All through Load, one crucial piece of their history has mostly been left behind: the band’s first demo, No Life ’Til Leather. Recorded in 1982 by Hetfield, Mustaine, Ron McGovney, and Lars Ulrich, the tape has become the stuff of legend among fans – yet it’s only ever seen a small Record Store Day re-release in 2015, limited to just 10,000 copies.
READ MORE: Dave Mustaine says he won’t have ex-members on Megadeth’s final tour because some have been “saying bad things in the press”: “Why would I want to play with those guys?”
Speaking to Classic Rock, Mustaine says the songwriting credits tied to the demo were never properly sorted out.
“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,” he says. “And I wrote the lyrics for Jump In The Fire and The Mechanix. So do the math: if I wrote the music and James 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.”
The disagreement over credits became a “bone of contention” that affected Mustaine’s relationship with the band moving forward: “It just wasn’t fair. You guys got more money than God, why do you have to take my money?” says Mustaine.
And years later, when Metallica approached him about reissuing the demo, the conversation went south just as quickly.
“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,’” Mustaine recalls. “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,” he continues. “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.’”
That remark, Mustaine says, shut down the discussion entirely: “That was the end of the conversation. He took offense to that, and we hung up, and I don’t remember speaking to him since then.”
Meanwhile, Mustaine and Megadeth are in the midst of what they’ve announced as the band’s final chapter. Following the release of their self-titled studio album last week, the group is set to embark on an extensive farewell tour running through 2026 and beyond.
View the full list of dates on the Megadeth website.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
