{"id":509732,"date":"2026-03-02T16:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/509732\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:12:08","slug":"megadeths-dave-mustaine-claims-metallica-and-others-held-him-back-during-early-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/509732\/","title":{"rendered":"Megadeth\u2019s Dave Mustaine claims Metallica and others held him back during early career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megadeth<\/a> singer\/guitarist Dave Mustaine has accused his former bandmates in Metallica<\/a> of \u201cholding him back\u201d at the start of his career.<\/p>\n

The musician, who played in Metallica from 1982 to \u201983 before being dismissed due to how he behaved while intoxicated, says that the biggest band in heavy metal were one of several parties who previously attempted to sabotage him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a new interview with The Los Angeles Times<\/a>, Mustaine doesn\u2019t specify how Metallica and others tried to stop him from reaching success, but he says that what they did \u201cmade me shake my head\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about it. Where would I be right now if I didn\u2019t have one of the biggest bands in the world spending their time trying to hold me back?\u201d Mustaine asks. \u201cThey don\u2019t do it anymore, but most of the time when they did, it just made me shake my head. And it wasn\u2019t just Metallica, it was everybody. For a long time, it very much was me against the world. It was like, OK, if you\u2019re not with me, you\u2019re against me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mustaine founded Megadeth shortly after he was let go from Metallica, wanting his new band to be faster, heavier and more dangerous than his old one. He claims that he asked Metallica to stop playing songs he wrote upon his firing, which the band deny.<\/p>\n

The rivalry continued on-and-off for years, mostly on Mustaine\u2019s end. In 2017, he blocked the reissue of Metallica\u2019s demo tape<\/a>, No Life \u2019Til Leather, due to a disagreement over songwriting credits. But, he says in the new interview that he hopes to be friends with his ex-cohorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I had a great time when I was in Metallica, and we did something tremendous,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame what the booze did, but we were all kids and, aside from Lars [Ulrich, drums], we came from pretty broken families. Lots of stuff has happened over the years, but I felt like it would be great to make everything good with them before we stop. We should be friends. There\u2019s no reason why we shouldn\u2019t be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Megadeth released their self-titled final album<\/a> in January, and the record includes a take on Metallica\u2019s 1984 track Ride The Lightning, on which Mustaine has a co-writing credit. Talking to Metal Hammer last year, Mustaine said that he included the rendition to \u201cclose the circle\u201d<\/a> on his career and express his respect for Ulrich and singer\/guitarist James Hetfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always respected James\u2019 playing,\u201d he said, \u201cand so this is a tip of a hat to him and to Metallica for everything that they\u2019ve done, and everything that we\u2019ve done. That legacy that really happened in that teeny little garage in Norwalk, California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megadeth announced back in August that they\u2019ll retire at the end of the Megadeth touring cycle. Mustaine attributed the decision to end the band \u2013 rounded out by lead guitarist Teemu M\u00e4ntysaari, drummer Dirk Verbeuren and bassist James LoMenzo \u2013 to a desire to go out on top. He later revealed that he\u2019d been diagnosed with a condition called Dupuytren\u2019s contracture, which makes it painful for him to play guitar.<\/p>\n

Megadeth\u2019s farewell tour kicked off on February 15, with a headline show at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia. The run continues on Tuesday (March 3) at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a host of Central and South American, Australian and European shows have also been confirmed. Some of these dates will see the band support Iron Maiden<\/a>. Get details via their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Megadeth singer\/guitarist Dave Mustaine has accused his former bandmates in Metallica of \u201cholding him back\u201d at the start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-509732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}