Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Spin, ex-Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) opened about his relationship with the band’s guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich. According to him, he “really [does] love those guys.”

Mustaine had the following to say when asked about Megadeth’s decision to record a cover of Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning” for their upcoming album:

“It was to complete the circle and pay respect to my partners, James and Lars, and make clear that, to anybody that has any doubts, I believe that James is an exceptional guitar player, and that Lars is an exceptional songwriter. I’ve always thought that. It wasn’t doing a cover song, because I wrote it with James and it was our creation.

One thing I’ve always believed is when you do a song from someone else — even if it’s your band from an earlier time period — do it as good or better. We were thinking of songs we were going to do, and our management said, ‘Why don’t you do ‘Ride The Lightning’?’ At first, I thought people will think that’s kind of strange for me to do that. We talked about it a little bit, and it just became clearer that it was a good idea. We sped it up just a teeny bit, and we made sure that we beefed up a couple of the parts.”

He also added the following about his current relationship with Hetfield and Ulrich:

“James and I were talking about something, and I said, ‘Well, there’s your version, there’s my version, and then there’s the truth. I believe that the truth is the only one that’s accurate, because I don’t really remember everything.’ And he had said, ‘We don’t remember stuff and we’d like to go over it.’

We’re constantly working on improving our relationship, me and James and Lars. I really do love those guys. That’s why we fought so much — it was that I missed them. And the idea of leaving the band, it was just hard to fathom.

You try and put things into perspective as you get a little bit older. I think about where I am at in my journey: I’m on the backside of the mountain, and I want to make sure that every day counts and that the people that I encounter, that I’m not obnoxious to them if they don’t deserve it. If they deserve it, man, you got it coming, and here it comes.”