During a conversation with Rock Antenne at the last month’s Summer Breeze festival held in Dinkelsbühl, Germany, MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine was asked about his feelings on the incessant inquiries about his ex-band members from METALLICA.
“Well, I don’t really talk about my time with METALLICA,” Mustaine responded. “I don’t bring it up. So if someone brings it up, I’ll answer the question, but I usually don’t bother doing that. ‘Cause I think in a way that kind of gives the impression that I need to talk about them in order for me to feel good about myself. And I don’t — I don’t. I feel good about who I am just ’cause I feel good about who I am. It has nothing to do with bands that I’ve played in in the past. And if it was, I would say of the three bands that I was in that I enjoyed PANIC and MEGADETH more than I did in METALLICA because we did argue a lot.”
“I loved playing with those guys, but it was meant for a season,” he continued. “And I look back on that time with a lot of fondness. I used to not, because I was still hurt from losing my job, but now I know, basically, that things happen for a reason, no matter what they are, and whether I was still in that group or not, that was outta my hands. And once I accept those things… Acceptance is the key to all of my problems today. If there’s something happening in my life and I can’t change it, and I spend my time wasting energy and effort to try and change something I cannot change, man, you’re gonna go nuts. So I’ve chosen to find the happier things in life.”
During an interview with Consequence this past July, Dave Mustaine shared insights about his present relationship with his ex-band members from METALLICA.
“It took a while for James [Hetfield] and Lars [Ulrich] and I to kind of come around and become friends again,” he responded. “But I would say we’re probably better off now than we’ve been for a long time. And it comes and goes.”
“I think the emotions between all of us, it’s probably understandable for a lot of people who break up with someone, it’s like a marriage and you part ways and sometimes you try and justify in your head the decision that you make,” Mustaine continued. “And sometimes the facts are all you need, and other times you feel compelled to kinda tell the story and you don’t really need to. And then there are people who tell the story and then add little salacious facts — like a tape recorder that has a feature to add stuff that never happened. So, I just look at that whole period with METALLICA as something that was really great for me. And I wish them the best.”
Mustaine also shared his views on the backlash Kirk Hammett, his successor in METALLICA, faced over his guitar solo in the band’s recent single, “Lux Æterna.”
He said: “I heard that people are taking the piss out of Kirk. But Kirk‘s a really good guitar player and I think that people forget real quickly he was winning every single guitar contest there was for 30 or 40 years … I have not heard their new album, but I’m sure it’s great.”
