During a new appearance on Reigning TV, SLAYER guitarist Kerry King and DEATH ANGEL frontman Mark Osegueda were asked to choose between two of thrash metal’s biggest titans — METALLICA and MEGADETH.
Both bands stand as cornerstones of the “Big Four” alongside SLAYER and ANTHRAX, but when it came time to pick a favorite, both King and Osegueda leaned toward METALLICA. Osegueda answered without hesitation, while King added a bit of blunt honesty to his reasoning.
“I’m gonna be brutally honest,” King said. “METALLICA has a singer. Sorry Dave [Mustaine].”
In the same interview, the duo — who also share the stage together in Kerry King’s solo band — were asked a follow-up question: James Hetfield or Dave Mustaine? Once again, both chose Hetfield.
King offered, “James Hetfield. Sorry Dave, I know I played in your band, but I’m going with James.”
During an interview on the “Lipps Service With Scott Lipps” podcast earlier this year, King reminisced about the first time he saw METALLICA in 1982.
“I saw ’em with [then-METALLICA guitarist Dave] Mustaine,” Kerry said at the time. “And we opened for them. I think Mustaine was still in the band, at the place we used to frequent called the Woodstock [in Anaheim, California].
“When I first saw ’em with Mustaine, I was sitting kind of between James and [then-METALLICA bassist Ron] McGovney in where the audience is, and I was just blown away watching Mustaine just ripping on guitar and not even looking at his fingers. I’m, like, ‘I can’t do that.’ And to this day, he’s a badass guitar player. But that’s what I walked away from METALLICA [thinking]. And he wrote tons of the riffs in the early days. So, when he branched off into MEGADETH, a lot of the riffs went with him.”
Kerry also discussed his current relationship with the members of METALLICA, as well as with Dave Mustaine.
“Mustaine‘s cool, but Mustaine‘s one of those guys that he can’t help but stick his foot in his mouth,” King said. “So, I’ll take my 20 minutes and I’ll bolt just before anything gets uncomfortable.
“It’s funny, James is one of those guys, even though we’ve got basically the same career, different circles, we did the [shows featuring the] ‘Big Four’ [of 1980s thrash metal], he made a point to come say ‘hey’ to us, but it’s funny that it hasn’t occurred in the 40 years we’ve both been doing this that I’ve rarely seen James,” Kerry continued. “Kirk‘s [Hammett, METALLICA guitarist] cool, Rob‘s [METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo] cool, Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] is cool. We hang out when they feel like hanging out. Yeah, that’s all of ’em.”
In a 2021 interview with Metal Hammer, King was asked if he had any sense that Dave Mustaine was resentful towards METALLICA while he was briefly in MEGADETH with him. Kerry responded: “Probably. But I looked up to Mustaine ever since he was in METALLICA. I was in the crowd with Jeff [Hanneman, SLAYER’s late guitarist] actually, saying, ‘Look at that dude! He’s just ripping up there!’ He’s got a great style and in the beginning, it helped METALLICA become what METALLICA is. And let me tell you something — to this day, he’s a great guitar player.”
In 1984, Dave Mustaine reached out to King and asked him to join his newly formed band MEGADETH. King accepted the invitation and began performing with them on a few shows while SLAYER‘s future was uncertain. Ultimately though, he chose not to be part of MEGADETH due to his dedication towards staying in SLAYER.
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