If you grew up during the eighties and nineties you may recall Metallica and Megadeath, and their lead singers, James Hetfield and former satanist, Dave Mustaine. As it turns out, James and Dave were plotting a project together in the 2010’s. However, a Metallica reissue of a 1980’s demo put an abrupt halt to their proceedings.
According to Metal Injection, sometime in 2015, Hetfield and Mustaine began talking about reissuing Metallica’s 1982 demo “No Life ‘Til Leather”. Their business talks suddenly crashed after Hetfield wanted drummer Lars Ulrich credited on songs that Mustaine claimed he wrote, and that was the end of it. These talks didn’t just ruin a reissue, but additionally a project Hetfield and Mustaine were thinking about putting together. I would think that after such a substantial discrepancy that its highly likely that Hetfield and Mustaine no longer talk to each other at all – I personally wouldn’t.
In an interview with Guitar.com, Mustaine reveals the 2015 talks were the last time he spoke to Hetfield. I wonder why.
“There’s three sides to every story, right. There’s my side, there would be the other person’s side, and then there would be the truth which is somewhere right in the middle.”
“You know, oddly enough that was one of the last conversations I ever had with James Hetfield because we were talking about getting back together and doing a project. Something had come up about the publishing discrepancy that we have been arguing about for years and years and years, and I told James, ‘I’ll do it but we’ve got to get this stuff sorted out first’. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, sure’.
“So I said, ‘Now these two songs you and me split 50/50. Lars didn’t write on this song — you know that. I don’t know why you gave him percentages but I’m not. I’m not going to sign another deal that’s gonna confirm that because I never agreed to that’. And James said, ‘Well, Lars has a different recollection of that,’ and I said that’s fine; there’s his side of the story, my side and the truth is somewhere. And that blew his mind, and we haven’t talked since.”
In another recent interview, the red haired Mustaine, expressed his desire to get back with Hetfield at some point to make new music in the future. So, I guess we know who is the alpha in this relationship. Mustaine needs Hetfield, Hetfield doesn’t need Mustaine. After all, who still exists. Metallica or Megadeath?
“I have been secretly hoping there’d be a day where James [Hetfield] and I can write together again. I think the world really does want us to do that, and I think there is a pretty good possibility of it happening down the line. I do think that it’s possible that one day James is going to come around and that he and I are going to be able to do something together again. I guess that’s one of the things that has always kept me pushing forward. I think it’d be good for Megadeth, and it could be great for Metallica too.”
