Former Metallica bassist Ron McGovney revealed that he has made $0 from Metallica royalties. We figure Jason Newsted is having better luck in regards to that! McGovney was in Metallica for most of 1982, quitting at the end of the year and being replaced by Cliff Burton. McGovney’s Metallica lineup also featured Dave Mustaine, James Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich. A Metallica icon called out an awful Dave Mustaine lie earlier this week.
Arik Baldwin Strategies asked, “Ron, have you written a book about being one of the founding members of Americas greatest heavy music band? I could see an Almost Famous type movie in your future.”
Ron responded, “No , and I don’t plan on it. Years ago , I was offered a spot on a TV show about people who gave up their dream career to become a working class Joe. I politely declined.”
Another fan named Michel l’Archange followed up, “But do you have some royalties from Metallica’s old stuffs?” Ron answered, “No.”
(A Metallica icon recently discussed the period where Jason Newsted was disrespected. Diamond Head guitarist Brian Tatler told Sweden’s RockSverige that he has made a lot of money with royalties from Metallica, and he even remembered his first one, “Yeah, and I think it was early ’90s — like, 1990. We were in the red at first with our publisher. Diamond Head didn’t sell any records so we never really recouped on our advance. We split in ’85 so there was nothing happening. There was a publishing issue where our old publisher had some of the songs, like ‘It’s Electric’, ‘Helpless’, ‘Sucking My Love’, etc., and it took me a bit of time to get away from him. When we signed to MCA, we also signed to Zomba Publishing, and they were saying all the money was coming in, but it’s going to our management, so it wasn’t coming to me.
I had to get a solicitor involved and do the homework, and in the end, they had to get Zomba to split the payments so my share would come to me, which makes perfect sense, and Sean’s [Harris, former Diamond Head singer] share to him. Then it went into the black and started creeping up. Of course, they [Metallica] hadn’t sold that many records. In ’87, they did ‘Helpless’ on ‘Garage Days Re-Revisited’. At one point, Lars [Ulrich, Metallica drummer] was helping me. (A Metallica member recently revealed if James Hetfield is ‘finished’)
He asked, ‘Are you getting your royalties?’ and I said, ‘No, not really.’ and he gave me a lawyer to contact and said, ‘Speak to this guy at Elektra.’ He put me in touch with people and he was determined that I would get my due, and he did help in any way he could. It did take a bit of time, but it came eventually and it’s never stopped flowing ever since.” You can read the full interview at RockSverige.
