Dave Mustaine discussed his Metallica departure in a new Twitter Spaces discussion with RattleheadsNFT.
He said, via Blabbermouth, “Well, Megadeth had a little bit of a following before we got discovered by the record company. So it’s kind of unfair. But the way that it started was I had a band that I was in called Panic. And I lived in Huntington Beach. And there were a lot of bands playing backyard beer keg parties, and I thought that that was pretty fun, to go to the parties and pick up on girls. And I started seeing how easy it was for guitar players to have people freak out over them, pay attention to them, treat ’em with respect and stuff, and I know I wanted that. So Panic was formed. That band was short-lived, and I ended up joining Metallica and was in that band for about two years and then Megadeth happened. So the discovery part was…
“After I left Metallica, the world wanted to know what I was gonna do, because I was this huge component of Metallica’s success,” he continued. “I’m here, and then I’m gone. And people that went to go see them after I was no longer in the band and didn’t know that there was a lineup change said that there was something very, very, very wrong with the band that they heard on tape versus the band that they were watching. And that’s when people started to look for me. And the rest is history.
“Now, I think that the band did great. I think they were fine. In fact, I believe that Kirk did a good job playing my parts. Coming into a band and having to play somebody else’s stuff isn’t always fun, but I think he was a gentleman and did a good job.”
