In a new interview, Megadeth‘s Dave Mustaine looked back on the moment when he joined Metallica, recalling that he didn’t get a proper audition and landed the gig just by “warming up.”
During a conversation with Premier Guitar, Mustaine reflected on the first time he plugged in his guitar in the presence of his future Metallica bandmates James Hetfield and bassist Ron McGovney. This would have been in 1981.
“When I went to Norwalk [California] the day that I met James Hetfield and [original Metallica bassist] Ron McGovney, I didn’t know what was gonna happen,” Mustaine said. “Nobody did. But I had my style, and it was based around the riff.”
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He continued, “I went in there and I didn’t have any Marshalls yet because I was just starting to get serious. I had these Risson amps — they were tan, so from the moment I set up my stack, I was different. I plugged in my guitar and I started warming up, and I kept warming up and warming up. And I finally said, ‘Where the fuck are these guys?’ I set my guitar down and switched my amp to standby. And then I went out there and I said, ‘Man, where’s my audition?’ They said, ‘You got the gig.’ So I got my job just by warming up.”
Mustaine remained Metallica’s primary lead guitarist until April 1983, co-writing numerous early songs such as the title track to Metallica’s sophomore effort, Ride the Lightning. Elsewhere in the Premier Guitar interview, he discussed the choice to include his own version of “Ride the Lightning” on Megadeth’s upcoming final album in an effort to “pay respects” to his former bandmates.
“As I come full circle on the career of a lifetime, the decision to include ‘Ride the Lightning,’ a song I co-wrote with James, Lars [Ulrich], and Cliff [Burton], was to pay my respects to where my career first started,” Mustaine said. “It showcases the spider riffing and the grunting fretting — you fret a G flat power chord and you slide up into the G — technique that I brought [to the band]. I thought it was just a great way to pay my respects to James and Lars and to close the circle.”
Mustaine did clarify that he doesn’t consider his version a “cover.”
“No, because I wrote the song too,” he said. “I think other people will say that, but if you’re asking me, I don’t think it’s a cover song. When we played it for people who are fans of that band and that song, the consensus has been that we did a fitting homage. I think we did it at least as good. … It’s a little faster.”
Megadeth’s final, self-titled album arrives January 23rd and will be followed by an extensive farewell tour, beginning with a Canadian headlining run kicking off in February. Get tickets here.
