Dave Mustaine's Firing From Metallica [Highlight From Episode 310]

Author Greg Prato on the firing of Dave Mustaine from Metallica in 1983.


Listen to Episode 310: The Rise Of Megadeth: 1983-2002

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a highlight from a recent episode of Booke Don Rock.
Author Greg Prado back with a brand new book, this
one titled The World's State of the Art speed Metal
Band The Mega Death Story nineteen eighty three to two
thousand and two.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
He would think, maybe they shouldn't have made Dave Mustain
come all the way out to the East Coaches to
fire him. And if you're going to fire him, maybe
try to scrape up enough money to at least fly
him back. And I'd have to, you know, because if
you think about that must be totally torturous to be
in a bus for that long thinking about how you
fucked up and everything like that. And you know, Dave
Mustaine's famous quote, which I talk about in the book

(00:34):
is when they told him he was fired, his first
question was what no second chance? Which I think is
a pretty valid question on his part.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
The way they fired him was described by Lars as
almost being like execution style. Talk about the day they
fired Dave, how they went about that.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, what it is behind Dave Mustaine's back. They already
had the They already had it lined up that Kirk
Hammett knew he was either trying at or maybe he
already had the gig, like they were already scheming how
he was going to come out and everything like that,
because at the time, Kirk Hammett was in the band Exodus,
which was obviously a very popular and also legendary thresh

(01:10):
mental band from also the Bay Area in San Francisco.
And yeah, so they had when so Dave Mustaine wakes
up one morning there the whole band is around him.
They're like, look, you're fired, pack up all your shit.
Your bus leaves in like an hour or something like that.
And then Dave Mustains his first question was what no
second chance, and they're like, no, you're out. So then

(01:32):
they just drove him to the bus terminal. And while
this is going on, I would imagine Kirk Hammet's in
the air at that point, flying to New York. He lands,
they get to their rehearsal space in Queens, New York,
and he tries out and he gets the gig right away.