| Dave Mustaine |
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| Dave Mustaine was born on September the
13th 1961 in La Mea, California. He joined the band in late 1981 and
remained with them until 11 April 1983. During his short time in Metallica,
Dave Mustaine (lead guitar) toured with the band, co-wrote several songs which were later featured on
the albums "Kill
'Em All" and "Ride The Lightning" and recorded several songs with the band, including the "No Life Til Leather" demo tape. |
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| In LA at the
end of 1982, Lars and James the self appointed heads of the band decided
that if they were going to progress towards a more professional league
then a few changes would have to be made. Problems had arisen with
Dave Mustaine which went beyond simple onstage competition. "Dave
was an incredibly talented guy" said Brian Slagel, "But he
also had an incredibly large problem with alcohol and drugs. He'd
get wasted and become a real crazy person, a raging maniac, and the
other guys just couldn't deal with that after a while. I mean,
they all drank of course, but I guess they could all hold their liquor
better than Dave, and I could see they were beginning to get fed up of
seeing Dave drunk out of his mind all the time." |
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| One of the
final straws for the band was on the road trip from San Francisco to New
York to meet up with Johnny Z. The band nearly didn't make it: a crash
with a jeep during a snow storm near Wyoming left the bands truck in a
ditch. No-one was hurt, but as the incident occurred while Dave
Mustaine was drink driving the others (James, Lars and Cliff) made a
mental note that as soon as they started the new phase of their career
on the east coast they had to get rid of him. |
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| Dave
Mustaine's last gig with Metallica was on a Saturday night in New York
on a bill that also included Venom and Vandenburg. After
discussing the problem the next day (Sunday) with new manager Johnny Z
over a few crates of beer, Hetfield woke the volatile guitarist on the
Monday morning to tell him on behalf of the others that he had an hour
to pack his bags and leave as they had booked him on a greyhound
airlines "flight" back home. It was a painful decision
and the band tried to soften the blow by heading into Manhattan that
night and drowning their sorrows in a bottle of vodka. Nonetheless
it was a decision that had to be made. |
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| Today
Johnny Z refuses to elaborate on the events surrounding Mustaine's exit.
"The true story about Dave Mustaine will never be told, because there's
something of a pact between Dave, Metallica and myself," he
says. "All the pain, all the guilt and all the blame came to
rest last year, and so now it really is time to let sleeping dogs
lie." At the time, however, there wasn't a great deal of love
lost between those involved. |
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| "Basically,"
Mustaine told Metal Forces fanzine shortly after re-emerging with
his new band, Megadeth, "when they told me to leave I packed in
about 20 seconds and I was gone. I wasn't upset at all as I wanted
to start a solo project during the middle of Metallica anyway". |
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| Dave
Mustaine's replacement Kirk Hammett from the band Exodus would take up
the lead guitar position in Metallica. |
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| Click
here to go to the photo gallery where you can find more pictures of Dave
Mustaine and the other members of Metallica. |
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Have a look at
the info on the other band members below
James
Hetfield | Lars Ulrich | Kirk Hammett
| Rob Trujillo
Jason
Newsted |
Cliff Burton |
Ron McGovney
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