Dave Mustaine: “Lars Ulrich is afraid to play with Megadeth”

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Dave Mustaine has reignited the simmering feud between him and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.

In an interview with Rock Hard, Mustaine claimed that the Metallica drummer is running scared of sharing a bill with Megadeth when asked about the chances of more Big Four shows.

“It’s not about the Big Four,” said Mustaine. “I believe Lars is afraid to play with Megadeth.”

This latest spat comes after Mustaine, who spent two years in Metallica before being fired in 1983, refused to give permission for his former band to release an expanded version of their 1982 demo No Life ’Til Leather.

“I won’t give them my rights, so I will not be part of it,” Mustaine said. “I wrote all of Mechanix and Jump In The Fire and I won’t give anything to Lars Ulrich. He can give it up. With Phantom Lord I wrote all the music and James Hetfield did all the lyrics – 50/50. If James wants to give his share to Lars because he’s scared of him, that's up to him. I'm not afraid of Lars Ulrich and I won’t give him my share.”

Mustaine went on to claim that James Hetfield is afraid of Ulrich.

“If James wants to give his share to Lars because he’s afraid of him, that’s OK. I'm not afraid of him. I'm not giving anything to Lars Ulrich. Everyone knows they got the rights in the past. But the past is past. But I can’t willingly come to an agreement with these people and give Lars credit for something that he not only didn’t do – but was also incapable of doing. He couldn’t write songs so good then.”

Mustaine recently told Louder that his relationship with his former Metalllica bandmates was complicated.

“Hetfield and I hug onstage now in front of thousands and thousands of people, Lars and I put our arms around each other when we take a picture, but everything isn’t rose-coloured glasses. We’ve gone from being three people who would fight constantly and publicly in the press, to people who see each other out on the prairie, a tip of the hat is cool, but for the most part we don’t see each other any more, we run in different circles.”

Megadeth have just reissued a new version of their 1985 debut album, Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good.

Artists

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.