“Dave Mustaine can’t help but stick his foot in his mouth”: Slayer’s Kerry King explains his relationships with Metallica members old and new

Kerry King in 2023 and Dave Mustaine onstage with Megadeth in 2024

(Image credit: Andrew Stuart | Mariano Regidor/Redferns)

Slayer’s Kerry King has revealed what his relationships with the members of Metallica look like, including original lead guitarist Dave Mustaine.

Talking on the Lipps Service With Scott Lipps podcast, the guitarist, who briefly played with Mustaine in Megadeth in 1985, says he has some time for the ex-Metallica man, but will always “bolt” before long.

“Mustaine’s cool, but Mustaine’s one of those guys that he can’t help but stick his foot in his mouth,” says King (via Blabbermouth). “So, I’ll take my 20 minutes and I’ll bolt just before anything gets uncomfortable.”

Turning to the current members of Metallica, the guitarist continues: “It’s funny, James [Hetfield, singer/guitarist] is one of those guys, even though we’ve got basically the same career, different circles, we did the Big Four [concerts featuring Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax in 2010 and 2011], he made a point to come say hey to us, but it’s funny that it hasn’t occurred in the 40 years we’ve both been doing this that I’ve rarely seen James.

“Kirk’s [Hammett, lead guitarist] cool, Rob’s [Trujillo, bassist] cool, Lars [Ulrich, drummer] is cool. We hang out when they feel like hanging out. Yeah, that’s all of ’em.”

Mustaine is one of metal’s most famously outspoken figureheads. For example, during a Megadeth concert in Northern Ireland in 1988, he dedicated a song to “the cause”, not knowing it was a sobriquet for the IRA. Megadeth had to be escorted across the Irish border in a bulletproof bus afterwards, and the incident partially inspired one of the band’s biggest songs, Holy Wars… The Punishment Due.

King looked back on his brief time with Megadeth during a Metal Hammer interview last year.

“I think if myself and Dave Mustaine could have coexisted for four years, it would have been a very different band,” he reflected. “I’m not saying I’d have made them better – I’d have made them different.”

During a Loudwire interview in 2015, King said that he joined Megadeth because it could be a “gigantic learning situation” that helped promote Slayer.

“I didn’t go and say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be in Megadeth,’” he explained, before quipping: “I don’t know how anybody can be in Megadeth for more than a couple hours. That guy [Mustaine] is crazy.”

Mustaine was in Metallica from 1982 to 1983 and formed Megadeth shortly after his dismissal. King co-founded Slayer in 1981 and, though the band retired in 2019, they reactivated last year as a live-only force.

Last month, the guitarist ruled out Slayer recording new music or touring extensively in the future. “Mark my word: we're never gonna make a record again, we’re never gonna tour again,” he told Australia’s Metal Roos.

As of February 2024, King also has a solo band. He released his debut album, From Hell I Rise, last spring.

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Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.