Are Dave Mustaine and James Hetfield friends?

After years of disputes between, Metallica and Megadeth frontmen James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine have always been in front of their fans’ eyes. But this is not only for their regarded bands of course, as everyone keeps wondering how things have been going for the two regarded musicians.

Here’s what happens between James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine‘s discussion on the days when Metallica was first formed as many of you know. When the regarded band was first formed in 1981, Megadeth‘s founder Dave Mustaine was actually the lead guitarist of Metallica before he had got fired from the band. But still, Mustaine couldn’t be a part of Metallica‘s debut album ‘Kill ‘Em All’ in 1983 anyway even though they had already begun recording. So, Dave Mustaine didn’t stay in the band until they could complete the album before his departure.

What happened between James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine?

At the beginning of Metallica’s foundation times, the band went to New York to record their debut album on April 11, 1983. But soon, Dave Mustaine found himself driven to the bus terminal with his gears also packed up right after he was fired from the band without even warning by Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield due to his alcoholism, drug abuse, and overly aggressive behavior.

So, after parting their ways with Metallica, Dave Mustaine immediately formed his own band Megadeth, which was also going to be successful as his former band and become one of the “big four” metal bands alongside it, as well. And of course, there have been several disputes between Dave Mustaine and Metallica members throughout their long-lasting career, considering their way to fire Dave Mustaine as they also didn’t even get him a second chance, too.

During some of his interviews in the past, the famous musician Dave Mustaine looked back and reflected on what a heartbreaking experience it was to be fired from the band since he considered Metallica members his family, as well. In the meantime, Megadeth founder also admitted his own part in being fired as his actions were causing the band trouble at the time, while also adding he could have done better if Lars Ulrich or James Hetfield made a proper conversation with him in the first place.

But on the other side, Dave Mustaine also reflected that he was “probably was destined to leave” primarily, giving the reason as “there was just so much talent and so much personality between the four of us.”

“I don’t know that we could have survived. There was destined to be some kind of an explosion at some point,” he said in a past interview while talking about his former band Metallica, and continued.

“Leaving Metallica, a lot of the things that they did, watching them have their success, it could have been anything. They could have quit metal and started making Twinkies and I would have been jealous because we were friends and then, all of a sudden, we’re not friends anymore.

All I know is that I wanna keep doing what we’re doing together because we make people happy and the four of us get to drive around like we’re something special. And I never felt special before in my life until now. But we have this guitar, we’ve got this band, and now I feel like I’m somebody.”

So, after he got fired, Megadeth frontman James Hetfield along with the rest of Metallica members was on bad terms for a long time until their reunion for Metallica’s 30th Anniversary Celebration back in 2011. But eventually, they all came back together hugging and performing on stage in front of their fans after all these years, breaking the ice forever.

Furthermore, Megadeth frontman and former Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine also opened up his most current relationship with the Metallica members after he had revealed how he felt about being kicked out, reflecting he thought his career was over when his tenure with Metallica ended since there weren’t people around him who supported him during those hard times.

“I’m glad to say that our friendship today is so much different from that moment, those moments, those days, those times, those people,” Dave Mustaine started saying to express their relation with Metallica in the present day.

“We’re all different. We’re dads. We’re older now. And I think that probably was the most shocking and hardest thing to tolerate or to accept at the end, was that when the band stopped, I kind of felt like I stopped.

I know that’s not true. But what’s a young kid at the time to think. I had no mentors, I had no one talking to me through my life and saying, ‘You’re gonna get through this, and you’re gonna be so much happier for it.’”

On the other side, also James Hetfield talked about their relations with Dave Mustaine during a past conversation of his after giving signals for the longstanding feud between them when Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax joined forces for select concerts billed as the “Big 4.”

“There’s no reason [for things] to not be good [between us]. At this point, we’ve all freakin’ fell off the wagon, we’ve all gone into the ditch, we’ve all gotten back on track, we’ve all learned from our stuff. And at the end of the day, it’s just journeys — everyone is doing a different journey — and why would you hold a grudge with someone or vice versa?”

Ultimately, it is really nice to know that the old friends James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine from the two of the biggest bands are all now on good terms and still friends, after all, that they’ve been through that we can’t even have the time to mention all, considering their huge past even though they weren’t in contact for a long time.

In addition to all, although Dave Mustaine couldn’t be a part of Metallica‘s debut album at the time, he performed in the band’s compilation album Cliff ‘Em All, as he also contributed to the band co-writing Kill ‘Em All and Ride The Lightning, as well.

You can also hear out a previous interview of Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine, talking about Metallica and more, down below.