In a recent interview with Gastão Moreira of Bangers Open Air, SLAYER guitarist Kerry King opened up about his short-lived stint with MEGADETH and why a longer tenure with the band likely wouldn’t have worked out.
King, who played MEGADETH’s first five shows as the band’s second guitarist in the early 1980s, recalled how he got involved with the group and offered praise for its founder, Dave Mustaine.
“Well, I love Mustaine to this day,” King said. “I think he’s one of the greatest guitar players out there — still. So when I caught — I don’t even remember how I heard that he wanted me to play second guitar to him. But I was flattered because even back then I thought he was awesome.”
When asked if he ever considered leaving SLAYER to join MEGADETH, Kerry responded: “I’m sure I probably did, but [SLAYER] is where I belong. And in hindsight, I absolutely made the right choice ’cause me and Dave would’ve butted heads like no tomorrow. It’s just his personality. I mean, look how people have been in his band. Fifty? And that’s not me down talking Mustaine. I like hanging with him for 20 minutes, and then you go away and ‘I’ll see you in a year.’”
During an appearance on “Lipps Service With Scott Lipps” podcast earlier this year, King reminisced about the first time he saw METALLICA in 1982.
“I saw ’em with [then-METALLICA guitarist Dave] Mustaine,” Kerry said. “And we opened for them. I think Mustaine was still in the band, at the place we used to frequent called the Woodstock [in Anaheim, California].
“When I first saw ’em with Mustaine, I was sitting kind of between [METALLICA frontman] James [Hetfield] and [then-METALLICA bassist Ron] McGovney in where the audience is, and I was just blown away watching Mustaine just ripping on guitar and not even looking at his fingers. I’m, like, ‘I can’t do that.’ And to this day, he’s a badass guitar player. But that’s what I walked away from METALLICA [thinking]. And he wrote tons of the riffs in the early days. So, when he branched off into MEGADETH, a lot of the riffs went with him.”
Kerry also discussed his current relationship with the members of METALLICA, as well as with Mustaine.
Mustaine‘s cool, but Mustaine‘s one of those guys that he can’t help but stick his foot in his mouth,” King said. “So, I’ll take my 20 minutes and I’ll bolt just before anything gets uncomfortable.
In a 2021 interview with Metal Hammer, King was asked if he had any sense that Dave Mustaine was resentful towards METALLICA while he was briefly in MEGADETH with him. Kerry responded: “Probably. But I looked up to Mustaine ever since he was in Metallica. I was in the crowd with Jeff [Hanneman, SLAYER’s late guitarist] actually, saying, ‘Look at that dude! He’s just ripping up there!’ He’s got a great style and in the beginning, it helped METALLICA become what METALLICA is. And let me tell you something — to this day, he’s a great guitar player.
In 1984, Dave Mustaine reached out to King and asked him to join his newly formed band MEGADETH. King accepted the invitation and began performing with them on a few shows while SLAYER‘s future was uncertain. Ultimately though, he chose not to be part of MEGADETH due to his dedication towards staying in SLAYER.
Source: metaladdicts.com
