For decades, the shadow of Metallica has followed Dave Mustaine — a founding member turned rival, a man whose fingerprints are etched into metal history. Once dismissed and replaced, Mustaine didn’t just recover; he rebuilt his legacy from scratch with Megadeth, carving his own throne in the genre he helped define. Yet even years later, the ghosts of those early days — the riffs, the rivalries, the unspoken what-ifs — still echo through his words.
Now, in a surprisingly humble reflection, Mustaine has broken through decades of tension with a rare, human moment — offering respect to the very man who replaced him: Kirk Hammett.
In a recent interview, Dave Mustaine shared one of his most candid takes yet on Kirk Hammett, Metallica’s lead guitarist who stepped in after Mustaine’s departure in 1983. Known for his fiery confidence and no-filter honesty, Mustaine’s tone this time was different — softer, reflective, and tinged with understanding.
“I’ve always kind of poked fun at Kirk,” Mustaine admitted. “And unfairly so, as he never did anything to me.”
It’s a rare admission from the Megadeth frontman, whose relationship with Metallica’s early years has been the subject of endless speculation, documentaries, and fan debates. Mustaine was famously fired from Metallica just before the band recorded their debut album Kill ’Em All, with Hammett — freshly recruited from Exodus — taking his place.
Rather than attack or dismiss Hammett’s musicianship, Mustaine this time acknowledged the difficulty of the position Kirk found himself in.
“I think that some people would have just started over again,” Mustaine continued. “So, I thought it was honorable that Kirk took my solos and did his best to play them as I did. That couldn’t have been easy.”
Those words carry decades of weight. When Kill ’Em All dropped in 1983, several of Mustaine’s riffs and solos remained — reworked or reinterpreted by Hammett — leaving traces of Mustaine’s DNA embedded in Metallica’s earliest sound. Over the years, Mustaine often voiced frustration about credit and recognition, but this recent moment feels like a turning point.
The respect he extends now acknowledges both Hammett’s role in preserving those early songs and the shared history that bound them together — even after paths diverged.
For longtime fans of both Megadeth and Metallica, the quote feels like a quiet truce between two guitar titans who shaped the sound of thrash metal from opposite sides of a decades-old divide.
It’s not forgiveness, exactly — but it’s peace.
And in the long story of Dave Mustaine and Metallica, that might be even rarer.
