The Four Horsemen & The Mechanix : How Thrash Metal Was Born

my name is Donna Davis and I'm here with Metallica the hot new heavy metal band from LA and let's have him start with their name and what they do in the band and let's start with you James Hetfield rhythm guitar and vocals Larson rake drums and bongs damn Mustang lead guitar Burton bass guitar [Music] thank you there was obviously pre-internet and all that stuff there was a classified ads newspaper in in the greater LA area that you could get at 7-Elevens called the recycler and there was a very small you had to really know where to look for it in the recycler musicians seeking bands and bands seeking musicians right and I put an ad in there it was free by the way it was very cool um for a drama looking for other musicians to start a band and I put a couple of sort of obscure new wave of British heavy metal bands in there like diamond head and Tiger's pantang and I don't know witchfinder general or whatever and there were a lot of people that were calling and say like heavy metal like you mean like Kansas and sticks and you know and uh yeah you know it's like that you know like you know yeah so a guy named Hugh Tanner showed up one day and he said can I bring a friend of mine along and this very shy introverted very awkward kid came with him tall skinny and his name was James Hetfield and we sort of had a jam together the three of us happened it was just we didn't quite connect but there was something uh you know because this hutaner guy was sort of the the front line but there was something about this James guy that I felt the kinship to I called up James Hetfield and said listen let's give it a shot it will leave this you Tanner guy out of it and um then uh James and I connected and I played him all the singles that I collected collected in England Lars had this drum kit it was 10 different colors one symbol he hit it it kept falling over Bonnie sits down and he's just like it's I'm going you sure this guy played drums before that was used a lot of that time was the word posers you know uh a lot of poser bands and a lot of you know sort of very radio friendly hard rock that was played on you know the radio KLOS and so on and so we wanted to try to do a European kind of almost dirtier punkier type of hard rock thing that Motorhead and Iron Maiden and these bands were playing [Music] I answered an ad it was an ad in the recycler paper and it said looking for a lead guitar player that likes Motorhead Saxon and I called up this guy and and he goes hello and he said hello um calling about the ad in the newspaper and uh we just started talking started talking about bands hello I don't think I said anything for like the next 10 minutes it was just going and every band that I would say he would go you know I said yeah I like budgie [ __ ] you know budgie [ __ ] man you know Motorhead so I go to audition for this band and I took my amps and everything and I plugged in and I'm warm enough I had the shrieking freaking lean sound that would cut through any sound proofing everything just was exploding out of everywhere of him I said well are we gonna audition and they said no you got the job that was easy we figured that if we covered all these songs by all these obscure bands from England that nobody had ever heard of then we could go up and play and people would think that they were Originals because because nobody knew knew them obviously and so we sort of yeah so we we we learned a set of cover songs after we were out playing and kind of getting our chops together then solo we started writing our own material well the first songs that we wrote there was only two people writing I had my songs that were done and uh James had uh his his songs that were done the first record I played on with Metallica had Hit The Lights [Music] [Applause] [Music] we got a chance to put out a new version of that and I just figured you know what if I'm going to sell on this I'm going to solo uh like a [ __ ] [Music] and that's how I made my name in in the metal world was on that first Metallica track from there on it was just us building Metallica and it's funny when I look back at that period you know we all kind of thought we were all great in our own right but I think probably out of the four of us in the beginning the young metal attack to metal up your ass lineup I think Ron mcgoverny was probably the most grounded of all of us you know I I still I still know where I stand in the whole process but you know Ron was he was really reliable it made me a Dependable bass player most bass players you know that that's you hope they're like that and and he was Ron yeah because we needed a bass player the bass player you know we auditioned about three bass players and none of them were at all and I lived with Ron there so you know what the [ __ ] he's a bass player let's do it you know first gig was uh March 14th of 1982 at a little club called Radio City in Anaheim California and right now it was in a little strip mall and next door was a club called Woodstock so we ended up playing Woodstock later but Radio City was our first gig and you know we go hit the likes and then day breaks two strings on his guitar no other backup so he's sitting there changing the strings and we're just sitting there like yeah just stop yeah we stopped it's like what are we gonna do now we're just gonna sit here and then wait there and wait for him to tune it back up how many people were there oh maybe about 40 50. something like that yeah but I mean most of them were you know comps from us you know they're all our friends yeah how did you get that gig uh I think we just went over there with a demo and they just put us in there in any slot it was it was like probably a Monday night you know something like that but yeah that was it wasn't really good when I was 16 years old and hanging out with you know all these other guitar players we had found this place called the international cafe in Berkeley and they would let us in we were underage and they would also sell us beer amazing yeah so we would go there all the time there was always bands playing there one night we were we went there and there's this band called Easy Street that was playing and I was I was checking them out me and my friends and it looked like they were a cover band and so there they started to play all these cover songs and I noticed that the bass player was this red-haired freak who's just like was doing this slow motion head bang but it wasn't called head banging back then right it was just like this slow motion thing I was I was thinking that guy's nuts his band trauma came to play at the troubadour and we didn't Brian Slagle from metal blade had had invited us to go watch them so we were all sitting there watching them and I'm like well you know kind of music's not my kind of thing you know there was some stuff on there that was was okay I didn't think trauma was a great band but the base plan was obviously something to take notice of two or three years later I'm with Paul balof we go to the stone and who do I see in trauma the same [ __ ] bass player playing the same way but now he has a a wah pedal and his sound is completely different and I remember saying to bailoff that guy is making this [ __ ] Dan you know it was me and James and Lars and all sudden Cliff starts going into this solo and there's like looking at him with their eyes are wide open and I'm looking at them and they're looking at him and I'm looking I'm like Yep this is the guy this is it this is it I mean so I kind of knew right at that point I'm like Yep this is the guy they're gonna go after I can I could tell I mean he is just a thrashing you know head banging crazy awesome bass players what did you think of him I thought he was awesome too he's doing stuff that I can never do you know right so as soon as I saw their reaction you know I kind of knew I kind of knew and you know I played several gigs after that with them and um they never actually told me hey you know we're gonna get you know we want to get this guy you know I kind of heard through the grapevine and but I I already knew who it was gonna be and I remember one time playing in San Francisco and Cliff was there watching us and he was standing there out in the rain and I asked him hey I'm like hey man you do you want to um do you want to ride because he was standing he was soaking wet like no no I'm cool you know but you know I was gonna give him a ride back to wherever you want to go but you know I kind of I knew he was going to be the guy before that we were we played a show in Long Beach and I had just gotten that Washburn base and I had a Ibanez Roadster base as a my old one as a backup and that base disappeared it it never it disappeared from the show and find out later that you know somebody might have had it stolen for money so um that was a big deal um things were disappearing from my house and then that whole beer thing on my base Dave was sitting there drinking and my base was on a guitar stand and he decided to take a whole beer and just pour it right into the pickups on my base just down the whole thing in there I didn't know anything about it go plug it in that blew me across the room shut the hell out of me I told Dave look you guys get the F out of my house James get out you're gonna have to leave I mean that's it I can't take it anymore I was like you know you guys just need to get out I'm I'm done with it I I mean this didn't have to go down like this you know they were trying to push you out yeah it didn't have to go down like this all you had to do was say hey we found a guy you know yeah and I would I was I would have been awesome great you know good luck to you but it didn't go down that way and I'm sorry it didn't it was always kind of the outsider but oh yeah you can see in a lot of pictures he just it's like three guys and then one you know he'd sit there and look at you going what are you doing here but that was never my role yeah it was never my role to to be the long-term did you know that at the time I knew that I knew that but you know you kind of put it in the back of your mind because you keep playing shows and you're learning new songs and and you're playing and you know you're playing all these gigs you're going to San Francisco and then you know you see him playing I'm like well oh yeah I'm not gonna be yeah that wasn't what I was gonna do you know and you say that because your skill level wasn't at the same as theirs or your desire or passion or yeah I guess well kind of both I guess because um I wanted to be a motorcycle mechanic I wanted to ride dirt bikes in the desert all the time that's what I wanted to do you know I mean I I remember going I'd be out of Glamis out at out in the sand dunes and I'd be riding I'm like man it's so good to get away from those guys you know this is what I want to do I want to be out on the road you know you know I want to be away from that I want to I don't want the fighting I don't want the arguing I don't want the bickering you know it's it's just like a relationship you know I mean it could be male females it's the same kind of thing it's like I don't need this I don't want to be in that but uh you know I didn't never um my whole thing was never to be a rock star I was never my intention I was just helping James out I'm glad that Metallica got cliff and I think that Ron mcgoverny is too but I I really think he should have continued pursuing music because of what to me looked like he had a future so uh how did you get Metallica they called me for about six months and finally I said that was the thing to do you know well trauma got a bit boring yeah that was a pretty good tune on metal mask for though yeah but uh they started to change you know yeah like uh let's be commercial so everyone will like us those guys put on anything after that I doubt it very seriously don't give a hand to the major rager here [Music] [Applause] [Music] we had rehearsed for the first time you knew there was something there there was a spark because it just seems like my playing was able to really um stand out from the drums and start to line up more with James and that the drums and the bass started to have their thing but that there was also this weird kind of like a connector of some sort where Cliff kind of connected with us and made it all work because I I didn't really connect with bass players in the beginning with my playing I hadn't played that much with other people and then literally like three weeks later bailoff calls me up and says guess who uh guess who's in Metallica now trauma bass player I'm like no oh my God they're gonna be [ __ ] so much better [Music] the one thing that I remember most was the day that the mechanics became the four horsemen and we were at the rehearsal building which was a garage at Mark Whitaker's house that we turned into a uh a jam room hung carpet inside and played there and I went in there and we had been listening to Leonard Skinner because Leonard Skinner was one of my closest favorite bands we're playing the mechanics and Lars goes man we need to add this slow part man I'm looking at him and I'm thinking well why don't you put a slow part in mechanics you know this is I wrote it after watching that movie with Charles Bronson the killer that was called the mechanic right okay and I worked at a gas station so I kind of melded the two ideas together and so I thought all right and I played [Music] he left it in the song and I thought oh my God that that was it was funny to me [Music] Dave was a pretty much a Jacqueline hide when I would go to rehearsal if I would leave the dogs there to watch the drugs and and one one day I took one of the dogs with me and she put her paws up on Ron mcgoverny's cart and scratched the front panel the Pitbull started jumping on my car scratching it all up and I hear James yelling at at Dave saying hey get through your freaking dogs off of Ron's car and James kicked the dog and that's where we went don't do this oh don't do this or you're gonna get fired when I hear James yelling at at Davis and also Davis came unglued don't you say this kind of crap about my dogs then their nose nose shut up or I'm gonna hit you and then the bass player goes you hit him you're gonna have to hit me first and then James Goes you hit him you're gonna have to hit me first I said you win James and I belted him in the mouth knocked him across the room I mean just I mean he wasn't inspecting it and the bass player shot me and I flipped him he threw me against the wall like a big Judo throw and we just got him to get out of here you're out of the band you know all right F you blah blah blah and then goes in packs up all his stuff leaves comes back the next day can I be back in the band no all right okay you're back in the band there's two kinds of drunks there's happy drunks and there's violent drunks and I would get violent just went like totally psycho on some people in this restaurant almost caused this big fight we started to see that he was on the road too possibly all of us but even with days you know just like I think deep inside we always thought that it wouldn't last [ __ ] a couple of things happen and it became too much the guy couldn't control himself under various situations where he had to yeah and it just didn't you know on a long-term basis you know in a couple years or something you know they come real real problems so we decided then that whenever there was a good opportunity to get rid of him you know that we would do it because we had a whole schedule lined up of gigs and the album and stuff right I don't know I I probably was destined to leave before that because of you know the word destiny and and the fact that there was just so much talent and so much personality between the uh you know the four of us I I don't know that we could have survived there was destined to be some kind of an explosion at some point you know even Metallica um a lot of the things that they did watching them have their success um it could have been anything you know they could have quit metal and started making Twinkies and I I would have been jealous because we were friends and then all of a sudden we're not friends anymore and and all I know is that um I want to 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've never felt special before in my life until now where we have this guitar we've got this band and now I feel like I'm somebody [Music] they was all speed he had no feeling he had no pull-offs he had no you know brilliant things you know he'd try and get real humans and then it just sounded really awful [Music] thank you real fast he's real talented though I don't I doubt it oh yeah for girls for to tell all his friends Dave would only play you know when he had to he'd never sit down and just Jam or it wasn't like he played guitar because he wanted and felt like playing guitar was more like an excuse to [ __ ] show off you guys like it heavy so the last kid we did with Dave was at the Ross uh two weeks ago tonight and then we [ __ ] around on Sunday Monday morning we woke him up all I remember was waking up and then being circled around me and I just looked up wake up Dave you know get up you're out of the band and I said what no warning no second chance it was almost like execution style which is walked in woke him up fired him grabbed him in his [ __ ] and took him down the bus stop and the whole thing took you know 45 minutes it does sound pretty bad you know wake up by but it really had to happen that way I remember this like it was yesterday I was sitting in the back of James's pickup when they drove me to the bus station I looked at James and he was weeping you know we were brothers up to that point and then something had pulled us apart and we knew it had to continue that way so it was emotional for all of us I've seen my dad in a coma and dying and and this was probably more harmful to me than anything I'd ever been through and I think that probably was the most shocking and hardest thing to tolerate or to accept at the end was that when when the band stopped I've kind of felt like I stopped I know that's not true but you know what's a young kid at the time to think I had no mentors I had no one talking into my life and saying you're going to get through this and you're going to be so much happier for it at that time we already had the guy Kirk Hammond from Exodus in mind yeah but we didn't know when we would be able to fit him in the schedule and then we came out here and sat down and told Johnny that this was what was going on and then he said that Kirk flew in the same night from San Francisco collection is from the bay area as well yeah they're good friends to watch them so you knew him first oh yeah we played I think three gig three kicks with him over the last six months and we hang out with them and they're good they're like the only other I mean kind of as intense metal as we are yeah they're not as tight in the Amicus and experienced and [ __ ] like that but they're you know in the right direction have you heard any of their materials I think that the lineup that we have happening now you know like when me and James first got this band together was was always like [ __ ] Ron and Dave it just wasn't happening like yeah you know when you thought it had five years you couldn't picture any of them still in the band you know and now none of them are in the band but right now I think we're fairly confident that this lineup is gonna you know stay tight and then like literally like four weeks later I get the phone call to join Metallica yeah and part of the reason I was so stoked was because I would get to like finally meet this guy but I saw an Easy Street and in trauma and just find out what he's all about I was more curious about him as a person than anything else yeah yeah and so I remember when I first went out there to audition for the band Cliff was the first person I met because James and Lars were still sleeping it was like six o'clock in uh in the evening and Cliff had been up for a while and so I I I hung out with cliff and and figured out that you know he was a pretty cool guy you know very level-headed you know very comfortable in his own skin even though he was just such a [ __ ] freak to me and so weird and different he had a confidence about him that you can tell just right away just right off the bat and then over the course of that week I saw him uh reading a HP Lovecraft book that was a module for Dungeons and Dragons really yeah and I had that same book because I was into Dungeons and Dragons and I was into H.P Lovecraft so I had the same book I said bro I have that book you're into it he goes oh yeah I love it HP glovecraft and I like zombies too I'm like bro I'm a horror guy I [ __ ] love zombies too and him and I bonded [Music] thank you [Music] all right we're gonna turn it over now to the newest member Mr Kirk Hammett he's gonna melt your face with his guitar [Music] very first night that I played with him this quote unquote audition Lars kept on looking at James and James kept on looking at Lars they kept on smiling and I was going what's up with these guys are they in love with each other or something what's going on but I later found out that they were so happy yeah that the other person playing guitar was not their old guitar player and they were so happy that he is out of the pitcher and I was in the picture with a lot of potential and a lot of possibilities they saw all that stuff yeah even before I saw it you know they never really told me that I was in the band I mean I figured it out when Laura said okay um in about three weeks we're gonna go up uh to uh uh to Upstate New York and we're gonna record our first album and I was like okay okay okay and then I realized I must be in the band because they were doing the album do you fly out to New York to audition though and then you go back home home uh uh yes and then they call you and say hey we're going to do a record no no no okay uh so I fly out to New York we play a bunch of shows in New Jersey New York you know that whole area and uh and then uh we had to play shows because we're [ __ ] broke and we we needed to play shows to [ __ ] eat yeah because you know we were on Megaforce records and we were the first artist on Megaforce records yeah it's basically out of a record store yeah yeah there's no there is no like Capital uh uh or like you know like in financial resources or it's not a record company it's a fan yeah it's actually cool and it's like putting his like own money up for a record yeah and so you know uh 10 I can't remember if it is 10 grand or 15 grand was uh was raised and in with that money we had to record our album and also live and so we were doing that and then we went up to Upstate New York and we were all just living in one house and then we recorded kill them all and then cliff and I took a Greyhound bus back from New York to back to San Francisco took three [ __ ] days whoa and and non-stop on the bus yeah yeah non-stop non-stop on the freaking bus and then uh and then Lars and James came back like a week later with the [ __ ] you know a cassette of the album wow [Music] we're glad to kill all you tonight who wants this [ __ ] [Applause] [Music] and we all made copies and and then we were home for like you know like maybe maybe a couple two three weeks and then we went back out on the East Coast again and started playing a lot more shows because we had to we had to to to exist and then it looked like we were going to be able to go to Europe for our first European tour it wasn't like this guy Kurt I'll tell you man you [ __ ] he just he wakes up in the morning he just starts playing guitars I mean he just plays all the time the guy plays I did a lot of soul searching on the way home did I want to play guitar did I want to keep doing this what am I going to do I want to um I got it I'm going to make a band that's more metal than Metallica And I need to come up with a name that's more metal than a band that has metal in their name so what can I come up with and I just figured well I'll wait for that for a little bit and I started writing lyrics and I was in the bus and I looked down the ground there's a piece of paper there and Alan Cranston said that the Arsenal of Megadeth cannot be read and I thought arsenal of Megadeth that's a great name that's a great name for a song [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign people where credit is due but if someone's not in your band you generally don't put their picture on your albums hello a picture of his nose what happened with him I mean I don't know man we just sent him home you know what happened to him causing Megan death yeah oh yeah he has a band Megadeth from left to right David Olson Chris Poland Dave Mustaine Carl Samuelson drums drums Guitar and vocals guitar bass guitar and background vocals when I came back from New York back in 1983 I met Dave elves and he lived upstairs oh no I live downstairs yeah I just moved to California anyway so you played a lot a lot of really noisy all the time and I was yelling out the window from the shut up and I guess he thought I was cool enough to help him find cigarettes and him and his roommate come up and asked me if I knew where to get cigarettes and we're in Hollywood and I feel like saying listen man go to the corner there's probably at least 100 cigarette shops around there but then we started hanging out together and we decided that we should dump his roommate and get a band together and there you have it the beginning of Megadeth it was a Dave Allison and Dave Mustaine and then how did uh Chris Paulin come into the picture I went down there I played around and uh they said you know you want to try rehearsing and I learned some of the songs and it was it was real high energy it was basically what me and Gara were doing before except metal you know every song we were like when we go through the set you know you're like praying for the end of the setting if you're gonna make it or not and that's you know the way we like it so um but you know we just got together Darth said you want to come down and try it and I did area me and Chris previously had played together for about four years at least I've been playing with gar for like 13 years I mean like me and gar learned how to play at his house in in a back room for years and years and then we had bands back in New York and then uh we moved out here and had a fusion band called The New Yorkers and that was five years of starving so like when these guys said you want to join a band and starve I was already starving so they said what the hell so then right when Chris joined we just like done our capital or I mean our Capital our combat deal and we went in after about a month rehearsal with Chris and recorded the first album killing as my business yeah it was all pretty fast yeah it all happened real fast the recording and everything is real fast until the release date took a while so Mustang and all the songs written by then oh yeah for the first five albums right no no only for about two more oh okay the thing that bothered me the most was I had all my music and I left it behind and I said don't use my music and of course they did oh really yeah they used it on the first record on the second record there's parts of my music on a song on the third record all the solos on the first record or mine except that they're just performed by curve what do you think of Megadeth I just heard some last night that sounds like the four horsemen and it's just switched the titles and mechanics oh yeah that's that was the original title I saw uh with Dave and the Spain's lyrics and everything uh I don't think about them too much to be honest with you you seems to have a cocky images he talks a lot he talks a lot about us and about other people he thinks that's uh the band sucks I mean I like James Martin Lars I think everybody does and and um you know I I have no problems with James you know don't really like Kirk because he got my job but yeah you know I nailed his girlfriend before I left so whoa the first time that I heard how long did they allowed Kirk to do his solo I thought this is supposed to be me no it has a tendency to make me buy it towards what he's doing so I really can't listen to what he's doing with much of an open mind because he's too busy talking [ __ ] about everyone he runs his mouth and we run our business and upset [Music] what what there's always some comment about Metallica and Megadeth is that something that's always coming from the interviewer or is it something that you like to talk about we don't bring it up you know what I think that there's like especially in America there's a few magazines I won't mention any names but uh this whole Metallica Megadeth Feud is n't so blown out of proportion and it I I think I mean they're a good band they do their thing they do they think they do their thing man you know we're in our own band we do our own thing and I think in the beginning a lot of people thought maybe we were riding on the coattails of Metallica's success with him but now yeah three records later I think we proved ourselves you know enough said the first record didn't do that much for me I mean I respected it and stuff like that but I was like a really big fan of Peace sales the second record I thought was an awesome heavy metal record at that time um and I listened to it a lot and even though I certainly didn't tell anybody at the time I was actually I guess secretly kind of proud of the work that he'd done because he had stepped up to the plate I certainly didn't tell James another factor is the fact that we were doing it long before a lot of the other ones and I think are those that start things have an advantage over those that follow after we finish the complete European tour we will go to Japan well first we go to America and do some Canadian and Eastern United States gigs for about 10 days and then go to Japan and do about a week over there and then possibly Australia or South America but that's up in the air after that we'll go home for the holidays probably and then start to put together the next album [Music] beginning of the tour the beginning of it you gotta get yourself upset you have to get used to the road beating your ass every night it's hard I roll okay [Music] I wrtna homo midnight of course tonight uh dedicating the entire show to uh Cliff Burton of Metallica who uh died early this Saturday morning in a tragic auto accident uh the tour bus of Metallica um uh of course uh going off the road uh during their tour in Sweden and uh just a lot of people calling up who did not know that and a lot there are on the other hand a lot of people saying that they heard about that through the grape run it was early this Saturday morning that it happened uh Metallica's minivan or tour bus whatever you want to call it was on way to Copenhagen from a gig in Sweden and as we have learned the driver of the bus fell asleep and uh causing the van or tour bus to go off the road as soon as the van collided and went off the road Cliffwood Cliff was pinned and they were all asleep the whole band was asleep the driver was driving and Cliff was pinned in his bunk and the rest of the members like James Kirk and Lars had abrasions uh Lars broke his foot right and all three of the guys checked into a hospital and were released um I believe this afternoon uh one of Metallica's Roadies I believe it was uh the drum Roadie was uh seriously injured and I think he is in critical condition right now so we're gonna try and give you the latest information the latest information out of Copenhagen Denmark according to Scotty and is that uh everybody in the Metallica Camp is resting Kirk Hammett was sleeping a couple hours ago James was walking around uh in a very bad mood and saying Metallica is not going to go on now that's just because he was in that kind of a mood you know you can expect someone to say anything like that but of course we're going to find out the latest information and uh Lars I believe was just in the hotel so as of now Anthrax and Metallica are in Copenhagen Denmark in a hotel together and we're gonna bring you the latest on this tragic incident about Cliff Burton and we're gonna go to the air right now so so if we can clear up any questions drinkers we were we went back to hotel and just drank drank drank you know I remember at four o'clock in the morning I could hear James down on this street drunk screaming Cliff Cliff where are you and when I heard that I just you know I just broke into tears you know [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] I think it had to be extremely uh Bittersweet for him like a dream come true but I'm stepping into someone's shoes who can never be filled it must have been very difficult and for him and for us it was difficult it just truly was and you know psych 101 will tell you that all our anger our grief and sadness got directed at him I mean we were pretty young still and I could always talk talk about myself during that period but I did not know how to process it you know I had I I hadn't lost someone like that under those circumstances you know I don't think any of us had and so I think subconsciously we just buried a lot of stuff and that stuff was struggling to get out he was an easy target and I think the part the there were a couple things about Jason you know his personality he was he felt he was Goofy enough to take it which was a a positive for him uh I think he was such a fan and we hated that we hated that part we wanted to unfan him and become as hard as you were yeah as hard as we were uh so trying to beat the fan out of him trying to also get him to play something different like Cliff wood you know he was a he played with a pick and he would follow whatever I would do and and I I remember there were times where I you know I'd be playing I'd just turn around so you couldn't see what I was playing so he couldn't follow me it's like do do whatever you want to do you know so so but obviously live he was definitely he fit right in he was a great force and you heard the bass live so uh uh and he he wasn't afraid to step up to the mic and bark whenever he felt like it and he was he was he would sweat he would really sweat he put a lot into the live show so that gained a lot of respect at least I think for us once we started touring with him and I think subconsciously a lot of it got escaped through the music I mean I honestly believe that [Music] myself [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] it's difficult for me to comprehend that the only thing that you feel when you look back on the last 20 years is rooted in the Metallica thing okay I'll explain in a simple terms as I cannot to stultify you but to just make it really easy I had nothing then I had everything then I had nothing again and it was okay going from nothing to everything to nothing but then having someone stand on the back of my head and keep me under water made it even harder for me I've been erased from any involvement the quotes that I was never meant to be in here anyways it was just filling a spot I was just a temporary guy I was a [ __ ] loser and a drug I got kicked out all the horrible things that were said immediately after my firing I agree I should have been fired because I was dangerous because of my disease but watching for so many years the band continued to become successful and successful and successful in us to never address you know the way that that I was let go my godmothers you guys woke me up and said you know what you're out and I asked you what no warning I said no second chance and you guys said no go good God man I didn't get it I didn't get a chance and I've lived and yeah maybe maybe for some people you know 18 years is a long time for me it seems like yesterday I woke up and I look up and I see the guys that I love that are my extended family gotta remember all I had was my mom all I had was you and James we had dreams together and I sold everything to join that dream and then it ended I've never had a chance to be able to tell you without talking to Lars the guy in Metallica never talked to my little Danish friend again you know I remember the day you and I talked about digging a hole in [ __ ] dirt and smoking hash through the ground that to me is the stuff that's like you know and we've never had very many moments like that have you ever thought what what I've been through I think I've had an awareness of the pain I caused you um that's not what I said okay um do you have any idea of what I put you sweat no no no what I went through I mean people hate me because of you you know I walk down the street and I hear some piece of [ __ ] say Metallica at me and they do that to taunt me I mean when I would hear Metallica on the radio I would be like God I have to turn this off because I just keep thinking I [ __ ] up right I've been waiting for this day for a long time you know and by no means is it done because somebody else very important is not here right foreign do I wish it was 1982 all over again and you guys woke me up and said hey Dave you know what you need to go to AAA yeah it'd give anything for that chance I had this Clear Vision which I don't know if I've ever told you but the night where we we decided to let you go a couple of days before we let you go and we played some show and me and you were just sitting there I think we were smoking some pot and being very mellow and I just remember Clear Vision of just being overwhelmed with sadness and emotion about what was about to go down literally like eight hours after that not saying it in any way that I was not equally responsible for being part of making that decision but at the same time feeling just an overwhelming sadness and guilt because I really felt that when all the [ __ ] went away a lot of the kind of the boasting and the He-Man and the all that [ __ ] sort of went away that you were a really tender person I felt that you had this really tender side to you that I was really attracted to or really felt comfortable with you know what I mean and I just I think that's always been there and um that's why I think I sought you out I'm not mad at you alarms and I I don't want anything from anybody you know I I still have my dreams I'm glad that uh James is getting help I really am I I wish that James was here I wish Cliff was here is there any last words you want to say to everybody out there metal up your ass [Applause] this is Donna Davis and this is Metallica [Applause] I never had more fun with two guys in my life than drinking with James and Lars and and if I didn't have a disease where I could actually stop once I started I would love to get together with those guys and do it all over again I'm really looking forward to the day where we can sit down and just laugh about how you know how this thing just just mushroomed into this unbelievable thing the two of us have sold more records and than probably any other two bands that I know but you know I I think that the world could stand to learn a lot from Metallica they have done just about everything picture perfect you know the one thing you gotta admire about anybody who's been around for as long as he has you know just the staying power is awesome I mean in a Time frame where most bands stick around for 15 minutes or less it's just awesome that it's been 15 16 years from him and he's still here making records and so you gotta get off your hands of that Megadeth is Dave Mustaine always is always was and but the thing about Dave that is probably keeping him in the Forefront and keeping him like in people's psyche so to speak is the fact that you have this music that you want to get made and you're always finding the people who can actually get it done for you and it's a lifelong Quest and it's so really hard to do even on the short term but on the long term it's just you get my ultimate respect for that let me explain um and cling Budokan 30 years plus into the career it's just it's a testament to the music that it's your music it still sounds like the first album I'm all you're trying to do it's the same thing but in a good way like AC DC has that thing that they always keep trying to do it and it wasn't making sense yeah and I think that the the thing that needs to be said about this is he's always allowed these great people to shine in the band and for me it was an opportunity to get from the under underground to the mainstream there's a lot of guys who play better than me definitely a lot of guys taller than me but Dave gave me a chance to come in the band and we did some really really cool stuff together and that kind of got me on the map and it allowed me to get into places that I wouldn't have gone as this underground guitar player and and look at these guys that he has now doing the same thing I mean these guys are so incredible incredible players and you really need that to get his music out and as a result it's not only his music but it's the music of all the members it's you know it start with the seed of his music which doesn't change maybe this is negative you're not going to have one album that's like oh this is the blues album or something it's like it's going to be Megadeth but you get these guys on there and they're so different from maybe there was another incarnation of negative but it's still so rooted in what Dave's original intention was that I think that is the key to keeping in the Forefront and I just want to say thanks for having me of course officially say it right here you're welcome very welcome it really started with the kind of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction idea yeah you know getting nostalgic yeah you know and thinking my God uh look at all the people that have helped us along the way and look who are still around yeah let's say thank you to them one of uh our best experiences uh as far as like you know celebrating time that has passed for sure on the company scored one of the original t-shirts there you know it's weird when we brought when we brought uh Iran mcgoverny and Dave Mustaine on to play you know those shows something happened and it really just improved our relationship with those guys tremendously especially with Dave after those shows Dave Dave's whole attitude toward us just [ __ ] turned around something happened and just our relationship with him just completely totally changed and got much much better and you know I think what had happened was he he actually found some closure by coming up on stage and playing with us and I remember my attitude was Dave play whatever you want man if you want to take all the [ __ ] solos you know I'll play rhythm guitar it's no big deal to me and I remember him looking at me going you just like you he was he was just like looking at me going okay but I can tell that was not what he was expecting to hear from me right right and and when we actually played and I I remember just like standing next to him going up to him like he's like ripping a soul on my playing it was a moment for the both of us and all of a sudden all that [ __ ] all that [ __ ] bad vibes all that Schism all that [ __ ] talking didn't even [ __ ] matter anymore it didn't [ __ ] matter anymore and you know as a result of it I mean we're all friends still that's wild I mean from that point on you know we went on to do the big four the big four you know and that was you know a great thing and so the big four was kind of that thing yeah we're all still playing after 30 whatever it was 32 years let's go get do a gig together I mean why shouldn't we let's celebrate the fact that we're still alive and playing music that we love Yeah and um you know uh I think the all the other thing was the new wave of British heavy metal that's all I ever hear about yeah no album blah blah you know what about the big four yeah no one knows the big four come on let's make it known yes make some history here and let people know and put a mark there that hey big four was and uh you know is a force to be reckoned with and he delivered the goods yeah we loved it we had a blast and Mustang and you guys are good yeah there's no reason to not be good yeah at this point you know yeah uh you know we've all we've all freaking fell off the wagon we've all gone into the ditch we've all got back on track and we've all learned from our stuff and at the end of the day it's it's just Journeys everyone's doing a different journey and why would you hold a grudge with someone or or vice versa you know for as far as all of us just kind of like bonding yeah and it kind of really [ __ ] established and really just like Vindicated all of us as just people who just love this [ __ ] music and had a passion for playing it and took that passion everywhere we went I never [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hear me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] I have uh just I have my little guy out and the other one so what's his name Bryce he's three years old actually a little rascal here right huh yeah I have three kids and a stepson we have a 12 year old they're miles yeah absolutely yes yeah I remember that little boy I don't know if I told you the other day but I told uh Dave that um his favorite band was Megadeth for about a year so about an 07 huh you know seven you know 708 his you know we were every morning we got in the car I'm taking him to school we're listening to Megadeth I hate you [Music] sacrifice [Music] Roberto Agustin Miguel San Diego Veracruz kazoo [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Ludwik Sputnik

Views: 635,953

Keywords: metallica, megadeth, metal, james hetfield, lars ulrich, dave mustaine, kirk hammet, cliff burton, Music

Id: fuil6nAFLqU

Length: 60min 25sec (3625 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023