The Big 4 was never a happy metal family.
While Megadeth and Metallica were on the same wavelength, Dave Mustaine was already furious about getting kicked out of his old band by James Hetfield.
When Mustaine regrouped, he did burn a few bridges with Slayer as well.
In the early years of Megadeth, Kerry King was in the running to be the lead guitarist in the band saying (7:00),
“I played Megadeth’s first five shows. At the end of the day, I thought it was a gigantic learning situation. People would see me and know me from Slayer. It wasn’t like I was going to be in Megadeth. I always had Slayer’s best interests in mind when I made that decision.”
Once Megadeth picked up steam, the division started when Mustaine mouthed off in an interview saying,
“I said something about Kerry that I shouldn’t have said and that I regretted. It’s probably better left unsaid because it’s water under the bridge now.”
Those waters aren’t as smooth as Mustaine thought, with King remembering,
“Dave was just a pompous ass back then. It was funny because I read an interview where he said he was angry with us. He said we were drinking in the hallways, farting and burping and having a good time. I’m like ‘You’re just making us sound fun, dude.’”
Even though Slayer and Megadeth have reunited for the Big 4 shows, the relationship is still tense between King and Mustaine.
In recent years, there is a chance that both bands will reach some peace, with King complimenting Mustaine’s chops in the early days saying,
“They were great at that point. They were ahead of us by at least 16 months to a year. We were still doing covers and they were doing originals. I think we opened for Metallica with Mustaine, I can’t recall, but I know me and Dave [Lombardo] definitely saw them in a club and we were blown away by Mustaine.”
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