In a new interview with Vanyaland, Marty Friedman discussed the feud between Dave Mustaine and Metallica.
“I don’t think we [in Megadeth] cared as much about Metallica as people put in the press,” the guitarist revealed. “We were definitely our own band, our own entity, as far as I’m concerned. We admired Metallica for the great work that they did, and they’re playing a similar genre of music to what we were doing. So, there is no question that we were watching their every move, what they were doing, what we could learn from it, what we could adapt to our situation from their success.”
Friedman pointed out that their influences make them both important. “I mean, we’re both heavy metal bands, and Mustaine pioneered this heavy metal rhythm guitar style. [James] Hetfield pioneered this heavy metal guitar style. They both were very, very important in the formation of thrash metal.”
“I think we could both learn from each other and we could certainly learn from Metallica’s great success,” he continued. “And so there was no question that we watched that. However, it wasn’t like any kind of, ‘Look, we hate Metallica’ and ‘We want to beat them.’ There was absolutely no — not that I saw — any kind of feud type of thinking, but I have no idea what Dave’s personal relationships are with those guys.”
“I just remember the journalists, it’s a juicy headline, and so they go with it, and that stuff goes on to this day. But that part was probably fabricated a lot in the media from our side. We were just way, way too busy with our own music, our own careers, to really follow them that much. However, we did respect them a lot. I respected them a lot. I continue to respect them, and I think they’re an awesome band and [there’s still] lots to learn from them,” the rocker added.
The two parties made attempts to fix the issues between them over time. Mustaine joined Some Kind of Monster and played ‘Big 4’ shows with Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax to ease tensions. But one of his 2023 interviews shows that he still holds a grudge. “I wanted things to be reconciled and to be friends,” Mustaine told Guitar World. “But for whatever reason, they didn’t. And Metallica is represented by the same agent as Megadeth, and I’ve asked our agent, ‘You’re Metallica‘s agent, too; why won’t those guys play with us? What are they afraid of?”
The frontman continued, “The fact is simple: The world wants to see Megadeth and Metallica play together… Does Megadeth need Metallica? No. But Metallica talks about their fans, but they don’t give them what they’ve been asking for. What are they afraid of? I don’t know. It’s not me; it’s them.”
While Megadeth currently has only two scheduled shows, Metallica is set to play on April 19 in New York until the tour ends on July 5.
