In a recent X post, former Metallica bassist Ron McGovney talked about his last show with Dave Mustaine.
A user on the platform recently posted a photo of McGovney with his Metallica bandmates and wrote, “Today marks the anniversary of Ron McGovney’s last gig with Metallica, at Mabuhay Gardens San Francisco, November 30th, 1982 The last song he played: ‘Metal Militia.’ Well done Ron, without you Metallica may never have been. Keep up your informative posts here too!”
“The only thing that I remember about my last show is that the house turned the power out on us during our last song. Dave and I rushed to the guy at the mixing board ready to beat his a**. He slithered away. That’s how we rolled in those days,” the rocker recalled in his response.
McGovney played with Metallica during their first year and contributed to early demos before leaving in late 1982. On the other hand, Mustaine was fired from Metallica one year later in 1983 because of his drinking, drug use, aggressive behavior, and fights with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.
“In retrospect, I get it: if you’ve got a guy that gets violent when he gets drunk, and he’s kinda drunk 24/7 then having him around you all day long probably isn’t good for business. I would have done the same thing as Metallica did,” Mustaine told Metal Hammer about his departure from Metallica.
He continued, “I had a problem with alcohol, and it cost me my job and cost me two very dear friends. But I didn’t have a Plan B. Being a successful musician was all I ever wanted, and I wasn’t going to let that dream die.”
Kirk Hammett replaced Dave in Metallica. “The truth is Kirk did me an honor by trying to play my solos on those early songs the way he did,” Mustaine told Guitar World in an interview about Hammett. “I think that some people would have just started over again. 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.”
On December 10, 2011, Mustaine played with Metallica at their final 30th-anniversary show at the Fillmore in San Francisco. The event was for fan club members only.
