Kerry King recently referred to MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine as “a fucking great guitar player’
In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Kerry reflects on the first time he saw METALLICA, complete with lead guitarist Dave Mustaine prior to his forming MEGADETH, perform live.
“They were great at that point,” King says. “They were ahead of us by at least 16 months to a year. They were doing originals and we were still doing covers. I think we opened for Metallica with Mustaine, I can’t recall, but I know me and Dave [Lombardo, Slayer drummer] definitely saw them in a club and we were blown away by Mustaine.
“Still to this day, he’s a fucking great guitar player. It was very awesome, it wasn’t big clubs, you could see from anywhere, and I was very enamoured with seeing Mustaine play these insane leads and James [Hetfield] playing these insane rhythms and barking out these lyrics.
“It was way more extreme than what I thought metal was or could be, it was like another arm of it, so to speak. We all came out around the same time, but Metallica certainly influenced me.”
SLAYER and METALLICA played their first gig together at the Woodstock Concert Theater in Anaheim, California on October 22, 1982.
King spent a brief time in MEGADETH, joining the band for a few shows in 1984. He would vacate soon after, saying of Mustaine ,“That guy’s crazy.”
You can check out the full interview in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, which is available now.