Dave Mustaine opens up about the reasons behind the creation of Megadeth: “I Wanted To Make A Band That Was More Metal Than Metallica”

For many who have followed the intricacies of metal music history, the drama between Metallica and Dave Mustaine will be familiar.

Mustaine was kicked out of the band in 1983, after which the bitter guitarist went on to form his own band. That band became Megadeth, one of thrash metal’s greats and one of metal music’s longest-running and most popular bands.

Now Mustaine recalls the formation of the new band in a recent episode of Gibson TV’s “Icons” video series:

The ride home from New York was long. I knew it was gonna be long. The ride out [to New York] was long. The ride out was dangerous. The ride out was bad. Because of the crash in Wyoming, I think that that’s what made me the guy that had to go. I don’t know. I probably was destined to leave before that because of, you know, the word ‘destiny’ and the fact that there was just so much talent and so much personality between the four of us. I don’t know that we could have survived. There was destined to be some kind of an explosion at some point.

“I did a lot of soul searching on the way home,” he continued. “Did I wanna play guitar? Did I wanna keep doing this? ‘What am I gonna do? I got it. I’m gonna make a band that’s more metal than Metallica.'”