Despite the rocky history between Metallica and Dave Mustaine, the latter is incredibly proud of how his career turned out with Megadeth. Though he doesn't care to perpetuate the drama, he did state that he had a "pretty fucking deep" influence on Metallica in a new interview with Guitar World.

Mustaine joined Metallica in 1981 alongside James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Ron McGovney, who was eventually replaced by Cliff Burton. But as the band started working on their debut album, Mustaine was fired in 1983 because of his alcohol-induced behaviors, and he was replaced by Kirk Hammett. Thus, Mustaine didn't play on Kill 'Em All, but he has songwriting credits on several of the songs.

"They became one of the biggest bands in the world, and here's one of the biggest bands in the world wasting their breath trying to discredit me by saying, 'Dave's not a good guitar player,'" Mustaine told Guitar World. "Excuse me, what the fuck did you say? I think I wrote many of the songs that made you famous, so you probably should recheck that bullshit statement."

The magazine then asked Mustaine how he measures his influence on Metallica, and the rocker replied by noting that he was the only guitar player in the band when it first started. There had been another guitarist at some point named Brad Parker, but his stint in the group was incredibly short-lived, so Hetfield ended up picking up the guitar as a result.

"Also, early on, James was terrified to talk to the crowd... So I — the guy who can't play guitar — went up to the mic and started talking. That's how it was until I left. James only started talking to the audience after I left; he had no choice," Mustaine recalled. "And most of what I said onstage was things James would then copy after I left. So how do I view my influence on Metallica? It's pretty fucking deep."

Elsewhere in the interview, the Megadeth leader added that he doesn't think there is a competition between his band and Metallica, because they're two entirely different bands, and that he hopes they'll eventually be able to tour together one day because it's what their fans would want to see.

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