THE FEEL GOOD FEUD OF THE SUMMER: ULRICH VS. MUSTAINE VS. IAN
Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 10:00am by Axl Rosenberg
CORRECTION: PRATO’S QUESTION COMES FROM HERE. MY APOLOGIES TO PRATO. NO APOLOGIES TO MUSTAINE.THANKS TO BORIVOJ AT BLABBERMOUTH FOR SHOWING ME THE ERROR OF MY WAYS.
It has been a fantastic summer for feuds. Just, really top notch. Isis is mad at Revolver and I’m fairly certain that Revolver is mad at MetalSucks. Fear Factory would be like the new Van Halen, if Van Halen wasn’t still the new Van Halen. And I think it’s safe to say at this point that, pretty much no matter how this whole Dan Nelson/John Bush drama plays out, no one will ever take Anthrax seriously again (assuming they were still taking Anthrax seriously at all).
And now this. Ladies and gentleman, key founding members of three of the Big Four are now all ready to throw down. This is a clusterfuck of epic proportions. I wish you could all see my face right now, ’cause rarely am I this happy.
It’s a long story, and, as is so often the case, I am really just playing The Daily Show to Blabbermouth’s CNN. Here we go:
First Dave Mustaine gave an interview to Rolling Stone. It’s not an especially interesting interview; no respect to Greg Prato, who conducted the interview, but it’s mostly standard “I’ve got a new record coming out” chit-chat. Nuthin’ wrong with that. I’ve engaged in plenty of it myself. Just saying, by and large, there’s nothing you to read in this interview.
That is, until partway through, when Mustaine lobs this little missile:
As far as you know, is it true that on the last Metallica tour Cliff Burton was on before he died, the band was planning on firing Lars Ulrich at the tour’s end?
That’s what Scott [Ian, Anthrax guitarist] told me. He said that when Metallica got home, that James, Cliff and Kirk were going to fire Lars.
Whoa, whoa, whoa – let’s just back it up there for a second. That is HUGE, assuming it’s true. For one thing, there’s a kind of perverse wish-fulfillment to the whole concept, since so many fans, rightly or wrongly, think of Burton as the anti-Ulrich who would’ve ensured many more years of awesome metal, and would protect the world from Load and St. Anger and the other Load and whatever that thing that came out last year was called.
And the reveal would clearly be a huge loogie hocked right in Ulrich’s face. ‘Cause, presumably, no one ever told him, not even during the group-hug portion of weekly band therapy.
But there’s something real scummy about what happened here. Let’s look again at how that question was phrased:
As far as you know, is it true that on the last Metallica tour Cliff Burton was on before he died, the band was planning on firing Lars Ulrich at the tour’s end?
Two things strike me as being weird about this phrasing:
- “As far as you know” is a lawyer’s phrase. Think about it – that’s some “plausible deniability” shit right there, meant to avoid getting sued for slander. How many times have you heard a politician say “As I far as I know?” Which leads me to -
- There’s no question here. I mean, there is, technically, a question being asked – but it suggests prior knowledge of Ulrich’s near-sacking. But there can’t be prior knowledge of said incident, as this little factoid is not common knowledge (hence Blabbermouth running it as a headline and Scott Ian feeling the need to respond to it). So how did Prato know about it going in? There has to have been a pre-interview or something like they do on talk shows, right? So Mustaine, or Mustaine’s publicist or manager or whomever, must have fed it RS. I mean, there’s no other logical explanation.
Alright. So this is already a pretty juicy story, right?
But here’s where it gets really, really good: within hours of Blabbermouth picking up on the story, Scott Ian responded via Tweethrax:
Story’s not true. Little does anyone know but Lars actually owns the name, good luck ever kicking him out.
Now, normally, I’d be inclined to take Ian at his word. Ulrich might actually own the name, and as we’ve already established, Mustaine was clearly fishing for publicity.
But just last week, Ian lied about that whole Dan Nelson thing. Sorry. I should say, as far as I know, Ian lied about that whole Dan Nelson thing. But my point remains the same: dude don’t seem so trustworthy these days.
Sooo… where does that leave this whole soap opera? Neither Ulrich nor Hetfield or Hammett has responded to the story as of yet (Cliff Burton is, obviously, not available for comment). If they wanna just let it blow over, the best thing they could do is just keep their mouths shut, but that’ll never happen; they’re out on tour, where they give 8,000 interviews a day, and at least 7,998 of those journalists, bloggers, et. al. are going to ask about this.
But really, all I wanna know is: can someone please ask Kerry King what he thinks? If we could somehow get Slayer involved in this ridiculousness, too, I think I’d just about jizz in my drawers.
-AR
Wait, back up a second. Is Dave wearing a fanny pack in that picture?
Yes. Yes it is.
Didn’t you know? The pack is back.
Although that is an old picture I suppose. Still, let’s bring that shit back.
Ohhh it’s totally on its way. I’m bringing the ass flap back metal style, too.
yeah.. but it’s a Vision Street Wear fanny pack.. there was about 43 minutes in the late 80’s when that was ok.. those and the little Painters Caps too..
Fanny Packs are METAL.
I can’t wait for the rest of the bands to start shit with other bands, so then metal can be just like rap (where to sell records you have to diss another rapper or at least celebrity or news reporter). That’ll help the already divided metal community!
I can’t put my finger on the actual timeline, but I definitely seem to remember when reading about history of Metallica or magazines or websites or something that Lars’ ass had been close to the bandsaw before…just can’t remember when.
Of course, who knows what’s true anymore…anyone can start a rumor and he said she said and nobody will ever get to the bottom of it.
The point is, other than Mustaine vying for publicity, what relevance is that anyways? It was ages ago.
I think Ian is right about this. If you remember, it was Lars who called up Hettfield and told him he had a spot on an upcoming Metal compilation cd back in the early 80’s, and it was Ulrich who chose the name Metallica when his friend asked him what he should name an upcoming magazine, the options were some name I forget at the moment, and ‘metallica’. Ulrich liked the name Metallica, so he told his friend to chose the other one, and Ulrich used Metallica as his band name.
As far as I know, Ulrich does indeed own the name. This does not mean Hettfield and company weren’t thinking of kicking him out though, this was something that possibly wasn’t settled back them. How often do you see bands kick someone out without really thinking it through, just to have the person getting kicked out saying “Fuck you guys, I named this band, so you guys can’t use the name anymore!”
I’m thinking both of them are right here, Hettfield and the rest probably wanted to kick him out, but they probably wouldn’t have been able to given that Ulrich started the band.
I remember reading in a early interview with Mustaine that before he got kicked out of Metallica him and Hetfield were actually thinking of kicking out Lars, so either Mustaine’s lying about this again or before Mustaines drug use got out of control they were actually thinking of kicking out Lars once before.
Get in the Ring motherfuckers!
Break out the Fistfull of Metal!!
can someone just give dave mustaine a hug, hes crying out for attention here, i mean hes really crying.
Can you just imagine what would’ve happened if Lars had been fired? Oh, the possibilities!
Even if Lars does own the name now, the real question would be did he own it then?
I’m pretty sure Lars owned the rights to the name “Metallica” before he even had a band, or even knew how to play drums for that matter.
Imagine a world where Metallica actually had a good drummer
Axl, you’re just trying to put this through the rumor mill. Change your pants and go work for E!
“f they wanna just let it blow over, the best thing they could do is just keep their mouths shut, but that’ll never happen; they’re out on tour, where they give 8,000 interviews a day, and at least 7,998 of those journalists, bloggers, et. al. are going to ask about this.”
wrong, metallica has a long and proven hostpry of ignoring feuds and keeping their mouth shut. they did it when King trashed them, they usually do it when Mustaine talks trash, and again and again every time someone wanna start a public feud with them. my guess – you won’t hear a word, or you’ll hear a diplomatic “i love mustaine and ian, i think they’re great” from Ulrich and that’s it.
Call me crazy, but I think that was then, and after Cliff’s death, the relatationship betweem the remaining three orginal members got strong enough that the plans of sacking Lars went away. From what I’ve seen (and I’ve seen Some Kind Of Monster) it seems like they’re in very tight now, so Ulrich’s safe. Also, maybe it’s just me, but I think Death Magnetic wasn’t that bad (though most of the song could have a been a minute or two shorter), and Metallica is just getting beat up, just because it’s cool to beat up on Metallica now.
Death Magnetic WAS a good record. But you’re only cool if you hate everything new that Metallica puts out.
I liked Death Magnetic, and i would have liked St. Anger if it weren’t for that snare sound.
The riffs in St. Anger were damn good.
In my opinion, St. Anger wasn’t a bad record, it was *made* bad by Bob Rock’s lack of production, the damn snare sound, and the lack of solos.
As we know, a lack of solos does not mean a song is terrible, whereas production values are indeed extremely important in the quality of a record.
If Metallica ever re-released it with better production and added some solos, the album would be pretty damn good.
What about the horrible lyrics and cut/paste song structures that also ruined St. Anger?
The cu/tpaste job is part of the production.
Glad I’m not the only person out there who liked Death Magnetic.
glad I’m not the only person who liked both XD
Yeah, it’s a good album. I don’t know why most of the fuckers here hang shit on it all the time. Fair enough, everything from Load through to St. Anger was shit, but I thought DM sounds like Metallica is on their way back.
Death Magnetic is definitely a return to form for Metallica, despite the Loudness War problems.
I’m disappointed they didn’t lean more on Trujillo, though. I used to like Suicidal Tendencies nearly as much as Metallica, and it was largely due to him. I had high hopes for a Metallica album where he was actually involved in the writing, but he’s not doing much more than Newsted would have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAPHM_TPmI
That are old news! that link drive you to a Mustaine interwiew on Dave Navarro’s crappy show…. he does the same statement in that moment….
Dave Mustaine is so jealous of Metallica’s success that it’s sad. But his dickishness makes it easy not to feel any sympathy.
Respecting Mustaine’s position in the metal pantheon AND his (ancient) history with Metallica, I will still say it’s pretty crummy of him to comment on band business that wasn’t HIS OWN and to repeat hearsay in the media. At any rate, it’s all water under the bridge, so it’s pointless to bring it up (and lacking totally lacking in class to do so in order to promote his own ventures).
In keeping with the MetalSucks tradition of qualifying comments, criticism, and general fuckery with proclamations of fandom, I will mention here that I say this with love in my heart as a Megadeath fan. I’m just disappointed in Mustaine today. I really wish he hadn’t said that.
*aggrieved sigh* And now, they’re off. Let the games begin.
“Story’s not true. Little does anyone know but Lars actually owns the name, good luck ever kicking him out.”
that statement alone is very telling, he totally deflects versus an explanation or speculation as to why Mustaine would say that.The fact he makes the irrelevant point of Lars owning the name , irrelevant in the sense it has no bearing on the point Mustaine made, he was speaking of 1986 not last week or the future.On top of that why would Mustaine pull Scott Ian out of his ass as a source of this information.Its all squirlly, but you know all those guys are sheisty fuckin D bags so what-the-fuck-ever.
Isn’t Dave himself the source of the Ulrich-being-fired story? Somewhere else (don’t remember where) he says it was Cliff who told him Lars was getting sacked after the MOP tour. Now it’s Scott Ian…
No way anyone from Metallica will comment on this, at least in any serious way. A) it’s higly unlikely that it’s true (regardless of whether Ulrich solely owns the Metalllica trademark [also doubtful {nested parens rule!}]) and B) By saying anything Metallica gets thrown into a “acted stupidly” kind of situation and suddenly has to claw their way out of the gossip muck. There’s absolutely no incentive for Metallica to comment. It’s Dave Mustaine talking — you gain nothing by engaging him, and Lars of all people is smart enough to know that.
I agree that Kerry King is the only person that can truly make everything clear.
ive heard this from mustaine before, i almost think there might be a shred of truth to it. ulrich was the only thing holding them “back” back then because he was, is, and always will be a shitty drummer.
what the fuck is this, TMZ? who gives a fuck what Mustaine says? I love (old)Megadeth, but you have to remember the Mustaine IS a Christian, so that alone gives everything he says an air of dishonesty.
Seriously Axl, your acting like a middle school girl.
Being a Christian makes you dishonest? Really?
I’d love to know your reasoning behind such bigotry.
“but you have to remember the Mustaine IS a Christian, so that alone gives everything he says an air of dishonesty.”
And that gives you an air of being a dick
When was Dave not a dick?
Mustaine may have always been a dick, but his Christianity has nothing to do with it.
The belief in the proposition ‘God exists’ no more makes you a dick than the belief in the proposition “This cup exists” makes you a dick.
Your personal psychological background influences your attitude, not any particular belief about the truth or falsity of the existence of God.
I agree…’so that alone gives everything he says an air of dishonesty.’ I think any interveiwer can throw up some old gossip and see if it sticks. How many times do musicians/stars say ‘No’ to a fishing expedition and that’s the end of it. Maybe Mustang did want publicity or maybe Prato just asked the right question.
Seriously, this is so hilariously overblown. First of all, Lars being close to getting sacked in the 80’s is nothing new to anyone that gave a shit about thrash in the 80’s. Dave and Lars have already hashed this crap out in the past. The reporter was obviously trying to add some fire to a boring interview. At the very worst, this question may have been a bit of a publicity thing, but man, from the write-up you would think this is the feud of the millennium or something. Next…
For some reason, I trust Scott Ian on this.
“as this little factoid is not common knowledge”
Factoid literally means non-fact.
I don’t take any of these bands seriously anymore. I’m over it.
Anthrax needs John Bush, Metallica needs to fire Lars and get Jason back, Megadeth needs to give it up.
The end.
Mustaine was asked a question and he answered it – this is why journalists go after him. He gives good quotes. But it’s a bit of a sad cycle to see.
But did Mustaine not go on the record to say recently that if anyone brought up the subject of Metallica or other feuds in an interview he would walk out? Maybe not if the journalist has been sent by Rolling Stone it seems. But really, there’s other things to ask him about that aren’t old news – like his own band who are about to put out a seriously good album.
So why would this even matter? Seriously, Cause it didn’t happen.
Ians a liar? now ill never know if his opinion on the top 100 80’s one hit wonders was realy what he thinks?! the agony!
but even if it is false.. shouldnt we allow it to go forth??? for the betterment of metal and the eventual canonizing of Cliff Burton (RIP)…
Hnnngh, this situation might give birth to yet another big feud between the heroes of the article.