Dave Mustaine called out a journalist on stage at a recent Megadeth show, labelling him a “fucking dickhead”. Watch the video below.
The moment occurred during the Los Angeles metal band’s concert in Helsinki, Finland, last Friday (June 26), according to Loudwire.
Following a live airing of the 1993 track ‘Angry Again’ mid-way through the set, Mustaine told the audience about what had happened before the gig.
“So before we took the stage tonight, we were doing some press backstage,” the frontman began. “And I was doing an interview with some guy from a newspaper here – big newspaper, you can probably figure out who it was.
“And the guy was such a fucking dickhead. He really was.”
He continued: “He asked me, if I fought [Metallica‘s] James Hetfield, who would win? And I thought, ‘What kind of a fucking idiot would say something like that?”
The singer and guitarist said he wanted to “dedicate this next song to him”, adding: “But we don’t have a song called ‘I’m An Asshole’. Instead, we’ll do another new song called ‘Let There Be Shred’.”
Fan-shot footage of the moment has since emerged on TikTok – you can watch it here:
@schtillborn classic Dave #megadeth #davemustaine #metallica #jameshetfield #megadih @Megadeth @Dave Mustaine
Later in the show, Megadeth broke out their regular cover of Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightning’. Mustaine served as Metallica’s lead guitarist until 1983, and is credited as a songwriter on the track.
Megadeth’s version appears as a bonus cut on their self-titled final album, which was released in January. “One of the songs is a cover song but I actually wrote it, so it’s kind of like a cover, kind of like my song,” Mustaine explained previously.
Speaking to NME earlier this year, the musician said it was “really fun” to revisit ‘Ride The Lightning’: “I thought that it was cool to hear James doing his thing, and to then be able to put my spin on it too, because I’ve always thought that if you’re going to do a record of somebody else’s stuff, you need to do it at least as good, if not better.
“That’s a tall order when it comes to those guys, so we sped it up a little bit and we beefed the end up. Then I sang it with my style, which was different too. I think ours is a great version. There wasn’t any, ‘Ah, gotcha’ kind of shit involved. That doesn’t help anybody.”
Mustaine and Metallica have shared a rocky relationship following his firing in ’83, but they’ve since buried the hatchet. Megadeth once joined Metallica on stage at Sonisphere, with Mustaine later playing with Hetfield and co. at their 30th anniversary concert.
In 2021, Mustaine said he didn’t think Metallica “could have survived” with him in the band, adding: “There was destined to be some kind of an explosion at some point.” He shared: “I’m glad to say that our friendship today is so much different from that moment, those moments, those days, those times, those people.”