Former METALLICA Bassist Says DAVE MUSTAINE Has Been 'Dissing' Him In Interviews

Ex-METALLICA bassist Ron McGovney has slammed his former bandmate, ex-METALLICA guitarist and current MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine, for "dissing" him in interviews and "minimizing" McGovney's contributions to METALLICA.

Mustaine and McGovney joined METALLICA on stage on December 10, 2011 for the fourth and final intimate show at the Fillmore in San Francisco as part of the group's week-long celebration of its 30th anniversary as a band for fan club members only (see video below).

Mustaine, who was one of the original members of METALLICA, was fired from the band by drummer Lars Ulrich in 1983. He was replaced by Kirk Hammett and went on to form MEGADETH and achieve worldwide success on his own.

Earlier this month, Mustaine was asked by noted conspiracy theoristAlex Jones what it was like to perform with METALLICA again more than 25 years after he was fired from the band. "It's very cathartic, what took place," Mustaine replied. "When we started off, it was three guys that, we didn't know what we were gonna do. We just loved playing together, we loved fast and heavy music. If you would have told us we [were going to] change the world and that every guitar-playing kid from here to Timbuktu would be playng my style of guitar playing, I would have said you were out of your mind. But that's how it started. We were a three-piece — James [Hetfield] sang, I played guitar, Lars drummed and we had a bass player at the time that we changed for Cliff Burton, who we really wanted."

Writing on his official Facebook page late last night (Monday, March 19),McGovney addressed Mustaine's comments by saying, "I really don't understand why a certain former lead guitar player of a band that I played bass in still disses me in interviews. Saying that they were a 'three-piece' is just ridiculous."

He added, "I thought we got along well when we saw each other in December. We even shared a dressing room.

"He can minimize my contribution to the band all he wants. Sometimes he doesn't even mention my name. What he needs to realize is that he came to MY garage to try out for this band. The first song he learned was a song that the singer and I had already played in a previous band. He even got kicked out of the band when I was still a member, even though it only lasted a couple of days.

"I wish he would just tell the whole story if he is going to talk about that part of his career."

In a 2004 interview with AllMetallica.com, McGovney stated about his time with METALLICA, "All of the songs that are found on [METALLICA's debut album] 'Kill 'Em All' were written in my garage and we played all of them when I was in the band. We also did DIAMOND HEAD covers: 'The Prince', 'Sucking My Love', 'Am I Evil', and 'Helpless'. We covered 'Blitzkrieg' by BLITZKRIEG, 'Let It Loose' by SAVAGE and 'Killing Time' by SWEET SAVAGE. All of those songs can be found on bootlegs, but I have a practice tape of us doing some of those songs. I am going to put a copy up on eBay soon. I did do some arranging of the songs, but I was never credited with anything. I played at least 28 gigs with the band in the first year."

(Thanks: Overkill.pl)