Kirk Hammett ultimately replaced Dave Mustaine in Metallica, and the former Exodus guitarist seemingly knew why.
In 1983, Metallica fired its original singer due to Mustaine's drinking habit. In the same year, Metallica called Exodus guitarist Kirk Hammett and asked him if he was interested in doing an audition, and he eventually became part of the band.
In a new interview in Steve "Zetro" Souza's Zetro's Toxic Vault YouTube channel, the former Exodus guitarist, Rick Hunolt, revealed that Metallica chose Hammett before recording its "Kill 'Em All" album.
He shared why he thought James Hetfield chose Hammett.
"It's because Dave and [Kirk's] styles back then were similar - pentatonic, bluesy. James didn't want no effects on his shit. He wanted Kirk to play dry - no echo; just a real dry Marshall tone. Wah-wah [pedal] is cool, I guess. But he had a similar style to Dave. Individually, personality-wise, [they were] completely two different human beings," he said.
Hunolt noted that most fans wanted to see Metallica because of Mustaine, who was playing the lead guitar for the band. With that, he saw him as "king" back in that day.
Although he refused to talk about Mustaine's firing, Hunolt took his time to call him the godfather of thrash metal.
Hammett was originally a member of Exodus, playing alongside Keith Stewart, Tim Agnello, and Tom Hunting.
Dave Mustaine, Metallica ALMOST Reunited
Before Hunolt's recent comment, Mustaine sat down for an interview with Guitar.com where he talked about the reason why the possibility of his Metallica return suddenly vanished.
According to the musician, he and James Hetfield started talking about his comeback. However, the discussion abruptly ended after facing publishing discrepancies.
He once revealed on Twitter that they planned to release the "No Life 'til Leather" demo, but Lars Ulrich wanted his name to appear on the credits on two songs. Although, he was the one who wrote every word of those tracks.
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It would have marked his first performance with Metallica since he was fired from the group decades ago. In Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian's memoir, "I'm the Man: The Story of That Guy From Anthrax," he said that Mustaine always had drinking habits like his former bandmates. However, he was the only one who tended to be mean after consuming alcohol.
Meanwhile, Mustaine offered a different explanation, saying that his physical altercation with Hetfield led the band to fire him.
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