Slayer’s Kerry King On Almost Joining Megadeth: ‘Me And Dave Would’ve Butted Heads Like No Tomorrow’

Slayer guitarist Kerry King recently opened up about his short tenure with Megadeth in the band’s early days. Speaking with Gastão Moreira of Bangers Open Air, King shared some interesting informations about thoughts of joining the band and Dave Mustaine.

King, who played Megadeth‘s first five shows as their second guitarist, expressed his admiration for Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine‘s musical abilities. “Well, I love Dave Mustaine to this day,” King stated (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I think he’s one of the greatest guitar players out there — still. So when I caught — I don’t even remember how I heard that he wanted me to play second guitar to him. But I was flattered because even back then I thought he was awesome.”

At the time of his involvement with Megadeth, King confirmed he was already in Slayer, saying, “Yeah, I think we were kind of in between records.”

When pressed on whether he considered leaving Slayer to join Megadeth permanently, Kerry admitted it was a thought, but ultimately knew where he belonged. “I’m sure I probably did, but [Slayer] is where I belong,” he explained. “And in hindsight, I absolutely made the right choice ’cause me and Dave would’ve butted heads like no tomorrow. It’s just his personality. I mean, look how people have been in his band. Fifty? And that’s not me down talking Mustaine. I like hanging with him for 20 minutes, and then you go away and ‘I’ll see you in a year.'”

King also previously discussed his dynamic with Mustaine and other members of Metallica. He had reflected on seeing an early Metallica lineup with Mustaine back in 1982 (during a “Lipps Service With Scott Lipps” podcast appearance in January 2024), where Slayer opened for them at the Woodstock club in Anaheim, California.

King said: “Mustaine‘s cool, but Mustaine‘s one of those guys that he can’t help but stick his foot in his mouth. So, I’ll take my 20 minutes and I’ll bolt just before anything gets uncomfortable.”

Regarding his relationship with the other members of Metallica, King offered his thoughts: “It’s funny, James [Hetfield] is one of those guys, even though we’ve got basically the same career, different circles, we did the [shows featuring the] ‘Big Four‘ [of 1980s thrash metal], he made a point to come say ‘hey’ to us, but it’s funny that it hasn’t occurred in the 40 years we’ve both been doing this that I’ve rarely seen James.”

He continued, “Kirk‘s [Hammett, Metallica guitarist] cool, Rob‘s [Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo] cool, Lars [Ulrich, Metallica drummer] is cool. We hang out when they feel like hanging out. Yeah, that’s all of ’em.”