To the outside world, however, Dave's departure was a shock. The guitarist would make his live debut with Metallica on April 16 at a show in New Jersey, prior to heading into the studio with the band. Ten days prior to Dave’s sacking, manager Mark Whitaker had called Kirk Hammett (then in fellow Bay Area thrashers Exodus) who’d flown out to audition with the band. Metallica had already covertly lined-up Dave's replacement. The bus left in an hour and James was ready to drive him to New York’s Port Authority Terminal to get it. Instead he was handed a one-way Greyhound ticket. Shocked and hungover, the guitarist enquired about the time of his flight back to California.

He was fired, his bags were packed for him, and his travel home was booked. On that fateful April morning, the bleary-eyed 21-year-old was told by his bandmates that they’d had enough of his erratic, violent behaviour. All of Metallica liked a drink, but Dave – whose substance abuse was also on the rise – was a man who, by his own admission in later life, liked to take things further.

The embarrassment he’d caused at the Paramount was just the latest in a long line of increasingly unstable moments. This, of course, was not an isolated incident. The Paramount show had been particularly tense with a loaded Dave allegedly screaming abuse at the headliners, Dutch hard rockers Vandenberg, from the venue’s floor during their soundcheck. Metallica were in New York to play two shows in the run up to recording their debut album with producer Paul Curcio a few weeks later: the first gig was at the Paramount Theater in Staten Island, the second at fabled Brooklyn venue, L’Amour. After a particularly heavy evening of boozing, he passed out on his makeshift bed on the floor of the rehearsal room Metallica were using at the Music Building in Queens. Not that Dave Mustaine knew it at the time…Īt around 10am the guitar player was unceremoniously awoken by his bandmates, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Cliff Burton. Apwas a defining day in the history of heavy metal.

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