Metallica's current reissue campaign was supposed to feature their 1982 demo No Life 'Til Leather. Plans for the reissue have been scrapped due to ex-guitarist Dave Mustaine saying Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich wanted credits to songs he says Ulrich did not write. Mustaine recently confirmed once again that no progress has been made getting the credits sorted out, and now he really puts Ulrich on blast for it in an interview with Rock Hard Magazine.
Mustaine says he wrote all of "Mechanix" and "Jump In The Fire," and both he and James Hetfield wrote "Phantom Lord" and "Metal Militia." Mustaine says Ulrich is only credited for some of those songs because maybe Hetfield is "afraid of him." Mustaine adds that Ulrich "was incapable of writing songs that good back then" toward the end of the interview.
"I'm not gonna give him my credit, so I'm not gonna be part of it. I wrote all of 'Mechanix', I wrote all of 'Jump In The Fire', so me giving any percentage of that to Lars Ulrich, he can pound sand. And as far as the song 'Phantom Lord', I wrote every note of that music, James wrote all the lyrics. That's 50/50. If James wants to give his percentage up to Lars because he's afraid of him, that's up to him.
I'm not afraid of Lars Ulrich, and I'm not giving him my percentage. And the same thing with 'Metal Militia'; I wrote every single note of that music, James wrote every note of that lyric — that's 50/50. If James wants to give Lars his percentage, that's fine if he's afraid of him. I'm not afraid of him.
I'm not giving nothing to Lars Ulrich. Now, they took it in the past — everybody knows that — and the past is the past. But I could not willingly enter into a new agreement with these guys predicated on Lars getting credit for something that not only he did not do but he was incapable of doing — he was incapable of writing songs that good back then."
Blabbermouth points out that Mustaine's "they took it in the past" comment may refer to Ulrich being credited on the songs "Metal Militia" and "Phantom Lord" on their 1983 album Kill 'Em All.
When asked if these songwriting issues will impact the possibility of any future Big Four shows, Mustaine noted: ""Oh, I don't know about that. That has nothing to do with the 'Big Four.' I think Lars is just afraid to play with Megadeth."
