“I played Sweet Home Alabama, and that became part of Metallica’s The Four Horsemen”: The Four Horsemen vs Mechanix – how Metallica and Megadeth released two warring versions of the same song

Photos of James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine in the 1980s

Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine’s fleeting tenure in Metallica played out in a symphony of ego clashes and hazy alcohol use, and it reached a crescendo in New York City on April 11, 1983. At 9am that day, frontman James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich and late bassist Cliff Burton roused Mustaine from a boozy slumber, fired him from the band and, adding extreme insult to injury, handed him a bus ticket for a four-day ride back to California. Understandably, Mustaine took it all deeply personally and, on his westward journey home, he plotted what eventually became metal’s most notorious rivalry: Metallica vs Megadeth.

One of the story’s enduring subplots involves Metallica’s The Four Horsemen and Megadeth’s Mechanix. They’re competing interpretations of The Mechanix: an old and much-beloved Metallica song that first appeared on the pre-Kill ’Em All demos Power Metal and No Life ’Til Leather. Both camps agree that Mustaine brought The Mechanix to Metallica when he joined the band in 1982.