Dave Mustaine calls for another ‘Big Four’

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine is calling on Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax to “step up” and make another Big 4 show happen. The big four of thrash metal were commercially successful during the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s.

The first time the big four played together was on 16th June 2010 at the Sonisphere festival. The fest was in Warsaw, Poland in front of 81,000 fans. They played together numerous times in 2011, 2013 Soundwave festival in Australia and the 2014 Heavy MTL fest in Canada.

In an interview with Greg Prato of Songfacts Mustaine said “I really think it’s time for the guys in Metallica to step up and we do one last round. See if we can get Slayer to come out of retirement and do a ‘Big Four’ passing of the torch to the new ‘Big Four’. It would remain to be seen who they are.”

He adds “I think it would be really cool symbolically if we did something at, like, the L.A. Coliseum, even if it’s one show and that’s it,” he continued. “Slayer is from Los Angeles, so it would probably make it more convenient for them to go home at night. I personally have been hoping for this for a while, and I keep asking and asking and asking. They’re just not into it. But that’s up to them.”

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In another interview in 2018, Mustine said “I would love to see it done in a way where we all got treated fairly and we all played together, the same amount of time, same kind of stage situation, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. And it’s cool, because Slayer’s gonna be down in history. They don’t need the ‘Big Four’ to make them any more legendary than they already are. Nor do I.”

Guitarist Kirk Hammett said in 2017 about the “Big Four” reunion “I see those shows as kind of like a celebration. A real celebration of each other, and a real celebration of the music that we all make, and a real celebration of the audience embracing [what] we’ve done. And why not have more of that?”

Additionally, there’s been talk of a Dave Mustaine and James Hetfield project. It seems to be off now as Mustaine tells Songfacts “Part of the reason why we haven’t been able to really reconcile is because I had songs that when I left I didn’t want them to record, and they went ahead and recorded them but they didn’t pay me what my share of the songs were.

He continues “James and I wrote Metal Militia and Phantom Lord – every note. And somehow, on the record [Kill ‘Em All] it says Lars gets 10 per cent. And on Metal Militia that Kirk gets some of it, and he wasn’t even in the band!” He went on to add, “I thought to myself, you know what? When you guys did that to me before, it was not cool. I said, ‘Don’t use my stuff,’ and you did it, and then didn’t give me my fair share. So why would I want to willingly enter into something like that? I wouldn’t. So that’s where we stand right now.”

In conclusion, Mustaine added a cheeky comment “I think the real talent in Metallica has always been around the guitar – everybody makes fun of the drums