Slayer guitarist Kerry King looked back on his brief tenure in Megadeth, while also touching on Metallica.

King joined Dave Mustaine and co. for several shows back in 1984, after which he fully focused on Slayer.

Asked if he had “any sense then that Dave Mustaine was resentful towards Metallica,” Kerry replied:

“Probably. But I looked up to Mustaine ever since he was in Metallica. I was in the crowd with Jeff (Hanneman, Slayer’s late lead guitarist) actually, saying, ‘Look at that dude! He’s just ripping up there!’

“He’s got a great style and in the beginning, it helped Metallica become what Metallica is. And let me tell you something – to this day, he’s a great guitar player.

“But yeah, I played five shows, and then Dave wanted me to stay around, but I didn’t have any reason to stay around because I had Slayer.

“I remember having a conversation with him and saying like, ‘Yeah, but we have all this dark stuff,’ and Mustaine saying something like, ‘Well, we’ve got this song, it’s pretty Satanic.’

“And I was like, ‘At the end of the day, dude, it ain’t about that. I came to play with you. I think it went spectacularly well but it’s time for me to get back to my band.’“

On Metallica’s succes:
“They were probably the best with melody, be it vocal or guitar harmonies.

“Sure, we had guitar harmonies but they were still on the darker side, whereas with Metallica, it was more – I don’t want to cheapen it by saying this – but it’s more everyman’s music.

“Like I said, I don’t mean that in a cheap way; it’s easier to get into for people than Slayer’s darker tones and darker lyrical vision.

“Metallica wrote stuff that anybody could like without going, ‘Why am I liking this?’ or, ‘Is it OK to like this?’ Whereas people have probably asked themselves about us for decades, ‘Is it OK to like Slayer?’ ([Laughs)”

edited from ultimate-guitar.com