In a recent conversation on Twitter Spaces with RattleheadsNFT, Megadeth’s legendary frontman, Dave Mustaine, shared insights into the band’s early days, including how they were discovered and signed by a record label.

“Well, MEGADETH had a little bit of a following before we got discovered by the record company,” Mustaine said. “So it’s kind of unfair. But the way that it started was I had a band that I was in called PANIC. And I lived in Huntington Beach. And there were a lot of bands playing backyard beer keg parties, and I thought that that was pretty fun, to go to the parties and pick up on girls. And I started seeing how easy it was for guitar players to have people freak out over them, pay attention to them, treat ’em with respect and stuff, and I know I wanted that. So PANIC was formed.”

Mustaine reflected on the short-lived tenure of PANIC, which eventually led to his joining Metallica for about two years, before Megadeth came to be. He recalled, “After I left METALLICA, the world wanted to know what I was gonna do, because I was this huge component of METALLICA‘s success. I’m here, and then I’m gone. And people that went to go see them after I was no longer in the band and didn’t know that there was a lineup change said that there was something very, very, very wrong with the band that they heard on tape versus the band that they were watching. And that’s when people started to look for me. And the rest is history.”

Despite his departure from Metallica, Mustaine expressed respect for his successor, Kirk Hammett. “Now, I think that the band did great,” he said. “I think they were fine. In fact, I believe that Kirk [Hammett] did a good job playing my parts. Coming into a band and having to play somebody else’s stuff isn’t always fun, but I think he was a gentleman and did a good job.”