Born in the 70s I feel as if I'm blessed to have lived through the time when movies were based on amazing stories, and music was just awesome, before auto tune and boy bands, it was great.

Many people who know me know that my favorite band is Megadeth, but often I get asked about the drama that was Dave being kicked out of Metallica, so lets dig into my perspective, so before we do it, lets get some history, and this is as I remember it.

Early 80s I wanna say 81, 82 Lars put an add in the newspaper for a guitarist, as he was looking to form a band, Dave Mustaine was the one to respond, and soon Metallica was formed, yes thats right, Kirk was not an original member, neither was Cliff, yeah shocker eh, it was Ron McGovney.

No big shock here, Metallica started off very differently, and here are some things that everyone should remember and this is why I have such a contention towards some of Metallica's moves.

Metallica got their name out there by tape trading, which to me is no different than file sharing, while I do believe artists as well as everyone else should be paid fairly, downloading music, should encourage people to buy cds, maybe you'd call it try before you buy, but regardless when we are speaking of kids, they are to young to have jobs, and often these are the people who end up spending more money on music then older people and become a long life fan, I wonder if a child whos grand mother got sued by Metallica even listens to them now? But yes Metallica got noticed because of sharing their music.

And yes, this was a thing in the 80s, we had stereo systems, and many of them had 2 tape decks where you could copy music and make a mix tape for your car, yes before your fancy mp3 players, there was the 8 track, then cassette then cd then finally mp3 and Metallica openly acknowledged this was common practice, and basically saying he can make them and "share music" all he wants and we the people can't.

If you could get a copy of Kill em All with Dave, you'll notice the guitar is faster than the version with Kirk, and yes they do exist, I had both until my house got broken into and lost everything (Yes thats true.)

Another shocker, was that Metallica members were all heavy drinkers, if you purchase an old vhs (maybe you can find it on youtube these days) Cliff Em All you can see evidence of this, like most rock stars they were all heavy into drugs and alchole.

So to make a long story short, as I see it, Metallica were getting ready to head to New York for a record deal, they were all in a large van, all drunk taking turns driving, and this also meant if the cops had caught them they'd all be nailed for DUI (If the cops could prove they were taken turns.) as it turns out it was Dave's turn, and in the middle of a snow storm (They are cali boys not used to driving in snow) and got into an accident.

This was the incident that got Dave fired from Metallica, leading to Dave heading back to California to form Megadeth.

Some small points, they were all drunks, they were all druggies, they liked to pick fights, none of them have clean hands, it is what it is, but the point is Dave got removed and Metallica got big, Megadeth got big too, maybe not as commercially successful as Metallica, but still.

So who is better? Metallica or Megadeth? Personally I don't think there is an easy answer, in my mind its like comparing apples to oranges, they really aren't the same, I see Metallica more as hard rock, and Megadeth more as speed metal, Metallica just sings rock songs, and Megadeth is more politically charged, its not the same.

Lets forget about Metallica selling out for a moment, yes they did tone down their music for an amount of time (and now seem to have got heavier, and its not bad, I do like it.)yes you can call it selling out, but they did bring a more commercial value to their music bringing it to a broader audience, even if it lacked the heavy tone they used to have, since Death Magnetic it has become heavier again.

One can not dispute that Megadeth writes about darker tones, political religious and other tones that sing about weigh on our souls, while Metallica is more uplifting for the most part, not serious but still fun music.

I do believe that Megadeth and Metallica as a whole are all sober now, and still producing amazing music, as much as Lars used to claim that Heavy Metal was dead, he was obviously lying, as we still have some amazing metal bands out there.

So Metallica vs Megadeth who wins, we win, thats my answer, we the fans win, simple as that, we are the winners here, you choose who you enjoy to listen to more, if you haven't listened to either, I would encourage you to try to listen to both bands, give them a fair chance, and you'll see my point I'm about to make.

I'm glad that Dave left Metallica, who knows if their old habits continued, maybe someone would have died, and if Dave never left Metallica we would never have Megadeth, and that my friends is a life I'm not willing to live.

If I met members of Metallica and Megadeth maybe as much as I spent my youth engaged and admiring them, whos to say that we would even click, we are all different people, and I can honestly list things I love about all of them and things I hate about each of them, (Except for Rob Trujillo he seems cool, though I don't know him personally either), but I can say I have Metallica and Megadeth songs on my play list, and I enjoy them both, I can tell you stories of my youth that really become colorful when they are all a part of that.

So again, who wins here, we the fans.