Metallica's STOLEN Guitar Riffs | Dave Mustaine vs Kirk Hammett & Lars Ulrich

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Is Megadeth guitarist Dave Mustaine the Goblin King? Ok, hear me out... David Bowie starred in the 1986 fantasy film The Labyrinth in which he steals a baby and taunts a young girl to get it back. He also wrote the song "Ziggy Stardust" which includes the lyrics "making love with his ego Ziggy sucked up into his mind, like a leper messiah."

Metallica took inspiration from David Bowie and named a song on Master of Puppets "Leper Messiah." Guitarist Dave Mustaine, who was kicked out of Metallica in 1983, would accuse Metallica of stealing some of his riffs on the song. He would also claim that drummer Lars Ulrich taunted him about the stolen riffs.

Ok, maybe that would make Lars the Goblin King? Or maybe I just wanted an excuse to do this...

(Goblin King dancing to Leper Messiah)

In any case, the former Metallica guitarist did indeed accuse his ex-bandmates of stealing some of his music, as he told Ultimate Guitar:

"I heard part of my stuff in Leper Messiah from the Master of Puppets album. I asked Lars about that and they were saying that that was stuff that was written while I was in Metallica for Metallica music. I get paid for it; I didn't get paid for Leper Messiah. I said, Lars, you're ripping me off! And he goes, Yeah, I did it pretty well, huh?" - Mustaine, Rock Chronicles: 90s - Dave Mustaine, Steven Rosen, Ultimate Guitar (May/Jun 1992)

Guitarist Kirk Hammet would go on to deny any such allegations. As he explains:

“Even though Dave might claim that he wrote ‘Leper Messiah,’ he didn’t. There’s maybe a chord progression that was in that song, like, maybe 10 seconds that came from him — that, ironically, is just before the guitar solo. But he did not write ‘Leper Messiah’ at all. In fact, I remember being in the room when Lars came up with the main musical motif.” - Hammett, Metallica Look Back At Best Memories..., Goldmine Contributers, Goldmine (Aug 12, 2022)