Barry

In April 1983 Metallica fired their lead guitarist, Dave Mustaine, and put him on a four-day bus ride home. He had co-written four songs on their first album. Metallica went on to sell more than 125 million albums. The clip is from 2001, when he sat down with Lars Ulrich for the first time in years. He says it without being asked: "Am I happy being number two? No." He was 21. The band woke him up and told him he was out. "No warning. No second chance." He admits he drank too much and was dangerous. What he never got over was the way it ended, and that they kept his music. Within months he started his own band, Megadeth. He sold tens of millions of records, won a Grammy, and wrote a bestseller. By almost any measure, a career most musicians would trade everything for. The numbers. Time in Metallica: about two years. Bus ride home: four days. Songs he co-wrote on Metallica's first album: four. On the second: two. Metallica's albums sold since: more than 125 million, the most-cited figure. Megadeth's: somewhere between 38 and 50 million, depending on who counts. 2026: Megadeth's final album closes with his own version of "Ride the Lightning," a song he co-wrote for Metallica 43 years earlier. Here's what I keep thinking about. He didn't lose. He just had one other path to compare against, and it happened to be one of the biggest bands in history. Tens of millions of records still felt like second place, because the benchmark was the life he was removed from. You get fired from a band months before its first album. Twenty years later you've sold tens of millions of records of your own, and they've sold 125 million. Is that a win or a loss?