3. MegadethPeace Sells… But Who’s Buying?
It’s an old story. We knew Dave [Mustaine] when he was in Metallica. I was there when he showed up in New York. We had already been friends for years. I love Killing Is My Business, I love that record. Then Peace Sells comes out and, if there was ever any doubt that Dave was going to be able to forge ahead on his own, this pretty much shut up everybody because it’s still got some of the greatest metal songs ever and, of course, ‘Peace Sells’ is one of the most anthemic metal songs ever written.


Did you feel competitive with bands like Megadeth?


We never really were in competition with them, or Slayer or Metallica. I never looked at it that way. We were all friends. We would hang out. Any success that any of us had was only opening doors for the others. That’s how I always looked at it. In 1986, it was still a very underground thing. The wave hadn’t broken yet. Metallica was just going out opening for Ozzy. Granted, we were doing great in that scene. We were kicking ass on the level we were at, but most of the world didn’t have any clue what was going on. And this record: ‘Wake Up Dead’, ‘The Conjuring’, ‘Peace Sells’, ‘Devils Island’, ‘Black Friday’ – it’s five in a row, just ripping your head off.
