Dave Mustaine And Kirk Hammett Officially Bury The Hatchet

Megadeth mastermind Dave Mustaine was once the lead guitarist for a little band called Metallica. When he was replaced by Kirk Hammett in 1983, it started a long standing rivalry that has finally come to an end.

Whether it's your ex-lovers new companion or the guy who holds the gig you were just canned from -- having anything but a hate-based relationship with your replacement is difficult. Nobody knows this better than Dave Mustaine who, until recently, carried bitterness towards his successor in Metallica -- Kirk Hammett.

The two have been touring together as part of The Big 4 and now that they've shared a stage together, have mended their differences. Dave Mustaine tells Artisan News that their relationship began to turn in the other direction when Hammett offered him the spotlight:

"When we played 'Helpless' [Diamond Head cover] one night, I walked over to say hello to Kirk on the stage and he said, 'Do you wanna take the solo?" and I said, 'Yeah.' [Laughs] But we forgot to tell anybody on the stage or the sound out front that I was gonna do the solo so… The song's playing along and Kirk's playing rhythm full blast, and I'm sitting there going [shreds air guitar]… you can't hear what I'm doing. At least we knew what had happened. It was kind of a symbolic passing of the torch back to me and it was a nice gesture. I think that that helped Kirk and my relationship improve a bit."

The Big 4 take the stage tomorrow night at New York's Yankee Stadium. Megadeth's new album 'TH1RT3En' is due for release November 1st -- the same day as Metallica's Lou Reed collaboration, 'Lulu'. Maybe the rivalry isn't over just yet...