In Twitter wars today, Megadeth frontman, Dave Mustaine, has slammed Metal Blade Founder and CEO Brian Slagel over claims made in Slagel's new book. The book titled For The Sake Of Heaviness: The History Of Metal Blade Records was released in August, with the author claiming that he tried to sign Megadeth in the early 80s for $7000. But Mustaine disputed Slagel's claim on Twitter, saying: "If the fallacy of offering us a deal for $7000 is any indication of the rest of this book, I hope it's marked fiction. I'd never sign w/you." After a few exchanges, Chris Barnes of Six Feet Under fame, who are signed to Metal Blade, also got involved in the discussion.

Slagel wrote in one passage of the book: "The only band that I didn't get that I wished I had was Megadeth. It was between us and a brand new label called Combat, which was part of the Important distribution firm that we'd started working out with.

"Late in 1984 they'd decided that the whole metal thing was starting to happen and they wanted to get on it by creating their own label. The first band that came on to their radar - and ours at the same time - was Megadeth. In the end, it came down to just a thousand dollars. We had offered them seven thousand dollars, but Combat offered eight, so they went with Combat.

"With hindsight, especially given what Megadeth became, I've often thought, 'Well, maybe I could have gotten a little more money together.' But really, at that time, seven thousand dollars was absolutely the most we had ever offered anybody. Most of the stuff we were doing involved spending $1600 to maybe $3500, at the high end, to make a full record. Seven grand was a lot of money. I remember Dave Mustaine writing me a really long, heartfelt letter saying how he really wanted to be on Metal Blade, but it just wasn't meant to be."




Brian Slagel later responded to Mustaine on Twitter apologizing: "I'm so sorry if I got this wrong or offended you. I do remember talking to your camp at the time. If my memory is wrong again not intended." To which the guitarist/vocalist replied "I totally forgive you, but you didn't talk to us. Please take that out of your book at your next printing and good luck with your project."

As for Chris Barnes' involvement in the feud, it all happened via Twitter. Basically, Dave Mustaine and Chris Barnes insulted each other. After a few fiery exchanges, Dave Mustaine blocked Chris Barnes and that was the end of that.

Source:	twitter.com
Band profile:	Megadeth