Additional details have emerged regarding Dave Mustaine‘s countersuit against his former managers in Corey Brennan and 5B Artist Management. Yesterday (November 13th) it was revealed that Mustaine and Megadeth had reached a settlement in a suit filed against him by the aforementioned two parties.
That settlement saw Mustaine and the band agreeing to pay Brennan and co. $1.4 million in owed touring and merchandise commissions, along with several associated personal expenses.
That suit stemmed from Mustaine severing ties with 5B Artist Management in April of 2023. Legal representatives for Brennan and 5B Artist Management claimed the firing took place “unceremoniously” and was unexpected. They further alleged that Mustaine fired the company in order to allow his own son Justis Mustaine the chance to manage the band. 5B Artist Management and co. filed suit against Mustaine in June of last year, with that matter having now been resolved this week.
However, in response to the aforementioned suit against him, Mustaine filed a cross-complaint, in which he alleged breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence on the part of Brennan and 5B Artist Management. Mustaine argued that “repeated management failures” and negligent actions on the part of 5B Artist Management went so far as to even cause damage to Mustaine‘s health.
Per Rolling Stone, an incident cited in regards to the latter claim was the staging of a festival set Megadeth performed with fellow 5B Artist Management client Slipknot. Mustaine alleged that the nature of the staging for Slipknot‘s production and gear, pushed his own band’s drum kit forward onstage.
Mustaine alleges he protested the situation at the time. He claims that 5B didn’t agree to adjust the stage production and thus, he incurred tinnitus as a result of the increased decibel levels of the drum kit being closer in proximity to him during his band’s set.
Mustaine also argues in the suit that 5B mishandled several pieces of the band’s business, including royalties, beer sponsorships and contracts for artwork relating to the band’s latest album “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!“.
The group reached a settlement with cover artist Brent Elliot White in the spring of 2023 over that album’s artwork. That settlement followed White filing suit against the band, Universal Music Group and more, alleging he had not been properly compensated and credited for his work on the album’s cover.
Mustaine also alleged in his countersuit that donations from merchandise sales from the band were pledged towards COVID-19 relief organizations without his knowledge or approval. Perhaps the most interesting claim in the countersuit though is Mustaine‘s unhappiness with 5B in their handling of his attempts to assert control over his songwriting credits and royalties for several songs from the early catalog of Metallica.
Mustaine was a member of Metallica during the early 1980s, however, he was infamously fired in 1983 due to his substance abuse problems and alleged disruptive behavior.
That firing led to years of bitter acrimony between Mustaine and Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield. While their strained friendships were reconciled at one point in the early 2000s, and the two outfits would later tour together as ‘The Big Four’, the relationship between them seems to have once again soured over the years, as Mustaine‘s comments have become more acerbic over time.
A key point in that latest fracture appears to have been Metallica‘s shelved plans for an expanded re-release of their 1982 demo “No Life ’til Leather“. Mustaine took issue with the way Metallica intended to split the songwriting royalties for songs he contributed to on that re-release, including “Mechanix“, “Jump In The Fire“, “Phantom Lord” and “Metal Militia“. Mustaine has previously claimed Metallica were attempting to have him give up a portion of his percentage of the songwriting credits for those songs to Ulrich.
When presented with that new agreement by Metallica around 2015-2017, Mustaine is said to have balked at the offer, telling RockHard of it in 2018:
“I’m not gonna give him [Lars] my credit, so I’m not gonna be part of it. I wrote all of ‘Mechanix‘, I wrote all of ‘Jump In The Fire‘, so me giving any percentage of that to Lars Ulrich, he can pound sand. And as far as the song ‘Phantom Lord‘, I wrote every note of that music, James [Hetfield] wrote all the lyrics. That’s 50/50. If James wants to give his percentage up to Lars because he’s afraid of him, that’s up to him.
I’m not afraid of Lars Ulrich, and I’m not giving him my percentage. And the same thing with ‘Metal Militia‘; I wrote every single note of that music, James wrote every note of that lyric — that’s 50/50. If James wants to give Lars his percentage, that’s fine if he’s afraid of him. I’m not afraid of him. I’m not giving nothing to Lars Ulrich.
Now, they took it in the past — everybody knows that — and the past is the past. But I could not willingly enter into a new agreement with these guys predicated on Lars getting credit for something that not only he did not do but he was incapable of doing — he was incapable of writing songs that good back then.”
While Metallica scrapped their plans to release an expanded 27-song edition of the demo in turn, it seems Mustaine was seeking to further secure his claims to the aforementioned songs. A portion of Mustaine‘s countersuit against 5B made mention of that. It was republished by Rolling Stone as follows:
‘In 2017, Mustaine informed [5B] that he intended to pursue his interest in songwriting credit and royalties for songs that he wrote or co-wrote as a member of Metallica, and for which he was owed royalties. [5B] participated in discussions with Mustaine regarding these credits and royalties and were aware that they were responsible for pursuing this matter to ensure that Mustaine was appropriately credited and compensated for his work, they failed to do so.’
Mustaine and co. are seeking unspecified damages with the suit currently headed for trial once discovery and other proceedings have concluded.
