Blabbermouth — WARRANT guitarist Erik Turner has confirmed to “The Chuck Shute Podcast” in a new interview that he nearly auditioned for MEGADETH when the Dave Mustaine-fronted outfit was first being assembled back in 1983. “Yeah, it’s true,” Erik said (see video below).

“When I was 16, there was a paper called the Recycler in Orange County, and there was an ad in there. I had never heard of METALLICA at the time, but [the ad said], ‘Ex-METALLICA guitarist forming new band MEGADETH. Inquire if you’re interested.’ So I contacted Dave through the paper, the phone or whatever. And I went down. I think it was Huntington Beach, and it was his mom’s apartment or something there that he was staying at. I don’t know whose [place it was]; I think it was his mom. I don’t know. I could be wrong.

But anyways, I met Dave. We talked. And that was it. I never got past that audition to the next level of actually jamming with Dave. But years later, we lived in the same apartment building in Sherman Oaks — Dave and I — and I would see him at different places and say ‘Hi.’ And I reminded him of that story. And yeah, he’s always been super cool to me.”

Mustaine and bassist David Ellefson formed MEGADETH 37 years ago, after Mustaine got kicked out of METALLICA. METALLICA recruited Kirk Hammett and went on to record its debut album, “Kill ‘Em All”, later that year, while Ellefson and Mustaine began work on MEGADETH‘s first LP, “Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!”

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