From the look of the Big 4 shows a few years back, any bad blood between Metallica and Megadeth was water under the bridge. That seemed to be confirmed when Newsted was selected as one of the bands to play Megadeth’s Gigantour last year. However, according to the organizers of the Australian Sidewave festival shows (part of Soundwave) that harmony might be short-lived. An announcement on Soundwave Touring’s Facebook page reads:
At the request of MEGADETH, NEWSTED will not be playing the below sidewaves and instead will be replaced by WHITECHAPEL.
The shows listed are for February 25th and February 27th. It’s a little strange that Dave Mustaine would still hold a grudge against former Metallica member Jason Newsted, especially since the last time we heard Mustaine and Newsted’s names in the same sentence were when they jammed together on Metallica’s “Phantom Lord” on the final night of the Gigantour. There’s no word on what caused Megadeth to pull the plug on Newsted, but Whitechapel definitely benefits from this.
