Here’s Why There Hasn’t Been A Deluxe Reissue Of Metallica’s Demo ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’
A deluxe reissue of Metallca‘s 1982 demo tape No Life ‘Til Leather is apparently being held up by a dispute over songwriting credits.
Megadeth leader and Metallica co-founder Dave Mustaine answered a fan question about the reissue on Twitter this week, writing that James Hetfield “contacted me 2 years ago. We were going to officially release the ‘No Life Till Leather’ demo as a record, w/27 tracks, pics, the whole enchilada, and the talks broke down because Lars (Ulrich) wanted credit on two songs I wrote every note and word to. I have texts. I passed.”
Both Mustaine and original bassist Ron McGovern were out of Metallica by the time the group released its debut album Kill ‘Em All in 1983. A seven-track, limited edition version of No Life ‘Til Leather came out for Record Store Day 2015. There’s been no further word on the project’s future.
Metallica recently released deluxe editions of its 1986 album Master Of Puppets and is working on similar reissues of …And Justice For All, Metallica (aka “The Black Album”) and more.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.