In a new interview with Billboard, Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine talks about the band’s first-ever Grammy win (for the title track from their 2016 album, Dystopia) earning the prize for best metal performance. Megadeth had been nominated nine times before in their 34-year career, so Mustaine finally hit it big on number ten.

About the accolades he says: “Obviously the gratitude of being recognized, but also the disappointment lingering from the years where they’ve given the award to somebody that didn’t belong in that category."

But when the Grammys house band launched into “Master of Puppets” as the band took the stage to receive their honour, it could’ve been an uncomfortable moment given Mustaine’s history with Metallica.

“They could have played any song by anybody, and it wouldn’t have mattered because that was our moment,” he says. “I could see the correlation with [the band] who would think, 'Oh, Megadeth, Metallica, we don’t know any Megadeth, but we do know this one Metallica song, so let’s play this. You think he’ll get mad? I don’t think so, let’s hope not. Hit it, Lefty!' And then we get up there and go, ‘Boy, that was the worst fucking version of ‘Master of Puppets’ I’ve ever heard.' But that kind of stuff, you’ve just won a Grammy and you’re going to worry about some house band doing a cover song in the background?”

Mustaine says Megadeth will follow-up Dystopia sometime next year. “I’m pretty afraid of picking up my guitar during the off season, so I try to keep my distance from it. It starts to call my name when it gets close to new record time, and the past couple weeks, I’ve actually been playing a little bit, so it’s kind of like ‘ok, here we go.'”

Read the entire story at Billboard.