10 Classic Rock Songs That Were Likely Inspired From Other Songs

Sometimes it's fairly obvious to see where an artist is getting their ideas from. When you're just starting out in music, it makes sense to wear your influences on your sleeve, and some of the greatest bands in the world have been known to be "inspired" from their idols every now and again. Then again, how does the game work when you end up cribbing from yourself?

Before Megadeth was even an idea, Dave Mustaine was already becoming one of the biggest guitar players on the metal scene as a member of Metallica, only to be sacked when they got a record deal for drinking too much. Even though he had specifically asked them not to use any of his ideas in their own songs, Dave was furious when he heard some of his famous licks being played on Kill Em All just a few months after his expulsion, with The Four Horsemen being almost entirely his own composition.

That wasn't going to stop him though, and one of Dave's first ideas was to rework his original song to beat Metallica at their own game, turning Horsemen into the song Mechanix with the same melody and riffs as the original. The kicker to this one has got to be the tempo of the song though, making the song even faster and Dave singing so fast that it's hard to make out what he's even saying half the time. The metal scene was a cutthroat business, and Dave wasn't willing to just roll over and let someone else take his stuff.