The idea first appeared in an interview SkullsnBones.com conducted with Newsted where he said, "There is a chance that Mustaine and I will bust out some old Metallica that he was a part of. it has been talked about. I'm willing to throw down Phantom Lord � actually, whatever he calls out, I'm gonna throw down."

A short time later Mustaine told Grammy.com, "There's a really cool new relationship between the two of us. I saw he said something about us playing a song together and I thought, 'Wow, that's pretty interesting. It's doable, and I think it would be fun.'"