Background and career
David Scott Mustaine (born September 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is the co-founder, frontman, primary songwriter and sole consistent member of the thrash metal band Megadeth and was the lead guitarist of Metallica from 1981 to 1983. Megadeth has released seventeen studio albums, sold over 50 million records worldwide, with five albums platinum-certified, and won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2017 at the 59th Grammy Awards, for the title track of their fifteenth studio album, Dystopia. Prior to forming Megadeth, Mustaine was the lead guitarist of Metallica but did not appear on any albums. He was credited as a writer on four songs from Kill 'Em All and two songs from Ride the Lightning. Mustaine was born into a family of Jehovah's Witnesses. He now identifies as a born-again Christian. He has experienced alcohol and drug problems throughout his life, and briefly battled throat cancer in 2019. Mustaine has been married to Pamela Anne Casselberry since 1991, with whom he has two children, Electra and Justis Mustaine. In a vote on the internet forum of Ultimate Guitar, Mustaine was ranked third in the top 25 rhythm guitarists of all time, first in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists, tenth in Loudwire's "66 Best Hard Rock + Metal Guitarists of All Time", and third in their "10 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists in Rock + Metal".
Mustaine was born on September 13, 1961, in La Mesa, California, (a nearby suburb of San Diego) to parents Emily Marie (née David) and John Jefferson Mustaine. His father was of French, German, Irish, and Finnish descent, while his mother was of German Jewish ancestry. The Mustaine family were Jehovah's Witnesses. Mustaine had three older sisters, Michelle, Suzanne, and Debbie, who were 18, 15, and 3 respectively when he was born. Due to the significant age difference between Mustaine and his sisters, as a child he often thought of them as his aunts rather than sisters. Mustaine has described family life as tumultuous during his early life, lamenting years later that "life unraveled in a great many ways" for his family before he was born. Mustaine has described his father as "a very smart and successful man, good with his hands and head" who was a branch manager for Bank of America before moving to NCR, where the corporation's transition from mechanical to electrical technology ultimately made him expendable and cost him his job. A longtime problem drinker, John Mustaine's issues with alcohol only grew worse from then on, and he left his four-year-old son permanently after Emily divorced him in 1965.
Panic was Mustaine's first band. The initial lineup was Dave Harmon on drums, Tom Quecke on guitar, Bob Evans on bass and Pat Voelkes as the singer, with Mustaine on lead guitar. The first gig, played at Dana Point, featured Mike Leftwych as a substitute drummer. Leftwych and a sound man were killed in a car crash after the show. Mustaine stated that after the band started to fall apart in 1981, Quecke was also killed in a separate car crash shortly after. The first song that Mustaine ever wrote was Jump in the Fire. Panic songs that Mustaine went on to reuse for Megadeth include N2RHQ (renamed Hangar 18), Child Saint (renamed Rust in Peace... Polaris) and Mechanix. Cover songs that Panic played included Nature's Child by Triumph and This Planet's on Fire (Burn in Hell) by Sammy Hagar.
In 1981, Mustaine disbanded Panic and joined Metallica as the lead guitarist. Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich had posted an ad in a local newspaper, The Recycler, looking for a lead guitarist. Mustaine later said of his first meeting with James Hetfield and Ulrich: "I was in the room warming up and I walked out and asked, 'Well, am I gonna audition or what?', and they said, 'No, you've got the job.' I couldn't believe how easy it had been and suggested that we get some beer to celebrate." On one occasion, Mustaine brought his dog to rehearsal; the dog jumped onto Metallica bassist Ron McGovney's car and scratched the paint. Hetfield allegedly yelled at Mustaine's dog and kicked it in a fit of rage, which provoked Mustaine into physically attacking Hetfield. Mustaine was fired following the altercation, but the next day, Mustaine asked to be allowed back in the band and was granted his request. Another incident occurred when Mustaine, who had been drinking, poured a can of beer down the neck and into the pickups of McGovney's bass, resulting in electrical damage. McGovney claimed that he was unaware of the damage and that he received an electric shock upon plugging it into an amplifier. On April 11, 1983, after Metallica had driven to New York to record their debut album, Kill 'Em All, Mustaine was ejected from the band because of his alcoholism, drug abuse, overly aggressive behavior, and personal clashes with founding members Hetfield and Ulrich, an incident Mustaine refers to as "no warning, no second chance". The band packed up Mustaine's gear, drove him to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and put him on a Greyhound bus bound for Los Angeles. On this bus ride, after reading a political hand bill, Mustaine scribbled some lyrical ideas on the backing of a Sno Balls cake, which later became the song "Set the World Afire" from the 1988 Megadeth album So Far, So Good... So What! During his time in Metallica, Mustaine toured with the band, co-wrote four songs that appeared on Kill 'Em All, and co-wrote two songs that eventually appeared on the 1984 album Ride the Lightning. Mustaine has also made unverified claims to have written parts of "Leper Messiah" from Master of Puppets. Brian Slagel, owner of Metal Blade Records, recalled in an interview: "Dave was an incredibly talented guy but he also had an incredibly large problem with alcohol and drugs. He'd get wasted and become a real crazy person, a raging megalomaniac, and the other guys just couldn't deal with that after a while. I mean, they all drank of course, but Dave drank more… much more. I could see they were beginning to get fed up of seeing Dave drunk out of his mind all the time."
Fallen Angels was a short-lived band that Mustaine founded after his departure from Metallica. In April 1983, after returning to California to live with his mother, he landed what he calls his first real job with the aid of Robbie McKinney. McKinney and a friend, Matt Kisselstein, worked with Mustaine as telemarketers. Mustaine quit his job after earning enough money to move to an apartment in Hollywood, and recruited McKinney, who played guitar, and Kisselstein, who played bass. In his biography, Mustaine stated "We lacked the chemistry, the energy, the spark—or whatever you want to call it—that gives a band life in its infancy." The partnership did not last. This paved the way for his partnership with Dave Ellefson and Greg Handevidt. Ellefson was playing the opening bass line of Van Halen's "Runnin' with the Devil" in the apartment below Mustaine's. After stomping on the floor and shouting for them to stop, Mustaine, being hung over at the time, took a potted plant and threw it out of his window and hit the air conditioner of the apartment below. This resulted in the two coming up to Mustaine's apartment to ask for cigarettes. Mustaine replied "There's a store on the corner" and slammed the door in their faces. A few minutes later, they knocked on the door, this time asking if they could buy him beer. Mustaine's reply: 'OK, now you are talking'. They spent the night talking about music, and soon after, Mustaine, Ellefson and Handevidt were bandmates. With little confidence in his own vocal capabilities, Mustaine added 'Lor' Kane to the Fallen Angels roster. Kane did not stay long, although he is credited for the suggestion that they should change the name to Megadeth, knowing that Mustaine had written a song of the same name. After Kane left, the first of many drummers, Dijon Carruthers, joined the band. The lineup of Mustaine, Ellefson, Handevidt, and Carruthers was one of the first incarnations of Megadeth.
Initial drummer Carruthers was replaced after Mustaine and Ellefson decided they could not trust him. Carruthers had chosen to hide his black heritage from them by claiming he was Spanish, and they could not understand why he would deceive them. Brett Frederickson joined the band in November 1983 as their next drummer. After playing with other singers, including John Cyriis (who joined at Carruthers insistence, following his own rejoining of the band) and Billy Bonds, Mustaine took on vocal duties himself at a Megadeth rehearsal on New Year's Eve 1984, in addition to playing lead and rhythm guitar. Kerry King joined the band for a few shows (including the band's debut gig) in February and April 1984; however, he opted to leave Megadeth so he could continue working on his own band, Slayer. That year, Megadeth produced a three-song demo with drummer Lee Rauch. Rauch left after Mustaine convinced him to play with a broken foot. Jazz-influenced drummer Gar Samuelson joined the band. Megadeth recorded a demo as a three-piece band, which captured the attention of guitarist Chris Poland, also a jazz player and a friend of Samuelson, who subsequently joined the band. In November, the band signed a deal with Combat Records and began touring. In June 1985, Megadeth released their first album, Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!, via Combat Records. That summer, the band toured the U.S. and Canada with Exciter. Guitarist Mike Albert replaced Chris Poland when he was incarcerated for possession of heroin. After Poland was released, he rejoined the band in October and the band then began recording their second studio album for Combat. On New Year's Eve of that year, Megadeth played in San Francisco with Exodus and Metal Church. Metallica was the headliner. This was the only time Megadeth and Metallica were on the same card, until 1993. In 1986, a year after releasing their debut album, Mustaine approached Jackson Guitars for a custom-built guitar. Jackson modified their existing Jackson King V model for Mustaine by adding two more frets to the standard 22 fret King V. In the 1990s, the company began mass-producing a Dave Mustaine signature series Jackson King V, which continued into the early 2000s. The following year, major label Capitol Records signed Megadeth and obtained the rights to their second studio album, Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? Megadeth opened a U.S. tour with King Diamond and Motörhead. Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?, released on September 19, 1986, is often regarded as a thrash metal classic, producing the notable title track (the opening bass lick of which was used by MTV News segments) as well as the thrash anthem "Wake Up Dead". In February 1987, Megadeth opened for Alice Cooper on his Constrictor tour. The band also toured with King Diamond, whose previous band, Mercyful Fate, was a huge influence on Megadeth. In March, Megadeth's first world tour began in the U.K. Mustaine and Ellefson guested on the band Malice's License to Kill album. Megadeth re-recorded "These Boots" for the soundtrack to the film "Dudes", and that summer went on tour with Overkill and Necros. Amid drug problems and suspicions of stealing the band's equipment and pawning it for drug money, Mustaine fired Poland and Samuelson after their last show in Hawaii. Chuck Behler, who had been Samuelson's drum tech, became Megadeth's new drummer with guitarist Jeff Young replacing Poland. Megadeth released their third studio album, So Far, So Good... So What!, in January 1988. The album contains the song "In My Darkest Hour", which, according to the liner notes of So Far, So Good... So What!, was composed after the death of Metallica's bass player Cliff Burton. "Hook in Mouth" attacked the Parents Music Resource Center with gusto, although their cover of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK", despite a guest appearance from ex-Pistol Steve Jones, was ill-advised in the eyes of Allmusic's critic. Later that year, Megadeth opened for Dio and then Iron Maiden on tour before playing the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in the U.K. with Kiss, Iron Maiden, Guns N' Roses, David Lee Roth, and Helloween. Shortly after, Mustaine fired Behler and Young, accusing Young of having thoughts of a relationship with Mustaine's then-girlfriend. Around this period, Mustaine produced the debut album from Seattle thrash band Sanctuary, called Refuge Denied. Nick Menza, who was Chuck Behler's drum tech, joined Megadeth in 1989, and the band recorded their only track ever as a three-piece: a cover of Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" for the horror film Shocker. Film director Penelope Spheeris would later recount in the Megadeth episode of Behind the Music that Mustaine showed up to the video shoot so fried on heroin and other drugs that he could not sing and play guitar at the same time; therefore, the singing and playing had to be recorded separately. Mustaine was arrested for "impaired driving" that March with seven or more drugs in his system and was forced by authorities to enter a rehabilitation program (the first of his 15 visits to rehabilitation centers).
