User:Illuminus/Dave Mustaine

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Dave Mustaine

Dave Mustaine (born September 13, 1961) is a heavy metal guitarist, songwriter, and singer. As the central figure of Megadeth, he is one of a handful of people considered to have pioneered Thrash Metal and Speed Metal.

Beginnings

Mustaine was born September 13, 1961 in La Mesa, California, United States. His parents divorced when he was four, and he grew up bouncing around various low-income Southern California suburbs. As a teenager, he was often left on his own or with his sisters and their (sometimes abusive) husbands.

Metallica

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Young Dave Mustaine and James Hetfield

Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich had posted an ad in the local newspapers for a lead guitarist. Mustaine arrived, set up his amplifiers and started his sound check. Metallica was so impressed they with his sound check, that they immediately asked him to join them without even asking for a demo tape or playing along with him. Unfortunately for Dave Mustaine, Metallica would not be impressed for much longer. In less than two years, Dave Mustaine would be kicked out of Metallica for the obscene amount of drugs he was using on a daily basis.

During Mustaine's two years in Metallica, it was never peaceful. Once such incident, as recounted on VH1's Behind The Music: Megadeth involved Dave Mustaine, a drug-guarding dog, and Ron McGovney (Metallica's Bassist).

Even in the early Metallica days, Dave Mustaine's drug use and addiction was so out of control that he had multiple dogs for the sole purpose of guarding his drug stash (which he also sold) when he went out to practice with Metallica. Tensions boiled over when Dave Mustaine brought a drug dog to a practice and the dog scratched Ron McGovney's car. James Hetfield (Metallica's vocalist and rhythm guitarist) proceeded to kick Dave Mustaine's drug dog. After this happened, Dave Mustaine was fired, for the first time, from Metallica. Lacking a lead guitarist with the ability of Dave Mustaine and in a time crunch, Metallica was forced to let Dave Mustaine back in the band the next day.

Only a few weeks later, Metallica would face another Dave Mustaine fiasco. During a practice in Ron McGovney's apartment, Dave Mustaine, the practical joker, decided to play a little prank. After getting a little drunk, Dave Mustaine poured a whole bottle of beer into Ron McGovney's bass pickups. When Ron McGovney picked up his bass and turned it on, he got a little surprise, a full blown electric shock. This was the single moment when it was most obvious that Dave Mustaine would not be long for Metallica. Ron McGovney quit then and there.

In April of 1983, Mustaine was fired for his drug use and personality clashes with founding members Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield, who had resolved to keep it cleaner then Mustaine.

The Birth of Megadeth

Mustaine returned to Los Angeles after being kicked out of Metallica. At the time, David Ellefson was living in the same apartment as Dave Mustaine. One day after a night of heavy drug use and drinking, Dave Mustaine awoke to Ellefson was playing Van Halen's Running With The Devil. Because of this, Dave Mustaine yelled "SHUT UP!" and threw a planting pot onto Dave Ellefson's air conditioner. Later on that same day, 2 kids younger than Dave Mustaine knocked on his door and proceeded to ask if Dave Mustaine knew where they could get some cigarettes. In response to this, Dave Mustaine said, "Yeah, down in the liquor store on the corner." The two kids came back later and asked Mustaine, "Are you old enough to buy beer?" Mustaine responded with "Now you're talkin'!". This is the moment when Dave Mustaine and Dave Ellefson united to form the precursor of Megadeth.

Dave Mustaine's Guitar

After recording the second Megadeth album (Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?), Mustaine approached Jackson Guitars for a custom built guitar. Jackson built him a King V with 24 frets, sharkfin inlays, ebony fretboard, poplar body, maple neck and a Kahler non-trem bridge. After creating the guitar for Mustaine, the company began mass-producing the Dave Mustaine series Jackson KV1. This line continued into the early 2000s, when Mustaine switched to a new model: the Y2KV. The Y2KV is a mahogany flying V, similar to a 24-fret Gibson flying V without a pickguard. After the Fender Corporate buy out of Jackson Guitars, Mustaine switched to ESP guitars because Jackson could not supply him with enough FREE guitars. With ESP, he released the DV8 and the cheaper LTD version the DV8-R. These are larger incarnations of his Jackson King Vs made from mahogany and a plastic black pickguard. A small number of DV8s (12) and DV8Rs (200) were created with a flamed maple fire burst top, dubbed the DV8SE/DV8RSE. A new Mustaine ESP/LTD dubbed the Axxion has also recently been released with XX inlays. The Axxion is a departure from Mustaine's traditional V shaped guitars, as the Axxion style is more akin to BC Rich guitars.

Co-Producing

In 1988, Mustaine co-produced the album Refuge Denied for the band Sanctuary.

After an impaired driving arrest in 1990, Mustaine entered a twelve-step program. He has struggled managing his addiction, reportedly having 16 or 17 relapses resulting in additional treatment. Mustaine admitted his ongoing struggles in a Megadeth version of Behind the Music. He married Pamela Anne Casselberry in 1991, and became a father in 1992. Also in 1992, he served as a correspondent for MTV News during the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Unfortunately, he believed the convention to be a "problems of America" summit.

The band continued to release successful records on a regular schedule, even as it went through repeated turnover in musicians. Mustaine also collaborated on several projects with other musicians, including the MD.45 project with Lee Ving of Fear.

Injury and Retirement

In January 2002, Mustaine suffered a compressed radial nerve in his left hand and arm caused by "gouching out" on heroin and lying on his arm for hours, making it impossible for him to play guitar. Megadeth had to end the tour early and they disbanded.

Mustaine went through physical therapy for his injury, and began to explore other areas of the music industry, including production. However, he fully recovered from his arm injury following successful therapy, and following his recovery, all of Megadeth's albums and Mustaine's side project, MD.45, was remixed and remastered on Capitol Records.

During this time also, Dave Mustaine became a born-again Christian and changed his political beliefs to conservative Republican Party leanings, despite elements on earlier Megadeth releases that were quite the opposite.

Return of Megadeth

In a move that surprised many, Mustaine enlisted one of Megadeth's 1980s-era guitarists, Chris Poland, to join Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) and Jimmy Lee Sloas (bass) and release a new Megadeth album called The System Has Failed in September 2004. The album was very well received by music critics and was hailed as a return to Megadeth's successful late-80s/early-90s albums such as Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? and Rust in Peace.

Mustaine was determined to tour again. He contacted many former members of Megadeth and all, but former drummer Nick Menza was unable or unwilling to participate. Auditions began, Mustaine hired former Iced Earth bassist James MacDonough and former Eidolon guitarist Glen Drover. Since Menza was unable or unwilling to tour as a part of Megadeth again, he was replaced by former Eidolon drummer and Glen's brother, Shawn Drover.

The tour was named "Blackmail The Universe." It was a world-wide tour and sold-out most of its venues.

In December of 2004, Mustaine hosted a tribute to Dimebag Darrell on MTV.

Gigantour

In the Spring of 2005, Mustaine forumulated Gigantour a metal music tour meant to rival Ozzfest. For the first Gigantour (at this time, it is unknown if there will be another), Megadeth and Dream Theater headlined with Nevermore, the Dillinger Escape Plan, and Fear Factory on the main stage. On the second stage, Bobaflex, Symphony X, Life Of Agony, and Dry Kill Logic were the featured bands. All the bands in Gigantour were handpicked by Dave Mustaine to bring a wide variety of metal (and expose bands to less popular metal bands) to the fans at an affordable price, unlike Ozzfest.

Feuds

Beside his work in the music industry, Dave Mustaine is also known to have a few ongoing feuds.

The most well-known of these is his feud with Metallica, most notably with drummer Lars Ulrich. Mustaine claims to have written several Metallica songs, most notably "Leper Messiah". Metallica refuses to recognize this. Many Megadeth fans believe that "Master of Puppets" was Mustaine's work and that Metallica "stole" it. In 2004, the Mustaine-Metallica feud re-ignited when footage of Mustaine was used in the documentary Some Kind of Monster without Mustaine's approval. In an interview with Metal Maniacs magazine, Mustaine called Ulrich a "treacherous little man"; Mustaine wrote the song "Something I'm Not" on The System Has Failed about Ulrich.

Mustaine also had a verbal feud with MTV's Rikki Rachtman from Headbangers' Ball. Rachtman stated on air that he would like to settle his differences with Mustaine and move on. Mustaine eventually cleared the matter up stating that, in reality, he really liked Rachtman.

In addition, Mustaine has a long-standing feud with Slayer guitarist Kerry King. He has stated that there is no actual feud; rather Kerry King just hates everyone in general.

When Mustaine recovered from his injuries, he was forced to make another Megadeth album (it was in the contract he had with the record label, Sactuary). Dave Mustaine proceeded to ask former Megadeth band members, such as Chris Poland and Dave Ellefson, if they wanted to help out with the new album. Chris Poland said he was done touring (but would help with the album) and Ellefson never answered back, even after Mustaine gave Ellefson $1,000,000 dollars for the record and the tour. After asking for an answer three times, Dave Mustaine never received one. Later, Dave Mustaine asked for the $1,000,000 back. Dave Ellefson was offended by this and proceeded to sue Dave Mustaine for $2,700,000. Mustaine proceeded to countersue Ellefson for his use of Megadeth in an advertisement. In this lawsuit, it was also stipulated that David Ellefson could never use Megadeth without permission from Dave Mustaine.

Being a born-again Christian, Dave Mustaine feels that he cannot play on the same festival that bands with opposing, satanic, views on life. Hence he has forced Dissection off a festival in Israel and refused to play with Rotting Christ.

External links

• Megadeth's website
• Megadeth's forums
• Dave Mustaine's guitars and personal equipment
• Press release about the band's end
• ESP's "DV8" Dave Mustaine signature series guitar