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| Cliff Burton |
David Scott "Dave" Mustaine (born September 13, 1961, La Mesa, California) is the founder, main songwriter, guitarist, and lead vocalist for the American thrash metal band Megadeth. Mustaine was also the first lead guitarist and co-songwriter of Metallica until his departure in 1983. In 2009, he was ranked No. 1 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists. Mustaine was also ranked eighty-ninth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. He is also the manager for the Canadian band "Baptized in Blood."
Mustaine was born in La Mesa, California, to Emily and John Mustaine. His mother was Jewish but Dave was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness. When his parents divorced, he spent much of his youth with his mother and sisters moving constantly to avoid contact with his father. By the age of 15, Mustaine had rented his own apartment and was surviving financially by dealing drugs. One of his clients, Willow, was often short of cash, but worked in a record store, so in return for drugs, she offered albums by artists such as Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Motörhead and Judas Priest in trade,[4] which helped form his taste in hard rock and heavy metal. In the late 1970s, Mustaine started to play electric guitar, most notably a B.C. Rich and joined a band known as Panic for a short time.
In 1981, Mustaine left Panic to join 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. In his own words, Mustaine remembers his first meeting with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich: "I was in the room warming up and I walked out and asked, 'Well, are you gonna audition?', 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."
Mustaine's membership in Metallica would last less than two years. Brian Slagel, owner of Metal Blade Records, recalls 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 maniac, 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."
On one occasion Mustaine brought his dog to rehearsal. The dog jumped up onto the car of Metallica bassist Ron McGovney and scratched the paint. Hetfield allegedly proceeded to yell at Mustaine's dog and kicked it in anger. Mustaine responded by physically attacking Hetfield and McGovney and yelling at Ulrich. Mustaine was fired following the altercation. 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 full can of beer down the neck and into the pick-ups of Ron McGovney's bass. When McGovney tried playing it, he received an electrical shock which he claims 'blew him across the room and shocked the hell out of him'. McGovney then told Mustaine and Hetfield to leave his house and left the band shortly after.
On April 11, 1983, after Metallica had driven to New York to record their debut album, Mustaine was officially fired from the band because of his alcoholism, drug abuse, overly aggressive behavior, and personality clashes with founding members Hetfield and Ulrich, an incident Mustaine refers to as "no warning, no second chance". The band packed up Dave's gear, drove him to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and put him on a Greyhound bus bound for Los Angeles. It was on this bus ride that Mustaine scribbled some lyrical ideas on the back of a muffin wrapper, which would later become the song Set The World Afire from the 1988 Megadeth album So Far, So Good... So What!
During his time in Metallica, Dave Mustaine toured with the band, co-wrote four songs which appeared on Kill Em All, and co-wrote two songs which would eventually appear on Ride the Lightning. Mustaine has also made unverified claims to have written parts of "Leper Messiah" from Master of Puppets. He also recorded several songs with the band including the No Life 'Til Leather demo tape. A few of the songs he wrote with Hetfield and Ulrich went on to be re-recorded by Metallica. The most well-known of these is "The Four Horsemen" from Kill 'Em All, which Mustaine wrote as "The Mechanix" and later released on his debut album with the original lyrics as "Mechanix".
