Dave Mustaine

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.

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 also died.

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.

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.

In his own words, Mustaine remembers 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."

Metallica began recording their first album titled Kill 'Em All in 1983 but Mustaine's tenure with Metallica was short-lived.

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."

On one occasion, Mustaine brought his dog to rehearsal; the dog jumped onto the car of Metallica bassist Ron McGovney 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 pick-ups of McGovney's bass, resulting in collateral damage.

McGovney claimed that he was unaware of the damage and that he received an electric shock upon plugging it into an amplifier.

Mustaine, however, denied this claim, stating that McGovney was present when the incident occurred and did not attempt to plug in his bass afterward.

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 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.

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.

On this bus ride Mustaine scribbled some lyrical ideas on the back of a hand bill, which later became the song "Set the World Afire" from the 1988 Megadeth album So Far, So Good... So What!

Mustaine has been married to Pamela Anne Casselberry since 1991, with whom he has two children, Electra and Justis Mustaine.

In a popular 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 has released sixteen studio albums with Megadeth, sold over 38 million records worldwide, with six 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, however, credited 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.

Mustaine has been to rehab throughout his life, fighting alcohol and drug problems, and briefly battled throat cancer in 2019.