Dave Mustaine
Dave Mustaine was born in La Mesa, California, United States on September 13th, 1961 and is the Metal Singer. At the age of 62, Dave Mustaine biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, songs, and networth are available.
At 62 years old, Dave Mustaine has this physical status:
Panic was Mustaine's first band. The lineup was Mike Leftwych on drums, Bob Evans on bass, Tom Quecke on rhythm guitar, Pat Voeks as the vocalist, with Mustaine as the lead guitarist. Both Mike Leftwych and a sound man were killed in a car crash after Panic's second show. Mustaine stated that after the band started to fall apart in 1981, Quecke also died.
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. 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!
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.
Fallen Angels was the name of the 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, for his band Fallen Angels. In his biography, Mustaine describes that "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.