94 Facts About Dave Mustaine

David Scott Mustaine was born on September 13,1961 and is an American musician.

Dave Mustaine is best known as the co-founder, frontman, primary songwriter and sole consistent member of the thrash metal band Megadeth and for his time as the lead guitarist of Metallica.

Dave Mustaine has released sixteen studio albums with Megadeth, sold over 50 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.

Dave Mustaine was credited as a writer on four songs from Kill 'Em All and two songs from Ride the Lightning.

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

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

Dave Mustaine was born on September 13,1961, in La Mesa, California, to parents Emily Marie and John Jefferson Dave Mustaine.

Dave Mustaine's father was of French, German, Irish, and Finnish descent, while his mother was of German Jewish ancestry.

Dave Mustaine had three older sisters, Michelle, Suzanne, and Debbie, who were 18,15, and 3 respectively when he was born.

Dave 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.

Dave 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.

Dave Mustaine stated that after the band started to fall apart in 1981, Quecke was killed in a separate car crash shortly after.

The first song that Dave Mustaine ever wrote was Jump in the Fire.

In 1981, Dave Mustaine disbanded Panic and joined Metallica as the lead guitarist.

On one occasion, Dave Mustaine brought his dog to rehearsal; the dog jumped onto the car of Metallica bassist Ron McGovney and scratched the paint.

Dave Mustaine was fired following the altercation, but the next day, Dave Mustaine asked to be allowed back in the band and was granted his request.

The band packed up Dave 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 Dave 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.

Dave Mustaine has made unverified claims to have written parts of "Leper Messiah" from Master of Puppets.

Dave 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.

Dave Mustaine replied "There's a store on the corner" and slammed the door in their faces.

Kane did not stay long, although he is credited for the suggestion that they should change the name to Megadeth, knowing that Dave Mustaine had written a song of the same name.

Jazz-influenced drummer Gar Samuelson replaced Rauch, who left after Dave Mustaine convinced him to play with a broken foot.

In 1986, a year after releasing their debut album, Dave Mustaine approached Jackson Guitars for a custom-built guitar.

Amid drug problems and suspicions of stealing the band's equipment and pawning it for drug money, Dave Mustaine fired Poland and Samuelson after their last show in Hawaii.

Shortly after, Dave Mustaine fired Behler and Young, accusing Young of having thoughts of a relationship with Dave Mustaine's then-girlfriend.

Around this period, Dave Mustaine produced the debut album from Seattle thrash band Sanctuary, called Refuge Denied.

Also in 1991, Dave Mustaine collaborated with Sean Harris from Diamond Head on the track "Crown of Worms".

The original version of the "Symphony of Destruction" video was edited due to its depiction of a political leader being assassinated; "Skin o' My Teeth" was aired on MTV with a disclaimer from Dave Mustaine insisting that the song did not endorse suicide.

Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies opened for Megadeth on the Countdown to Extinction tour, and MTV News invited Dave Mustaine to cover the Democratic National Convention for them that summer.

In 1993, Dave Mustaine guested on a new album by one of the bands who had influenced his own sound: Diamond Head, and began a US tour with Stone Temple Pilots as their opening act.

The tour with Stone Temple Pilots which included a planned appearance at Budokan, was ultimately canceled due to Dave Mustaine's continuing struggles with addiction.

Megadeth was kicked off Aerosmith's US tour after just seven dates because a comment made by Dave Mustaine was deemed extraordinarily offensive to Aerosmith.

Dave Mustaine's daughter, Electra Dave Mustaine, was born on January 28,1998, the same month that "Trust" was nominated for a Grammy.

Two days after Nick Menza had undergone surgery for a benign knee tumor, he received a call from Dave Mustaine informing him that his services would no longer be needed.

Jimmy DeGrasso, who Dave Mustaine had played with previously in MD.

In later years, Dave Mustaine would blame much of this period on Friedman's desire to go in a more "pop" direction.

In January 2002, Dave Mustaine was admitted to the hospital to have a kidney stone removed.

Dave Mustaine was diagnosed with radial neuropathy, known as Saturday Night Palsy, which left him unable to grasp or even make a fist with his left hand.

Slowly, Dave Mustaine began to play again, but was forced to "re-teach" his left hand.

Dave Mustaine left Jackson guitars, did a solo acoustic performance at a benefit show, unveiled his new ESP model at the NAMM convention, and oversaw the release of Peace Sells.

Dave Mustaine expressed his intent to withdraw from a show in Greece that had Rotting Christ and Dissection opening for Megadeth.

Dave Mustaine told The Daily Times during a recent interview, his own world was already shattered, and becoming a Christian was the one way he's found to put the pieces back together.

In 2004 Dave Mustaine oversaw the remixing and re-mastering of Megadeth's entire Capitol Records catalog.

One month before, Dave Mustaine announced a new touring lineup for Megadeth: Glen Drover and James MacDonough.

On January 13,2008, Dave Mustaine confirmed that guitarist Glen Drover had quit Megadeth to focus on his family and that he had been replaced by Chris Broderick of Jag Panzer.

Dave Mustaine planned to open Megadeth's California recording studio to under-privileged children to teach them about rock 'n' roll.

Dave Mustaine said he vowed to teach them how to play instruments.

Ellefson and Dave Mustaine agreed to keep any unresolved issues in the past and to work on building and maintaining their friendship again.

In 2016, Dave Mustaine expressed interest in doing more Big 4 shows, although this is unlikely due to the breakup of Slayer.

In December 2011, Dave Mustaine appeared at Metallica's 30th-anniversary celebration at the Fillmore Theater and performed five songs from Metallica's debut album.

Dave Mustaine named it Gigantour after a favorite childhood cartoon of his, Gigantor.

Dave Mustaine has been quoted as saying that his main intention when conceiving the tour was to bring the American metal audiences an eclectic and affordable alternative to Ozzfest.

The Dave Mustaine Collection was launched February 2021 in partnership with Gibson, and will span acoustic and electric guitars across the Gibson, Epiphone, and Kramer ranges.

Dave Mustaine used BC Rich guitars early in his career, most notably a BC Rich Bich 10 string with just the regular six strings.

In March 2009, while he was guest hosting Bruce Dickinson's Friday night radio show, Dave Mustaine attributed his choice of the Flying V guitar to being a fan of UFO's Michael Schenker when he was growing up.

Dave Mustaine specified 24 frets rather than the original King V's 22, a tradition that Jackson still keeps on its King V models today, and the KV1, as have all of Mustaine's signature models, featured a smaller, medium fretwire compared to the extra jumbos featured on most Jacksons.

Dave Mustaine released the DV8 signature model in the 2004 NAMM convention at which time Mustaine announced his ESP endorsement deal.

However, on December 6,2006, Dave Mustaine announced that he was leaving ESP and shifting his endorsement to Dean Guitars.

In February 2021, Dave Mustaine announced that he was leaving Dean Guitars and shifting his endorsement to Gibson.

Dave Mustaine is using his signature Marshall cabinets on tour.

The Dean Zero debuted in 2010 with Dean guitars was a unique new shape for Dave Mustaine, resembling the Gibson Explorer with sharper points.

Dave Mustaine has made a few appearances with this guitar, performing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and on shows during the Australian tour with Slayer.

Dave Mustaine had used the guitar in the later dates of the 2009 Endgame tour.

Dave Mustaine says he primarily still used his VMNT's so he can grab on to the lower horn with his legs for certain songs.

Dave Mustaine had used Ovation acoustic guitars for most of his career.

Dave Mustaine has his own signature Zoom pedal, called the Zoom G2.1DM.

In 2022, Dave Mustaine switched from using a Fractal Axe-FX to a Neural DSP Quad Cortex on tour for his amp tones, sending the signal to a Seymour Duncan PowerStage poweramp and then to on-stage speaker cabinets.

Dave Mustaine is known for popularizing the "spider chord" technique for playing power chords, a method streamlining hand position changes and reducing string noise.

Dave Mustaine possesses a two-octave vocal range spanning from tenor through baritone pitch ranges.

In 2009, Dave Mustaine was named the No 1 player in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists.

In 2012, Dave Mustaine was ranked the 12th-greatest guitarist of all time by a Guitar World magazine reader's poll.

In 2011, Dave Mustaine said that his neck and spine condition, known as stenosis, was caused by many years of headbanging.

On June 17,2019, Dave Mustaine announced that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer, and on January 31,2020, during a Megadeth concert, he announced that he was now cancer free.

Dave Mustaine was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and is a born again Christian.

Dave Mustaine began to focus on his Christian faith more directly while attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and became a committed Christian.

Dave Mustaine had practiced black magic in his teenage years, which inspired several songs on Megadeth's second album, Peace Sells.

However, in 2016, Dave Mustaine noted that Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler's suggestion of re-recording the song with modified lyrics made him consider playing "The Conjuring" again, "as long as it doesn't hurt anybody".

Over his career, Dave Mustaine has made numerous comments about both American and international politics, criticizing both politicians and political issues.

In 1988, Dave Mustaine caused a riot when Megadeth played a concert in Northern Ireland after he dedicated a song to "the cause", later expressing surprise that this was a euphemism for supporting the Irish Republican Army in the conflict between Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities known as the Troubles.

In 2009, Dave Mustaine was interviewed by far-right conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones for InfoWars, in which Dave Mustaine stated that the album Endgame was inspired by his Christian beliefs and belief in an upcoming New World Order.

Bush administration, when Dave Mustaine acted as a reporter for MTV News during the Democratic National Convention in 1992, and was seen as leaning to the political left, in light of the lyrics of "Foreclosure of a Dream".

Dave Mustaine criticized the 'Fast and Furious' arms scandal and said that the country looked like it was turning into "Nazi America".

Dave Mustaine's comments drew criticism from wounded Aurora massacre survivor Carli Richards, who said Dave Mustaine was being "absurd" and that his conspiracy theory shifted blame away from the shooter, noting that "[the president] didn't shoot me".

Dave Mustaine denied any intention to hurt anyone with his comments, but believed that the possibility of a conspiracy should still be looked into.

In February 2012, Dave Mustaine gave a statement supportive of the presidential campaign of conservative Republican and former United States Senator Rick Santorum.

Dave Mustaine commented on Santorum's "presidential qualities" and pointed to Santorum's temporary suspension of his campaign to be with his sick daughter as the act that gained his attention and respect.

However, Dave Mustaine denied that his statement was intended as an endorsement of Santorum.

Dave Mustaine expressed his hope that Santorum would win the nomination but stated that, regardless of the results, he would be voting against a second term for President Obama.

Dave Mustaine criticized other Republican presidential candidates: he was critical of a $100 million trust fund that Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney set up for his sons and criticized Texas Congressman Ron Paul for his unorthodox political views, saying Paul "make[s] total sense for a while, and then he'll say something so way out that it negates everything else".

Dave Mustaine admitted that he once supported former Georgia Congressman and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, but that he no longer thought he could vote for him.

Dave Mustaine has trained Sanshou and Kickboxing and has recently become a dedicated practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Shortly after Megadeth released their sixteenth studio album, Dave Mustaine was promoted to brown belt in BJJ at the age of 61.

Dave Mustaine composed the song "Sudden Death" for the video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, released in September 2010, under the name of his band.