Bio

David Scott Mustaine (born September 13, 1961 in La Mesa, California, United States) is a heavy metal guitarist, songwriter, and singer. He grew up in various Southern California suburbs. As the central figure of Megadeth and a former Metallica lead guitarist and co-songwriter, he is one of a handful of people considered to have pioneered thrash metal and speed metal.

In 1981 Dave Mustaine left his first band Panic to join Metallica as the lead guitarist. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich had posted an ad in a local newspaper, called The Recycler, looking for a lead guitarist. In his own words, Mustaine remembers his first meeting with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich: "I was convinced that I should be in the band and went to rehearsal. I was tuning up when all the other guys in the band went into another room. They weren't talking to me, so I went in and said, 'Well? Am I in the band or not?' and they said, 'You've got the gig.' I couldn't believe how easy it had been and suggested that we get some beer to celebrate." [1]

Mustaine's membership in Metallica, however, would last less than two years. Brian Slagel, an early manager of the band, 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 much more... much more. I could see they were beginning to get fed up of seeing Dave drunk out of his mind all the time."

One night, in a drunken state, Mustaine poured a full can of beer down Ron McGovney's (then Metallica bassist) bass. When he next came to play it McGovney got an electric shock, and in his own words, "blown across the room"; the bassist decided he'd had enough of Mustaine's antics and quit Metallica. In April of 1983, Mustaine was officially fired from Metallica for his alcoholism, cocaine abuse and personality clashes with founding members Hetfield and Ulrich. The band packed up Mustaine's gear, drove him to a Greyhound bus station, and put him on a bus back to Los Angeles.

During his short time in Metallica, Dave Mustaine toured with the band, co-wrote several songs which were later featured on the albums Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning (as well as, according to Mustaine, "Leper Messiah" on Master of Puppets[3]). He also recorded several songs with the band including the No Life 'Till Leather demo tape. A few of the songs he had written with Hetfield and Ulrich later went on to be re-recorded by Megadeth. The most well-known of these is the song "The Four Horsemen" from Kill 'em All which Mustaine wrote and later released with original lyrics on his debut album as "Mechanix."

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