Dave Mustaine

(Lead Vocals, Lead, Rhythm, and Acoustic Guitars)



One of the founding members of Megadeth, Dave formed his first real band in 1979. He then became an original member of Metallica, departing in 1983. He then formed Megadeth with bassist David Ellefson, and they have since released 6 Megadeth albums. Another project Dave was involved in was MD45, a side project band with vocals by Lee Ving of Fear.

Born and raised in California along with other people such as Charles Manson, Slash,Vince Neal, David Mustaine was the son of a Jehovah's witness. He was taught to be peaceful and intelligent without the government being involved. Dave excelled at school and was often bored with the regular classes. He liked to read to occupy himself. His favorites are science fiction and and political stuff. His strawberry blonde hair and dry wit made him an instant success with the females. He then started into a career in Rock-n-roll because he wanted to score with the chicks and keep his axe (guitar) well tuned. During his high school years, he was in many bands that are not worth the time to mention. After graduation he went to Golden West College, but didn't stay there to long. In 1981, Dave was approached by drummer Lars Ulrich and asked if he wanted to join a band. Dave accepted and along with Lars, James Hetfield, Ron Mcgoveny and second guitarist Jeff warner, they made the first line up for Metallica. They started playing larger shows and once James took responsibility for both guitar and vocals and they had to thin down there line-up. Ron was replaced by Cliff Burton and a second guitarist was versitile and Dave's musical skills were nowhere near where they are today. Also Dave got booted from Metalica for other reasons mainly because he had MANY problems with the other members... 1.) When they traveled from gig to gig, They rode in a U-Haul van, When Dave drove, he usually drove drunk...due to his intoxication, he got in a number of accidents but luckily, I don't believe anyone was seriously harmed. Dave's Drug/Alcohol fixation was really the root of his being ejected from Metallica...Dave would get very edgy and paranoid when he was drunk..the other guys just didn't want to put up with him...I quote Lars Ulrich: "Dave's a really great guy to hang with when he's sober, but I guess he really can't hold his liquor well and he can be a pain". He was dropped from the band in favor of Kirk Hammett. Dave thought of it in a positive way,"Metallica was the first band that I got vinyl on". Dave was not content with just having a little bit of his 15 minutes of fame so he put together his own metal band. He got the name Megadeth from a phamplet by California Senator Alan Cranston which read, "....the arsenal of Megadeth can't be rid no matter what the peace treaties come to". Megadeth is now currently Dave Mustaine vocals/Rhythm guitar, Marty Friedman on Lead Guitar, Nick Menza on Drums, and David Ellefson on Bass. They are now probaly the biggest current metal band. Dave has a wife named Pam and they have two children, Justis and Electra.


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