WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.200 It is February 2nd, 2026. If you're a metal fan 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:07.820 or honestly just a student of music history, 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:10.859 the calendar on the wall looks a little different 00:00:10.859 --> 00:00:13.380 right now. Oh, absolutely. It feels less like 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:15.560 a date and more like, I don't know, a countdown 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:18.679 clock. It really does. The whole atmosphere has 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:21.399 shifted. We're sitting here almost exactly six 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:23.839 months after the announcement. The August 2025 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:26.079 announcement. Right. And that press release. 00:00:26.700 --> 00:00:28.780 It didn't just break the news cycle. It felt 00:00:28.780 --> 00:00:30.960 like it stopped the rotation of the heavy metal 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:33.979 world for a solid minute. And the news was stark. 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:37.740 The upcoming album, simply titled Megadeth, is 00:00:37.740 --> 00:00:39.740 going to be the last one. The final statement 00:00:39.740 --> 00:00:41.920 and all these tour dates that are rolling out 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.460 right now. That's it. That is the farewell run. 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:46.659 And, you know, we have to say it. We've all heard 00:00:46.659 --> 00:00:48.979 farewell tour before. We've been trained to be 00:00:48.979 --> 00:00:51.359 cynical about it. Of course. Ozzy did it for 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:53.899 a decade. Kiss did it for what felt like a century. 00:00:54.590 --> 00:00:56.429 The scorpions have been saying goodbye since 00:00:56.429 --> 00:00:59.789 I was in high school. But this one feels different. 00:00:59.829 --> 00:01:02.689 It feels final because the mechanism forcing 00:01:02.689 --> 00:01:05.980 the retirement. It isn't a marketing gimmick. 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:08.840 It's not a we want to go out on top narrative. 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:11.719 It's biological. It's mechanical failure of the 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:14.260 human machine. And we need to be really specific 00:01:14.260 --> 00:01:15.959 about what that means because the headlines just 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:19.780 said hand condition. But the reality is so much 00:01:19.780 --> 00:01:22.780 more brutal for a musician like him. So Dave 00:01:22.780 --> 00:01:25.439 Mustaine revealed he's suffering from Dupuytren's 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:28.340 contracture in his left hand. Yes. Which, you 00:01:28.340 --> 00:01:30.439 know, sounds like an old timey medical term. 00:01:31.159 --> 00:01:33.939 For a guitarist of his caliber, it is a horror 00:01:33.939 --> 00:01:36.140 movie script. It is. Let's really unpack the 00:01:36.140 --> 00:01:37.859 pathology here so people understand the stakes. 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:41.079 Dupuytren's is a condition where the fascia, 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:43.219 that's the connective tissue under the skin of 00:01:43.219 --> 00:01:45.019 your palm, it starts to thicken and tighten. 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:48.120 It forms these cords that literally pull the 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:51.180 fingers inward toward the palm. It locks them 00:01:51.180 --> 00:01:52.920 in a curled position. So you can't straighten 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:55.540 your fingers. Exactly. You physically cannot 00:01:55.540 --> 00:01:57.819 open your hand all the way. And look, if you're 00:01:57.819 --> 00:01:59.640 a blues player, maybe you can adapt. You can 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:01.879 use a slide. You can play with two fingers. Tony 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:04.480 Iommi lost his fingertips and invented heavy 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.420 metal. Right. Limitation breeds creativity. But 00:02:07.420 --> 00:02:11.340 Dave Mustaine, his entire architectural style, 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:13.699 and I use that word deliberately, is built on 00:02:13.699 --> 00:02:15.800 hyperextension. It's built on these incredibly 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:19.580 wide stretches across the fretboard and rapid 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:23.500 chromatic fretting. His hand needs to be a precision 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:26.319 machine. And the machine is seizing up. The gears 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:29.400 are rusting shut. That's the real tragedy of 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:31.500 it. The very tool that he used to build an empire, 00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:34.180 it's betraying him. So we're standing at the 00:02:34.180 --> 00:02:36.599 precipice of the end of Megadeth. But today, 00:02:36.740 --> 00:02:39.599 our mission isn't really to mourn the end. No. 00:02:39.699 --> 00:02:42.319 We're doing a forensic audit of the journey. 00:02:42.900 --> 00:02:45.099 We're looking at Dave Mustaine not just as a 00:02:45.099 --> 00:02:48.110 rock star, but as a case study. in human durability. 00:02:48.530 --> 00:02:50.330 Resilience doesn't even begin to cover it. I 00:02:50.330 --> 00:02:51.750 mean, this is a guy who was thrown off the bus 00:02:51.750 --> 00:02:53.509 of what would become the biggest band in history. 00:02:53.629 --> 00:02:55.870 And instead of walking home, he decided to build 00:02:55.870 --> 00:02:57.909 a tank to run them over. It's spite is a renewable 00:02:57.909 --> 00:03:00.689 energy source. It really is. And it's so fascinating 00:03:00.689 --> 00:03:03.370 because he's just a walking paradox. We're talking 00:03:03.370 --> 00:03:06.030 about a guy raised as a Jehovah's Witness who 00:03:06.030 --> 00:03:08.030 then dabbled in black magic. And then became 00:03:08.030 --> 00:03:10.789 a born again Christian. Exactly. A guy who was 00:03:10.789 --> 00:03:13.189 fired for being too aggressive. The quote was 00:03:13.189 --> 00:03:16.509 a raging megalomaniac who then turns around and 00:03:16.509 --> 00:03:18.550 earns a black belt in Brazilian jiu -jitsu at 00:03:18.550 --> 00:03:21.750 age 64. So to understand how we got to this farewell 00:03:21.750 --> 00:03:24.370 in 2026, we have to rewind the tape. We have 00:03:24.370 --> 00:03:25.870 to go back to the origin story. Well, all the 00:03:25.870 --> 00:03:30.210 way back. La Mesa, California. 1961. This is 00:03:30.210 --> 00:03:32.370 where David Scott Mustaine enters the narrative. 00:03:32.629 --> 00:03:34.610 And, you know, looking at the files, this was 00:03:34.610 --> 00:03:36.949 not a happy days American childhood. No, far, 00:03:37.050 --> 00:03:39.689 far from it. It was defined by instability from 00:03:39.689 --> 00:03:42.169 day one. His father, John, was a bank manager, 00:03:42.310 --> 00:03:44.389 which on the surface sounds stable, but he was 00:03:44.389 --> 00:03:46.789 also a severe alcoholic. And the parents divorced 00:03:46.789 --> 00:03:50.150 when Dave was only four. Right. And because his 00:03:50.150 --> 00:03:52.449 father had these massive, massive issues with 00:03:52.449 --> 00:03:55.210 alcohol, a demon that Dave would later inherit 00:03:55.210 --> 00:03:57.870 and battle for decades, his father essentially 00:03:57.870 --> 00:04:00.370 disappeared from the picture. So it's four years 00:04:00.370 --> 00:04:02.710 old, the father figure is gone, and he's left 00:04:02.710 --> 00:04:05.449 in this very specific, very intense environment 00:04:05.449 --> 00:04:08.330 with his mother and his sisters. And that dynamic 00:04:08.330 --> 00:04:11.430 there is absolutely crucial. He was the baby 00:04:11.430 --> 00:04:14.590 of the family by a massive margin. His sisters 00:04:14.590 --> 00:04:16.930 were 18, 15, and three years older than him. 00:04:16.970 --> 00:04:19.389 Wow, that's a huge gap. It's a generational gap 00:04:19.389 --> 00:04:22.009 within the same house. He's mentioned in interviews 00:04:22.009 --> 00:04:24.569 that he grew up thinking of them more as aunts 00:04:24.569 --> 00:04:26.730 than sisters. He was isolated even within his 00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:29.420 own home. And then you layer... the religious 00:04:29.420 --> 00:04:32.379 aspect on top of all that. His mother was of 00:04:32.379 --> 00:04:35.699 German Jewish ancestry, but the family was raised 00:04:35.699 --> 00:04:37.740 in the Jehovah's Witness faith. And for anyone 00:04:37.740 --> 00:04:40.579 who doesn't know, that is a very strict, very 00:04:40.579 --> 00:04:44.180 insular upbringing. No birthdays, no Christmas. 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:47.269 You're taught. essentially that the world outside 00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:49.689 is dangerous and fallen you're separate from 00:04:49.689 --> 00:04:52.110 it right the doctrine is in the world but not 00:04:52.110 --> 00:04:54.529 of it so you combine that strict almost fearful 00:04:54.529 --> 00:04:56.790 religious environment with a broken home and 00:04:56.790 --> 00:04:59.670 an absent alcoholic father you are creating a 00:04:59.670 --> 00:05:02.120 pressure cooker You're building a kid who feels 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:04.439 like an outsider everywhere he goes. He's an 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:06.540 outsider at school because he can't salute the 00:05:06.540 --> 00:05:08.980 flag or celebrate holidays. He's an outsider 00:05:08.980 --> 00:05:11.420 at home because he's the only boy and he's the 00:05:11.420 --> 00:05:14.220 baby. And usually in rock and roll history, that 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:17.079 pressure cooker explodes into music. It's the 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:20.319 standard release valve. Precisely. And for Mustaine, 00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:23.279 the first real manifestation of that was a band 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:25.740 called Panic. This was before the Giants. This 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:28.500 was his first gig as a lead guitarist. And even 00:05:28.500 --> 00:05:31.740 here. Right at the starting line, the story takes 00:05:31.740 --> 00:05:34.939 a turn that is just heartbreakingly tragic. It's 00:05:34.939 --> 00:05:37.000 like a dark cloud was following him from the 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.579 very beginning. It's a pattern that sadly repeats 00:05:39.579 --> 00:05:42.639 itself throughout his life. So Panic played their 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:45.079 very first show at a place in Dana Point. You 00:05:45.079 --> 00:05:47.620 know, high energy. The dream is finally starting. 00:05:47.860 --> 00:05:49.420 Yeah, you're on stage. You're making it happen. 00:05:49.579 --> 00:05:51.459 And immediately after that first show, on the 00:05:51.459 --> 00:05:53.879 drive home, their substitute drummer, a guy named 00:05:53.879 --> 00:05:56.160 Mike Leftwich, and a sound man were killed in 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.529 a car crash. After the first show. The very first 00:05:58.529 --> 00:06:01.769 one. The momentum is just shattered instantly 00:06:01.769 --> 00:06:03.990 by death. And then as the band was sort of falling 00:06:03.990 --> 00:06:07.230 apart in 1981, the other guitarist, Tom Quek, 00:06:07.370 --> 00:06:09.910 also died in a car crash. That is unbelievable. 00:06:10.290 --> 00:06:13.110 To be that young, you know, 19 or 20 years old, 00:06:13.149 --> 00:06:15.350 just trying to make noise in a garage and having 00:06:15.350 --> 00:06:18.709 death literally surrounding the band, it creates 00:06:18.709 --> 00:06:21.779 this sense of... I don't know, fatalism. It's 00:06:21.779 --> 00:06:25.339 incredibly heavy. But from an archival perspective, 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:27.639 what's so fascinating about the Panic era is 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:29.959 that the seeds of Megadeth were already germinating. 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:32.519 He was already writing. Oh, yeah. Mustaine wasn't 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.000 just learning covers. He was composing. He wrote 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.259 a song back then called N2RHQ. Which sounds like 00:06:38.259 --> 00:06:40.860 a license plate. It does. But that song, that 00:06:40.860 --> 00:06:43.540 piece of music, eventually morphed into Hangar 00:06:43.540 --> 00:06:45.980 18, one of the most technical and iconic thrash 00:06:45.980 --> 00:06:47.819 songs ever written. And he wrote another one, 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:49.790 Mechanics, which has a whole history. of its 00:06:49.790 --> 00:06:51.910 own that i'm sure we'll get we will but the point 00:06:51.910 --> 00:06:54.670 is the talent was there before the fam he was 00:06:54.670 --> 00:06:57.389 already developing that signature aggressive 00:06:57.389 --> 00:07:01.170 complex style which leads us to the pivotal year 00:07:01.170 --> 00:07:05.529 yeah 1981 the metallica year there's this revisionist 00:07:05.529 --> 00:07:07.730 history sometimes where people think mustaine 00:07:07.730 --> 00:07:10.670 was just a temporary placeholder metallica a 00:07:10.670 --> 00:07:12.490 footnote it's completely false but if you dig 00:07:12.490 --> 00:07:14.970 into the tapes if you listen to the no life to 00:07:14.970 --> 00:07:18.149 leather demo That is simply not true. Not even 00:07:18.149 --> 00:07:20.910 close. That is Dave Mustaine's band as much as 00:07:20.910 --> 00:07:23.550 it is James Hetfield's or Lars Ulrich's. So let's 00:07:23.550 --> 00:07:26.449 set the scene. Lars Ulrich places an ad in a 00:07:26.449 --> 00:07:29.769 Los Angeles paper called The Recycler. Dave sees 00:07:29.769 --> 00:07:32.029 it, shows up to audition. And the audition is 00:07:32.029 --> 00:07:34.329 legendary. Dave is in the room. He's warming 00:07:34.329 --> 00:07:36.290 up. He's just plugging in his guitar, checking 00:07:36.290 --> 00:07:38.209 his levels, shredding a little bit to get his 00:07:38.209 --> 00:07:41.470 fingers loose. And the story goes that he stops 00:07:41.470 --> 00:07:43.889 and he looks at Lars and James Hetfield and asks, 00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:46.250 well, am I going to audition or what? And they 00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:47.829 just looked at him? They looked at him and said, 00:07:47.870 --> 00:07:50.490 no, you've got the job, just from the warm -up. 00:07:50.889 --> 00:07:53.850 Wow. That is how undeniable his ability was. 00:07:54.209 --> 00:07:56.550 He suggested they get beer to celebrate, and 00:07:56.550 --> 00:07:58.769 that was it. He was in the band. We really need 00:07:58.769 --> 00:08:00.889 to explain what he brought to the table musically. 00:08:01.250 --> 00:08:03.790 Because before Mustang, Hetfield and Ulrich were 00:08:03.790 --> 00:08:07.170 heavily, heavily influenced by the new wave of 00:08:07.170 --> 00:08:09.009 British heavy metal. Oh yeah, Diamondhead, Motorhead, 00:08:09.129 --> 00:08:12.220 Saxon. It was heavy. But Mustaine brought something 00:08:12.220 --> 00:08:15.040 else. He brought velocity. He brought a terrifying 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:18.120 speed. If you look at the four horsemen on Kill 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.779 Em All, which, of course, Dave wrote as the mechanics, 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.720 that swinging, galloping triplet feel. That's 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:26.899 Dave. Right. He was playing lead lines at rhythm 00:08:26.899 --> 00:08:30.220 speeds. He introduced. a level of technical aggression 00:08:30.220 --> 00:08:32.940 that forced james hetfield to become a much better 00:08:32.940 --> 00:08:35.480 rhythm player just to keep up with him he literally 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:38.100 pushed the tempo of the entire genre he made 00:08:38.100 --> 00:08:40.379 them lethal yeah on kill them all metallica's 00:08:40.379 --> 00:08:43.539 debut mustaine has writing credits on four songs 00:08:43.539 --> 00:08:46.279 on their second album ride the lightning he has 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:49.159 two he was a core architect of the thrash sound 00:08:49.159 --> 00:08:52.379 period but He also brought the chaos. And this 00:08:52.379 --> 00:08:54.860 is where the torture genius trope gets very real 00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:57.860 very fast. Yeah. It's not a romantic notion here. 00:08:57.899 --> 00:08:59.600 They were all drinking. We have to be clear about 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:02.940 that. Those were the alcoholic years for a reason. 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:06.220 But Dave was different. How so? Brian Slagle, 00:09:06.379 --> 00:09:08.659 who ran Metal Blade Records and saw it all go 00:09:08.659 --> 00:09:11.759 down, he said it best. He said Dave was incredibly 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:14.879 talented, a genius even, but when he got wasted, 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:18.179 he didn't just get sloppy, he became a raging 00:09:18.179 --> 00:09:21.460 megalomaniac. It turned nasty. It turned violent. 00:09:21.539 --> 00:09:23.220 The other guys could drink and have fun or maybe 00:09:23.220 --> 00:09:25.299 just pass out. Dave would get aggressive. He 00:09:25.299 --> 00:09:27.399 would look for a fight. He would become a problem. 00:09:27.559 --> 00:09:29.759 And there are two specific incidents that seem 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:32.100 to have been the final straws. I feel like the 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:34.220 dog incident gets told as a funny rock and roll. 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:36.200 role story sometimes. Yeah. But when you actually 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:38.179 break it down, it's pretty dark. It's a dominance 00:09:38.179 --> 00:09:41.700 display. It's all about territory. Mustaine brought 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:44.519 his pit bull mix to rehearsal one day. The dog 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:47.840 jumped up on bassist Ron McGovney's car, a Pontiac 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:51.139 GTO, his pride and joy, and scratched the paint 00:09:51.139 --> 00:09:54.059 all up. Okay. James Hetfield, in a moment of 00:09:54.059 --> 00:09:56.860 anger, allegedly kicked the dog. And you do not 00:09:56.860 --> 00:09:59.909 kick Dave Mustaine's dog. No. In the world of 00:09:59.909 --> 00:10:02.750 1982 metalheads, you can insult someone's mother, 00:10:02.809 --> 00:10:05.210 you can steal their girlfriend, but you do not 00:10:05.210 --> 00:10:08.629 touch their dog. So what happened? Dave didn't 00:10:08.629 --> 00:10:12.289 just yell. He physically attacked Hetfield. He 00:10:12.289 --> 00:10:15.389 reportedly threw him across the room. It was 00:10:15.389 --> 00:10:18.250 a physical altercation within the band over a 00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:20.730 dog scratching a car. And then there was the 00:10:20.730 --> 00:10:24.269 electrical incident. This one to me is just... 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:27.179 Mind -blowing. This is pure chaos. It's malicious. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:30.940 Mustaine, drunk, poured a can of beer down the 00:10:30.940 --> 00:10:33.700 neck of McGovney's base right into the pickups. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.639 Into the electronics. Yes, right into the electronics. 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:39.639 McGovney didn't know. He picked up his base later, 00:10:39.779 --> 00:10:42.320 plugged it into his amp. Oh, no. And got a massive 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:44.360 electric shock. He was literally thrown across 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:46.220 the room by the voltage. That's not a prank. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:48.759 That's assault. I don't respect you. I don't 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:50.600 respect your property. And I frankly don't care 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:52.639 if you get seriously hurt. Exactly. It was completely 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:56.340 unsustainable. So by April 11th, 1983, the band 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:57.879 is in New York. They're getting ready to record 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:00.500 their debut album. And the other three guys, 00:11:00.659 --> 00:11:03.659 James, Lars and Cliff Burton, had just had enough. 00:11:03.700 --> 00:11:06.159 They were exhausted. So they wake him up. The 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:09.019 famous no warning, no second chance. They woke 00:11:09.019 --> 00:11:11.340 him up, hung over, and just told him he was out. 00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:13.340 They had already packed his gear. They didn't 00:11:13.340 --> 00:11:15.480 even buy him a plane ticket home. They put him 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:17.620 on a bus. They drove him to the Port Authority 00:11:17.620 --> 00:11:20.500 bus terminal in New York City and put him on 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:24.580 a Greyhound bus back to Los Angeles. We really 00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:26.779 need to sit with that image for a second. The 00:11:26.779 --> 00:11:29.279 bus ride. This isn't a two -hour flight where 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:31.019 you can have a drink and get over it. This is 00:11:31.019 --> 00:11:33.600 four days. Four days. Four days of sitting on 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:36.059 a bus, staring out the window at the cornfields 00:11:36.059 --> 00:11:39.019 of America, stewing in your own anger, your own 00:11:39.019 --> 00:11:41.799 humiliation. He's watching his dream band go 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:44.059 on to record the songs he helped write while 00:11:44.059 --> 00:11:46.200 he's eating gas station food on a Greyhound. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:48.320 And that bus ride is the moment Megadeth was 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:50.720 born. It wasn't born in a studio or a rehearsal 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:53.919 room. It was born on that sticky vinyl seat. 00:11:54.179 --> 00:11:56.399 He didn't mourn on that bus. No, he plotted. 00:11:56.519 --> 00:11:59.960 He was seeing. He found a handbill. It was actually 00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:02.379 a political pamphlet from a senator named Alan 00:12:02.379 --> 00:12:04.759 Cranston on the bus seat. He started reading 00:12:04.759 --> 00:12:06.879 it just to kill time. And he saw the phrase. 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:09.759 He saw the phrase. The arsenal of mega death 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:13.580 can't be rid. It was a term from nuclear strategy 00:12:13.580 --> 00:12:16.259 describing the unit of one million deaths by 00:12:16.259 --> 00:12:19.039 nuclear explosion. A mega death. He saw that 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:21.500 word and he didn't see a tragedy. He saw a brand 00:12:21.500 --> 00:12:23.740 name. He saw a weapon. He started scribbling 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:25.740 lyrics on the back of that handbill. The first 00:12:25.740 --> 00:12:28.769 lyrics for. what would become Set the World Afire. 00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:31.669 The concept was simple, and it was brutal. He 00:12:31.669 --> 00:12:34.610 wanted blood. He famously said, I wanted to be 00:12:34.610 --> 00:12:37.730 faster, heavier, and more technical than Metallica. 00:12:37.850 --> 00:12:39.950 This wasn't just, I'm going to start another 00:12:39.950 --> 00:12:42.830 band. No. This was, I'm going to start a rival 00:12:42.830 --> 00:12:45.590 superpower, and my only goal is to destroy you. 00:12:45.789 --> 00:12:49.399 It is amazing what Pure Spike can fuel. But when 00:12:49.399 --> 00:12:51.919 he got back to L .A., it wasn't an instant rise 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:54.840 to glory. The reality of life hits pretty hard. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:57.559 Yeah. He actually had to work as a telemarketer. 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:00.100 He did. He had to pay rent. He got an apartment 00:13:00.100 --> 00:13:02.559 in Hollywood and he was working the phones soliciting 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:04.379 for carpet cleaning or something like that. Just 00:13:04.379 --> 00:13:06.899 a miserable job to make ends meet. But that apartment 00:13:06.899 --> 00:13:09.080 building is actually crucial to the lore. Right. 00:13:09.139 --> 00:13:11.539 Because of the neighbor downstairs. David Ellefson, 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:14.179 the bassist who would become his right hand man 00:13:14.179 --> 00:13:17.320 for decades. And the story of how they met is. 00:13:18.110 --> 00:13:20.809 Well, it's very mustane. It involves a potted 00:13:20.809 --> 00:13:23.730 plant. It's ridiculous, but it completely humanizes 00:13:23.730 --> 00:13:26.309 them. Ellefson was in the apartment directly 00:13:26.309 --> 00:13:29.370 below Dave, and he was learning the bass line 00:13:29.370 --> 00:13:32.490 to Van Halen's Runnin' with the Devil. A classic. 00:13:32.629 --> 00:13:35.309 A classic, but it's a very simple thumping bass 00:13:35.309 --> 00:13:38.149 line. And he was playing it over and over and 00:13:38.149 --> 00:13:41.559 over. Dave was upstairs, hungover, trying to 00:13:41.559 --> 00:13:43.700 sleep. So naturally, instead of knocking on the 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:46.179 door like a civilized person, he grabbed a potted 00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:48.440 plant from his windowsill and threw it out the 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:50.320 window. He threw a potted plant out the window. 00:13:50.379 --> 00:13:52.820 To hit the air conditioner unit below and scare 00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:54.679 Ellefson into shutting up. And surprisingly, 00:13:54.899 --> 00:13:57.279 it worked as an icebreaker. I guess that's one 00:13:57.279 --> 00:13:59.120 way to meet the neighbors. Ellefson came upstairs 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:01.440 to see what the hell was going on, ended up asking 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:03.639 for cigarettes, and then later for beer. They 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:06.059 started talking music. And the partnership was 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:08.000 formed. It's funny how these pivotal moments 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.019 in music history hinge on things like a potted 00:14:11.019 --> 00:14:14.179 plant or a bus ticket. It really is. And once 00:14:14.179 --> 00:14:16.259 they started building the band, that technical 00:14:16.259 --> 00:14:18.519 mission statement came right into play. They 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:21.080 brought in Gar Samuelson on drums and Chris Poland 00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:23.620 on guitar. And this is a key differentiator. 00:14:23.899 --> 00:14:27.250 Because Gar and Chris... They weren't metalheads, 00:14:27.350 --> 00:14:29.629 were they? Not at all. And that's why early Megadeth 00:14:29.629 --> 00:14:32.149 sounds so different from Slayer or Anthrax or 00:14:32.149 --> 00:14:35.549 even Metallica. Gar and Chris were jazz fusion 00:14:35.549 --> 00:14:37.990 players. What, like Mahavishnu orchestra stuff? 00:14:38.269 --> 00:14:40.269 Exactly. They were used to playing incredibly 00:14:40.269 --> 00:14:43.049 complex, syncopated music. They came from a completely 00:14:43.049 --> 00:14:45.450 different world. So how does jazz theory even 00:14:45.450 --> 00:14:48.049 apply to thrash metal? It's all about the swing. 00:14:48.309 --> 00:14:50.350 Thrash metal is usually very straight. That's 00:14:50.350 --> 00:14:54.149 a rigid 44 -time signature, a jackhammer. Gar 00:14:54.149 --> 00:14:56.789 Samuelson played with a swing feel. He had this 00:14:56.789 --> 00:15:00.090 loose, jazzy hand technique that made the drums 00:15:00.090 --> 00:15:02.289 roll and tumble rather than just hammer away. 00:15:02.490 --> 00:15:05.169 He gave it a groove, a very frantic groove. A 00:15:05.169 --> 00:15:08.029 frantic, syncopated groove. That's why the debut 00:15:08.029 --> 00:15:10.250 album, Killing Is My Business, and Business Is 00:15:10.250 --> 00:15:14.149 Good, from 85, and especially Peace Cells. But 00:15:14.149 --> 00:15:19.559 who's buying? In 86, sounds so incredibly complex. 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:22.639 The level of musicianship was simply higher than 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:24.200 most of their peers because they were pulling 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:26.720 from a more complex musical vocabulary. And P 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:29.500 -cells. That was the big breakthrough. That was 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:34.679 huge. That opening bass line, it became the theme 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:37.500 music for MTV News. I remember that so clearly. 00:15:37.700 --> 00:15:39.840 Right. So that meant every time a kid turned 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:41.799 on MTV to see what was happening in the world, 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:44.279 they were hearing Megadeth. It cemented them 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:46.820 in pop culture in a way no other thrash band 00:15:46.820 --> 00:15:48.580 had been at that point. Now, we keep throwing 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:50.539 around the word technical, but we need to define 00:15:50.539 --> 00:15:53.519 it. Because Megadeth isn't just fast. Slayer 00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:57.240 is fast. Megadeth is precise. Calculated. And 00:15:57.240 --> 00:15:58.799 a lot of that comes down to the spider chord. 00:15:58.980 --> 00:16:01.419 This is something Dave is famous for inventing. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.700 This is the holy grail of Mustaine's technique, 00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:06.700 and it's key to his sound. Okay, so picture a 00:16:06.700 --> 00:16:09.620 standard power chord on a guitar. Usually you're 00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:11.360 using your index finger and your ring finger. 00:16:11.769 --> 00:16:13.590 To play the next chord, you play the first one, 00:16:13.710 --> 00:16:15.889 then you lift your whole hand, move it down a 00:16:15.889 --> 00:16:18.809 fret, and plant it again. And in that split second 00:16:18.809 --> 00:16:21.970 of lifting and moving, you get a tiny gap of 00:16:21.970 --> 00:16:24.250 silence, where you get that zip noise of your 00:16:24.250 --> 00:16:27.409 skin sliding on the strings. Exactly. Mustaine 00:16:27.409 --> 00:16:30.029 hated that noise. He wanted the riff to sound 00:16:30.029 --> 00:16:33.470 like a machine gun. Staccato. Brutally distinct. 00:16:33.769 --> 00:16:36.649 So he figured out a way to use all four of his 00:16:36.649 --> 00:16:39.129 fingers like a spider walking down the fretboard. 00:16:39.389 --> 00:16:41.730 Okay, so how does that work? He'd play the first 00:16:41.730 --> 00:16:44.730 chord with his index and ring finger. And while 00:16:44.730 --> 00:16:46.710 those notes were still ringing, he would position 00:16:46.710 --> 00:16:49.129 his middle and pinky fingers on the next chord 00:16:49.129 --> 00:16:52.230 shape. So he's preloading the next shot. Yes. 00:16:52.269 --> 00:16:54.509 He just switches between the two pairs of fingers 00:16:54.509 --> 00:16:56.450 without having to move his wrist up and down 00:16:56.450 --> 00:16:59.450 the neck as much. It creates this chromatic descending 00:16:59.450 --> 00:17:02.549 chaos that sounds completely seamless. It's like 00:17:02.549 --> 00:17:04.690 a pianist playing with two hands versus one, 00:17:04.829 --> 00:17:08.559 but doing this at 200 beats per minute. The dexterity 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:10.799 required is just off the charts. And that brings 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:13.440 us right back to the present -day tragedy. That 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:15.640 technique requires the fingers to act independently 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:18.839 and snap into place instantly. If you have Dupree 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:21.160 -Tren's contracture and the connective tissue 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:23.720 is physically pulling your pinky and ring finger 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:27.019 into your palm, the spider cord becomes physically 00:17:27.019 --> 00:17:30.240 impossible. It's not just that it hurts. It's 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:32.859 that the mechanism is fundamentally broken. Right. 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:35.279 You can't execute the code anymore. Let's move 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:38.519 to the 90s, the golden era. Because if you ask 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:41.019 any metal fan to name the greatest thrash album 00:17:41.019 --> 00:17:43.440 of all time, a huge percentage of them are going 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:47.259 to say Rust in Peace from 1990. It is the dark 00:17:47.259 --> 00:17:49.980 side of the moon of thrash. It is front to back, 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:53.339 a perfect record. And this was the classic lineup. 00:17:53.619 --> 00:17:56.059 Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson, Marty Friedman 00:17:56.059 --> 00:17:59.000 on guitar, and the late, great Nick Menza on 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.119 drums. And Marty Friedman brought something totally 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:02.980 different to the table, too, right? Because Chris 00:18:02.980 --> 00:18:05.019 Pollan had the jazz fusion thing, but Marty was, 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:08.039 I don't know, almost pop. Marty was weird in 00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:10.559 the best possible way. He didn't grow up wanting 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:13.400 to be in a thrash band. He was listening to Japanese 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.680 enka music and obscure European progressive rock. 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:19.259 So when he joined for Rust in Peace, he brought 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:22.279 this exotic phrasing. Completely. Mustaine would 00:18:22.279 --> 00:18:26.220 play a rigid, jagged, militaristic rhythm riff, 00:18:26.420 --> 00:18:28.900 and Marty would just float over it with these 00:18:28.900 --> 00:18:31.940 fluid, almost Middle Eastern -sounding bends 00:18:31.940 --> 00:18:34.980 and arpeggios. It was the contrast. The military 00:18:34.980 --> 00:18:37.799 precision of Mustaine versus the liquid fire 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:40.480 of Friedman. That tension was the magic. You 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.460 listen to Holy Wars, The Punishment Due, or Tornado 00:18:43.460 --> 00:18:46.940 of Souls. The solo in Tornado of Souls is widely 00:18:46.940 --> 00:18:49.140 considered one of the greatest guitar solos ever 00:18:49.140 --> 00:18:52.579 recorded. It just sings. And then, after that 00:18:52.579 --> 00:18:55.359 masterpiece, came the commercial peak, Countdown 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:58.180 to Extinction in 1992. Which debuted at number 00:18:58.180 --> 00:19:00.710 two on the Billboard 200. They were kept out 00:19:00.710 --> 00:19:02.829 of the number one spot by Billy Ray Cyrus, of 00:19:02.829 --> 00:19:05.430 all people. Achy breaky heart. Unbelievable. 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:08.109 But this was when metal was really breaking into 00:19:08.109 --> 00:19:10.069 the mainstream. They were so big, they were so 00:19:10.069 --> 00:19:12.569 culturally relevant that the band actually covered 00:19:12.569 --> 00:19:15.609 the 1992 Democratic National Convention for MTV. 00:19:15.990 --> 00:19:18.430 Dave Mustaine is a political correspondent, which 00:19:18.430 --> 00:19:21.049 is just a wild image. He's always been politically 00:19:21.049 --> 00:19:23.329 vocal, but this was the height of their visibility. 00:19:23.670 --> 00:19:25.730 They weren't just a metal band. They were superstars. 00:19:25.950 --> 00:19:28.549 But, and there was always a... But with Mustang, 00:19:28.789 --> 00:19:31.230 while the career was soaring to these new heights, 00:19:31.430 --> 00:19:34.829 the personal life was just collapsing. Collapsing 00:19:34.829 --> 00:19:38.430 is the right word. Utterly imploding. Dave has 00:19:38.430 --> 00:19:41.710 had, by his own count, something like 15 visits 00:19:41.710 --> 00:19:43.970 to rehabilitation centers throughout his life. 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.960 The stories of excess from this era are terrifying. 00:19:48.420 --> 00:19:50.599 They were functioning addicts until they weren't. 00:19:50.619 --> 00:19:54.039 Exactly. There's the famous story about the video 00:19:54.039 --> 00:19:57.380 shoot for No More Mr. Nice Guy. The Alice Cooper 00:19:57.380 --> 00:20:00.400 cover. Right, for the movie Shocker. The director, 00:20:00.579 --> 00:20:03.059 Penelope Spheeris, she recounted later that Dave 00:20:03.059 --> 00:20:05.599 showed up so high on heroin and other drugs that 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.759 his brain literally could not process the motor 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:10.059 functions to sing and play guitar at the same 00:20:10.059 --> 00:20:12.140 time. He couldn't do both at once. His system 00:20:12.140 --> 00:20:14.230 was shutting down. She said they had to film 00:20:14.230 --> 00:20:16.410 him just playing the guitar, then stop the camera, 00:20:16.549 --> 00:20:18.829 reset, and then film him just singing the lyrics, 00:20:19.009 --> 00:20:21.309 and they had to edit it all together in post, 00:20:21.630 --> 00:20:23.950 he was a ghost in a little jacket. And his mouth 00:20:23.950 --> 00:20:25.470 was getting them into trouble. Oh, constantly. 00:20:25.710 --> 00:20:29.029 1993, they land the opening slot for Aerosmith, 00:20:29.069 --> 00:20:31.789 a massive tour. But you have to keep in mind, 00:20:31.829 --> 00:20:34.049 Aerosmith had just gotten sober. They were very 00:20:34.049 --> 00:20:36.410 protective of their recovery environment. And 00:20:36.410 --> 00:20:38.430 Dave goes and does an interview where he says 00:20:38.430 --> 00:20:40.470 something like, we don't have much time to play 00:20:40.470 --> 00:20:42.589 because Aerosmith don't have much time left to 00:20:42.589 --> 00:20:45.529 live. Ouch. Referencing their age and their past 00:20:45.529 --> 00:20:47.990 drug use. That is not how you treat the headliner. 00:20:48.089 --> 00:20:51.680 No. Aerosmith did not appreciate that. Megadeth 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:53.920 was kicked off the tour after only seven dates. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:57.079 It was Mustaine's ego and complete lack of a 00:20:57.079 --> 00:20:59.099 filter getting in the way of the business again. 00:20:59.299 --> 00:21:01.599 But the music kept coming. He kept surviving 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:05.799 the drugs. Until 2002. This is the first time 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:08.970 that music really truly stopped. the injury and 00:21:08.970 --> 00:21:11.450 it wasn't a car crash or a fighter an overdose 00:21:11.450 --> 00:21:14.369 this time it was a map a nap he was at a rehab 00:21:14.369 --> 00:21:17.450 center in texas trying to get clean he fell asleep 00:21:17.450 --> 00:21:19.589 in a hard wooden chair with his left arm hanging 00:21:19.589 --> 00:21:22.849 over the back of it okay he was out for so long 00:21:22.849 --> 00:21:24.990 that he cut off the circulation to the radial 00:21:24.990 --> 00:21:27.690 nerve in his arm it's a medical condition called 00:21:27.690 --> 00:21:30.980 saturday night palsy and when he woke up He had 00:21:30.980 --> 00:21:33.400 severe nerve damage. He couldn't make a fist 00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:36.259 with his left hand. It was just a claw. The doctors 00:21:36.259 --> 00:21:39.119 told him he had an 80 % chance of recovery. But 00:21:39.119 --> 00:21:41.480 he might never play guitar again. That is the 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:44.519 ultimate nightmare for a musician. Your livelihood, 00:21:44.819 --> 00:21:47.759 your identity gone because you slept in a chair 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:51.980 wrong. So in April 2002, he did the unthinkable. 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:55.119 He disbanded Megadeth. He issued a formal press 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:57.940 release. It looked like it was completely over. 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:00.740 But as we know, Mustaine doesn't do over. He 00:22:00.740 --> 00:22:02.619 doesn't know the meaning of the word. He went 00:22:02.619 --> 00:22:05.900 into intense physical therapy five days a week. 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:08.400 He literally had to reteach his lesson. left 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:10.559 hand, how to move, how to find the fretboard, 00:22:10.660 --> 00:22:13.160 how to squeeze. It was a grueling reconstruction 00:22:13.160 --> 00:22:15.559 of his own ability. And during this recovery, 00:22:15.779 --> 00:22:18.019 while his arm is basically dead and his career 00:22:18.019 --> 00:22:21.220 is over, something else shifted his entire worldview. 00:22:21.500 --> 00:22:23.759 Yes. This is when he became a born again Christian. 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:26.119 His life was shattered physically, professionally, 00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:28.519 personally with addiction. He said that looking 00:22:28.519 --> 00:22:30.420 up at the cross was the one thing that helped 00:22:30.420 --> 00:22:32.460 him start to put the pieces back together. It 00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:34.460 filled a void. It replaced the void that the 00:22:34.460 --> 00:22:36.660 drugs and the alcohol used to fill. And this 00:22:36.660 --> 00:22:39.339 wasn't just a private, personal thing. It directly 00:22:39.339 --> 00:22:42.440 affected the music and the band. Heavily. For 00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:44.759 a long time, he refused to play the song The 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:47.500 Conjuring. It's a classic track from Peace Cells. 00:22:47.740 --> 00:22:50.779 But the lyrics contain actual instructions for 00:22:50.779 --> 00:22:53.680 hexes and spells from his days practicing black 00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:56.119 magic as a teenager. He felt that was dangerous. 00:22:56.539 --> 00:22:59.319 He felt it was spiritually dangerous to put that 00:22:59.319 --> 00:23:01.839 out into the Wimbled every night. He also, for 00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:04.180 a time, refused to share stages with bands that 00:23:04.180 --> 00:23:07.299 he considered to be black metal or satanic, like 00:23:07.299 --> 00:23:09.380 Rotting Christ or Dissection. Which must have 00:23:09.380 --> 00:23:11.220 caused some friction with promoters and fans, 00:23:11.380 --> 00:23:13.299 I imagine. You're a metal band, but you won't 00:23:13.299 --> 00:23:16.000 play with these other metal bands. It did. But 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:18.259 Mustaine has never compromised on what he believes, 00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:21.220 even if what he believes changes 180 degrees. 00:23:21.900 --> 00:23:24.599 He is stubborn in his convictions, whatever they 00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:26.880 may be at the time. So he rebuilds the hand. 00:23:27.339 --> 00:23:30.299 He finds faith, and he brings the band back in 00:23:30.299 --> 00:23:33.460 2004. But he also picked up another discipline 00:23:33.460 --> 00:23:36.529 around this time, martial arts. This is a huge 00:23:36.529 --> 00:23:38.789 part of his story that I think people miss. It 00:23:38.789 --> 00:23:41.250 was part of his recovery and his sobriety. He 00:23:41.250 --> 00:23:43.769 needed a new addiction, a positive one, and he 00:23:43.769 --> 00:23:46.230 found it in discipline. And he got good. Very 00:23:46.230 --> 00:23:49.009 good. He holds black belts in taekwondo and uki 00:23:49.009 --> 00:23:50.930 doken karate. And he didn't stop there, right? 00:23:50.990 --> 00:23:52.950 He got into jujitsu. He did. He got promoted 00:23:52.950 --> 00:23:55.789 to brown belt in Brazilian jujitsu at age 61. 00:23:56.130 --> 00:23:59.190 And just last year in 2025, at the age of 64, 00:23:59.549 --> 00:24:03.230 he earned his black belt in BJJ. That is incredibly 00:24:03.230 --> 00:24:05.990 difficult. Brazilian jiu -jitsu is not a soft 00:24:05.990 --> 00:24:08.009 art. It's grappling, it's choking, it's joint 00:24:08.009 --> 00:24:11.049 locks. For a guy in his 60s with a history of 00:24:11.049 --> 00:24:14.690 nerve damage and neck issues, that is pure, unadulterated 00:24:14.690 --> 00:24:17.529 grit. It speaks to his drive. He replaced the 00:24:17.529 --> 00:24:20.190 chaos of his youth with the regimented, painful 00:24:20.190 --> 00:24:22.670 order of martial arts. Speaking of neck issues, 00:24:22.890 --> 00:24:25.009 his health record is just like a medical textbook. 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:27.910 We have the arm, the addiction. In 2011, he was 00:24:27.910 --> 00:24:30.319 diagnosed with stenosis. It's a neck and spine 00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:32.779 condition caused by years and years of violent 00:24:32.779 --> 00:24:35.319 headbanging. A literal occupational hazard. A 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:37.619 repetitive stress injury from being a metal frontman. 00:24:38.299 --> 00:24:42.180 Then the big scare. June 2019. Throat cancer. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:45.039 For a singer, that is the ultimate fear. You 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:47.460 lose your voice, you lose everything. He underwent 00:24:47.460 --> 00:24:49.980 brutal treatment radiation and chemotherapy and 00:24:49.980 --> 00:24:53.599 was declared cancer -free by January 2020. But 00:24:53.599 --> 00:24:57.140 it took a huge toll. And now... In 2025 into 00:24:57.140 --> 00:25:01.000 2026, we have the Dupuytren's contracture. It 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:03.079 really seems like his body has just taken a beating 00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:05.819 for the art. He has paid the toll physically. 00:25:06.180 --> 00:25:08.660 Okay, we can't do a deep dive on Mustaine without 00:25:08.660 --> 00:25:11.380 dedicating a whole section to the elephant that's 00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:13.960 been in the room for 40 years. Metallica. The 00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:16.240 Metallica dynamic. It's been a lifetime of tension. 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:19.619 It's the feud that never truly died. For decades, 00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:22.680 there was just open hostility. Mustaine was particularly 00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:25.039 bitter towards Kirk Hammett, who replaced him, 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:27.579 and of course, Lars Ulrich. He claimed he wrote 00:25:27.579 --> 00:25:29.539 parts of songs he never got credit for, right? 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:32.359 Like Leper Messiah. Right. And he always felt 00:25:32.359 --> 00:25:34.559 he was in their shadow. By his own admission, 00:25:34.819 --> 00:25:36.980 he was always checking the scoreboard. How many 00:25:36.980 --> 00:25:38.740 albums did they sell this week? How many did 00:25:38.740 --> 00:25:41.299 I sell? It was a sickness for him. But there 00:25:41.299 --> 00:25:44.200 were moments of peace. The Big Four tour in 2010 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:46.440 and 2011 was a huge moment of healing for the 00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:49.440 whole genre. It was a massive thaw in the Cold 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.740 War. Seeing Megadeth on stage with Metallica, 00:25:52.880 --> 00:25:56.440 Slayer, and Anthrax, it was something fans thought 00:25:56.440 --> 00:25:58.980 would never happen. I think Dave realized that 00:25:58.980 --> 00:26:01.519 carrying that much anger was heavier than any 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:04.140 guitar case. There's a great moment where they're 00:26:04.140 --> 00:26:06.319 all on stage covering Diamondhead's Am I Evil? 00:26:06.900 --> 00:26:09.380 And you see Dave and James side by side sharing 00:26:09.380 --> 00:26:12.619 a mic. It felt like closure. It did. But the 00:26:12.619 --> 00:26:15.440 tension never fully vanished. What happened with 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:18.000 the No Life Till Leather demo reissue? This was 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:19.880 supposed to be a celebration of their early days 00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:22.579 together. And it got scrapped. Why? Because Lars 00:26:22.579 --> 00:26:24.859 Ulrich wanted writing credits and publishing 00:26:24.859 --> 00:26:27.220 on songs that Mustaine claimed he wrote alone 00:26:27.220 --> 00:26:30.079 before he ever even met them. So even 30, 35 00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:32.720 years later, they are still arguing over liner 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:34.940 notes. It's a matter of principle for Mustaine. 00:26:34.980 --> 00:26:37.759 His view is... I wrote those notes. That is my 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:39.779 intellectual property. You are not taking credit 00:26:39.779 --> 00:26:42.500 for it. Lars's view is probably we arranged it 00:26:42.500 --> 00:26:44.700 as a band. We made it a song. They are both right 00:26:44.700 --> 00:26:47.279 and they are both wrong. It's petty, but it's 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:50.480 very, very real to them. So here we are in 2026. 00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:53.640 From our perspective today, Mustaine has said 00:26:53.640 --> 00:26:56.319 he loves those guys, but admits the relationship 00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:59.539 requires constant work. That is the perfect analogy 00:26:59.539 --> 00:27:01.680 for it. It's like a divorced couple trying to 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:04.279 co -parent an entire genre of music. Let's look 00:27:04.279 --> 00:27:06.319 at the modern era leading up to this farewell. 00:27:06.759 --> 00:27:09.079 Because honestly, the last decade has been a 00:27:09.079 --> 00:27:11.599 real renaissance for Megadeth. They didn't just 00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:14.019 fade away into a nostalgia act. They really didn't. 00:27:14.019 --> 00:27:17.339 In 2016, they released Dystopia. And finally, 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:19.740 after years and years of nominations and losses, 00:27:19.940 --> 00:27:22.099 they won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance 00:27:22.099 --> 00:27:24.880 for the title track in 2017. That had to feel 00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:27.200 like validation. Oh, huge. You could see it on 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.920 his face when he accepted the award. The industry, 00:27:30.059 --> 00:27:32.259 the establishment, finally bent the knee and 00:27:32.259 --> 00:27:34.759 acknowledged his work. And that album featured 00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:37.099 Kiko Loureiro on guitar, who brought a whole 00:27:37.099 --> 00:27:40.180 new energy. A phenomenal player. Then, despite 00:27:40.180 --> 00:27:42.799 the cancer battle and the global pandemic, they 00:27:42.799 --> 00:27:46.500 released The Sick, The Dying, and The Dead. in 00:27:46.500 --> 00:27:49.819 2022 which was a massive success it was the highest 00:27:49.819 --> 00:27:52.000 charting album globally for the band in their 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:55.440 entire career it proved that even in his 60s 00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:58.259 post -cancer mustaine could still write relevant 00:27:58.259 --> 00:28:01.160 aggressive vital music he wasn't trading on his 00:28:01.160 --> 00:28:03.920 past and he branched out into business too And 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:05.680 we're not just talking t -shirts. He became a 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:08.819 lifestyle brand. He became a vintner, a winemaker. 00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:12.539 The House of Mustaine started back in 2015. And 00:28:12.539 --> 00:28:15.339 in 2025, they launched these high -end luxury 00:28:15.339 --> 00:28:18.480 wine excursions and beer, the Atul Amand and 00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:21.519 Rattlehead beer lines. By 2025, they had sold 00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:24.799 over 15 million pints of beer. So he secured 00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:27.630 the legacy financially, too. But all things must 00:28:27.630 --> 00:28:30.549 pass. In 2021, he switched from Dean Guitars 00:28:30.549 --> 00:28:33.049 to Gibson, which was a big industry move. And 00:28:33.049 --> 00:28:36.470 then August 2025, the announcement. The final 00:28:36.470 --> 00:28:39.589 album, Megadeth, and the farewell tour in 2026. 00:28:39.970 --> 00:28:42.349 It is bittersweet because it is dictated by the 00:28:42.349 --> 00:28:44.450 hand condition. He's going out while he can still 00:28:44.450 --> 00:28:46.529 play at a high level, but he knows the clock 00:28:46.529 --> 00:28:48.750 is ticking on his physical ability to do it at 00:28:48.750 --> 00:28:50.809 all. Before we wrap up, we have to touch on his 00:28:50.809 --> 00:28:53.329 public persona, specifically his politics. He's 00:28:53.329 --> 00:28:56.470 unfiltered. He is the living definition of unfiltered. 00:28:56.630 --> 00:28:59.829 He calls himself an independent. And he's lived 00:28:59.829 --> 00:29:02.150 it. He's voted Democrat. He's voted Republican. 00:29:02.309 --> 00:29:05.369 He covered the DNC for MTV. But he's also appeared 00:29:05.369 --> 00:29:07.630 on shows like Infowars. He's all over the map. 00:29:07.869 --> 00:29:10.109 And he's stepped in it a few times royally. Oh, 00:29:10.170 --> 00:29:13.390 several times. In 1988, in Northern Ireland during 00:29:13.390 --> 00:29:16.150 the Troubles, he dedicated a song to the cause 00:29:16.150 --> 00:29:19.190 from the stage. He didn't realize that the cause 00:29:19.190 --> 00:29:22.609 was a common euphemism for the IRA. So he accidentally 00:29:22.609 --> 00:29:25.250 supported a paramilitary group. From the stage, 00:29:25.309 --> 00:29:27.410 yes. And it caused a riot. The band had to be 00:29:27.410 --> 00:29:29.950 escorted out of the venue in a bulletproof bus. 00:29:30.309 --> 00:29:33.549 Wow. And then in the 2010s, he got into some 00:29:33.549 --> 00:29:36.190 pretty heavy conspiracy theories. He did. He 00:29:36.190 --> 00:29:38.750 became a prominent birther, questioning Obama's 00:29:38.750 --> 00:29:41.049 birth certificate. And then in 2012, he suggested 00:29:41.049 --> 00:29:43.529 that the Aurora Theater shootings were staged 00:29:43.529 --> 00:29:46.170 to push gun control. That alienated a lot of 00:29:46.170 --> 00:29:49.069 people. It did. It hurt his reputation significantly 00:29:49.069 --> 00:29:51.549 in the mainstream. But for his hardcore fans, 00:29:51.829 --> 00:29:53.829 it played into this idea that Mustaine is authentic, 00:29:54.069 --> 00:29:56.630 that he says what he thinks, even if what he 00:29:56.630 --> 00:29:59.390 thinks is controversial or factually challenged. 00:29:59.730 --> 00:30:02.890 He is not media trained to be polite. He is a 00:30:02.890 --> 00:30:06.569 raw wire. So here we are. It's 2026. The farewell 00:30:06.569 --> 00:30:10.769 tour is looming. When you look at the whole sprawling 00:30:10.769 --> 00:30:14.130 picture. From the alcoholic father to the car 00:30:14.130 --> 00:30:17.509 crashes, the firing from Metallica, the addiction, 00:30:17.690 --> 00:30:20.809 the cancer, the black belt, the Grammy. It's 00:30:20.809 --> 00:30:23.750 the big takeaway. The takeaway is survival. Pure 00:30:23.750 --> 00:30:26.450 and simple. Daze Mustaine is the ultimate survivor. 00:30:27.150 --> 00:30:29.410 He was supposed to be a footnote in Metallica's 00:30:29.410 --> 00:30:31.309 history. He was supposed to be the guy who burned 00:30:31.309 --> 00:30:34.690 out in 1983. Instead, he built a legacy that, 00:30:34.730 --> 00:30:37.589 in terms of technical influence, absolutely rivals 00:30:37.589 --> 00:30:40.369 them. He didn't just form a band. No, he created 00:30:40.369 --> 00:30:42.509 a counterculture within a counterculture because 00:30:42.509 --> 00:30:44.569 he was angry at the original counterculture that 00:30:44.569 --> 00:30:45.890 kicked him out. He's the guy who gets knocked 00:30:45.890 --> 00:30:48.069 down nine times and gets up ten. And usually 00:30:48.069 --> 00:30:50.289 he gets up swinging a fist. Or a guitar. Or a 00:30:50.289 --> 00:30:52.269 potted plant. Except. So here's a final thought 00:30:52.269 --> 00:30:55.009 for you to chew on as we close out. Mustaine 00:30:55.009 --> 00:30:57.480 spent so much of his life. feeling like he was 00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:00.440 in Metallica's shadow, measuring his album sales 00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:03.660 against theirs. And sure, in the pure metrics 00:31:03.660 --> 00:31:06.480 of capitalism, Metallica won, they play stadiums, 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:09.119 Megadeth plays arenas. Right. But when you look 00:31:09.119 --> 00:31:11.660 at the distinct legacy of technical complexity 00:31:11.660 --> 00:31:14.200 he built with Megadeth, the spider chords, the 00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:17.079 jazz fusion influence, the sheer musicianship, 00:31:17.099 --> 00:31:19.779 and the fact that he is bowing out now, on his 00:31:19.779 --> 00:31:22.160 own terms, with a final album and a farewell 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:25.980 tour in 2026, did he actually win the long game? 00:31:26.349 --> 00:31:28.569 That is the question, isn't it? Did he win the 00:31:28.569 --> 00:31:31.170 war for the musicians' hearts, even if he lost 00:31:31.170 --> 00:31:33.970 the war for the general public's wallets? I think 00:31:33.970 --> 00:31:35.849 if you ask any modern technical metal player 00:31:35.849 --> 00:31:37.650 who their biggest influence is, the answer is 00:31:37.650 --> 00:31:40.069 Dave Mustaine. While you mull that over, do yourself 00:31:40.069 --> 00:31:42.210 a favor. Go put on Rest in Peace, turn it up 00:31:42.210 --> 00:31:44.630 loud, listen to Holy Wars, and listen to it with 00:31:44.630 --> 00:31:46.849 fresh ears, knowing what it took, the drugs, 00:31:46.970 --> 00:31:50.009 the anger, the genius, to get that sound onto 00:31:50.009 --> 00:31:52.150 that record. Thanks for diving deep with us. 00:31:52.250 --> 00:31:53.789 We'll see you next time. Stay curious.