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Revision as of 03:51, 14 November 2004 by 168.192.89.123 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Dave Mustaine (September 13, 1961,-November 13, 2004) was a prominent heavy metal musician for over twenty years.
His parents divorced when he was seven, and he grew up bouncing around various low-income Southern California suburbs. As a teenager, he was often left on his own or with his sisters and their (sometimes abusive) husbands.
In 1981, he left the band Panic to join Metallica, serving as lead guitarist for two years before being fired in April of 1983 for his drug use and personality clashes with founding members Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield who had resolved to keep Metallica as a 'clean' band. It is said that tensions had existed in the band during that time, especially between Hetfield and Mustaine, and they both have made public comments that the arrangement was not an effective one.
According to the story, Ulrich had posted an ad in the local newspapers for a lead guitarist. Mustaine arrived, set up his amplifiers and started his sound check. So impressed were they with his sound check, that they immediately asked him to join them without even asking for a demo tape.
Mustaine returned to Los Angeles after departing Metallica and formed the heavy metal group Megadeth with bassist David Ellefson. Mustaine was the group's main songwriter during the 1980s. While the band began to achieve success, Mustaine's drug problems deepened as he became addicted to heroin.
In 1988, Mustaine co-produced the album Refuge Denied for the band Sanctuary
After an impaired driving arrest in 1990, he entered a 12 step recovery program, and has reportedly remained clean and sober since; he married in 1991, and became a father in '92. Also in 1992, he served as a most unlikely correspondent to the 1992 Democratic National Convention for MTV News.
The band continued to release successful records on a regular schedule, even as it went through repeated turnover in musicians. Mustaine also collaborated on several projects with other musicians, including the band MD.45 with Lee Ving of Fear.
In January 2002, Mustaine suffered a compressed radial nerve in his left hand and arm, making it impossible for him to play guitar. In April of that year, Megadeth was disbanded.
Mustaine went through physical therapy for his injury, and began to explore other areas of the music industry, including production. However, he fully recovered from his arm injury following sucessful therapy and following his recovery, the Megadeth back-catalogue was remixed and remastered on Capitol Records.
Megadeth's Return
In a totally unexpected turn, Mustaine pulled together one of Megadeth's original guitarists in during the 1980s, Chris Poland, and two other people, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Jimmy Lee Sloas on bass, to put out a new album called "The System Has Failed" in September 2004 under the Megadeth band name. The album was very well recieved by music critics and was hailed as a return to Megadeth's 'glory days' straddling the end of the 1980s during the period of "Peace sells... but who's buying?" and "Rust in Peace".
Death
Dave Mustaine collapsed and died inside a recording studio on November 13, 2004. The cause of death is as yet unknown.