During a recent episode of “Icons”, Gibson TV sits down with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. In this hour-long intimate look into his musical journey, Dave lets viewers in and shares very personal stories about his childhood, his time with METALLICA, and the enduring legacy of MEGADETH. Rare photos and footage from Dave‘s storied career and tumultuous life paint a picture of a man who has overcome so much and yet never, ever lost his absolute love of playing guitar and creating music.
Recalling how he spent the bus ride back from New York to California after being fired by METALLICA in 1983, Dave said: “The ride home from New York was long. I knew it was gonna be long. The ride out [to New York] was long. The ride out was dangerous. The ride out was bad. Because of the crash in Wyoming, I think that that’s what made me the guy that had to go. And I don’t know. I probably was destined to leave before that because of, you know, the word ‘destiny’ and the fact that there was just so much talent and so much personality between the four of us. I don’t know that we could have survived. There was destined to be some kind of an explosion at some point.
“Leaving METALLICA, a lot of the things that they did, watching them have their success, it could have been anything. They could have quit metal and started making Twinkies and I would have been jealous because we were friends and then, all of a sudden, we’re not friends anymore. And all I know is that I wanna keep doing what we’re doing together because we make people happy and the four of us get to drive around like we’re something special. And I never felt special before in my life until now. But we have this guitar, we’ve got this band, and now I feel like I’m somebody.
He continued: “I’m glad to say that our friendship today is so much different from that moment, those moments, those days, those times, those people. We’re all different. We’re dads. We’re older now. And I think that probably was the most shocking and hardest thing to tolerate or to accept at the end, was that when the band stopped, I kind of felt like I stopped. I know that’s not true. But what’s a young kid at the time to think. I had no mentors, I had no one talking [to me through] my life and saying, ‘You’re gonna get through this, and you’re gonna be so much happier for it.’
“I did a lot of soul searching on the way home,” he said. “Did I wanna play guitar? Did I wanna keep doing this? ‘What am I gonna do? I got it. I’m gonna make a band that’s more metal than METALLICA. And I need to come up with a name that’s more metal than a band that has ‘metal’ in their name. So what can I come up with?’ And I just figured, ‘Well, I’ll wait for that for a little bit.’ And I started writing lyrics.”
MEGADETH‘s “The Metal Tour Of The Year” with LAMB OF GOD is scheduled to kick off today, August 20 in Austin, Texas and hit a further 26 cities before wrapping in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada on Saturday, October 2. Joining them will be special guests TRIVIUM and IN FLAMES, heralding the long-awaited return to the stage for these bands, who are every bit as excited about these historic and not-to-be-missed shows as fans are.
Tickets and dates for the tour are available at this location.
