Dave Mustaine Puts Megadeth History Up For Sale

Dave Mustaine

In a lot of ways, it’s felt like 2019 has been the biggest year for Megadeth news in a very long time. Not all of that news has been good. We all feared the worst when legendary frontman Dave Mustaine told the world that he was suffering from throat cancer earlier on in the year, and those fears grew even further when he and the band were forced to step back from their hotly-anticipated MegaCruise because of it.

Happily, things have taken a turn for the better in more recent months. Mustaine has successfully completed his cancer treatment, and already feels well enough to confirm that the band will be back on the road with Five Finger Death Punch in 2020 for what promises to be a can’t-miss tour. When they do hit the road, though, they’ll be missing quite a lot of their equipment – and Mustaine couldn’t be happier about it. Nobody’s broken into the band’s old studio and ransacked the place – he’s simply putting it all up for sale.

According to an interview that Mustaine has given to Metal Hammer, there’s a lot of musical equipment that he’s built up during his forty-year career than he’s never going to use again, and he doesn’t want it to gather dust on a shelf or sit in a warehouse for years to come. He’d be much happier knowing that it was all in the hands of the band’s dedicated fan base, and so he’s giving Megadeth fans the chance to purchase their own piece of the band’s history. As of November 4th, he’ll have his own digital store available through Reverb, and he’ll use it to part with in excess of 150 different pieces of equipment.

Mustaine has taken the time to personally autograph much of the equipment, which includes guitars, amps, electronic drum machines, microphones, and pedals. One of the guitars which are up for sale was used to write ‘Holy Wars.’ and there are also drum skins decorated with artwork that was specific to the tour they were used on. Some of the old amps even still have markings on them to indicate the band’s preferred settings to sound engineers. Aside from studio-and-stage used gear, the rock legend is also parting with some valuable kit that’s been sent to him by manufacturers over the years, including several double-necked guitars and a prototype Signature Silver V.

There’s been no suggestion that any of the money raised by the sale will go to charity, and so it’s assumed that anybody who buys any of the old gear will be giving their money straight to Dave. We don’t hold that against him – he’s had a difficult year, and he’s also spent forty years of his time and money building up his impressive collection. All of it will be extremely valuable to collectors and fans, and it’s likely that some of what he sells will end up in places like eBay, so he’s entitled to take a cut of the profits before anybody else does.

There’s been no suggestion that any of the money raised by the sale will go to charity, and so it’s assumed that anybody who buys any of the old gear will be giving their money straight to Dave. We don’t hold that against him – he’s had a difficult year, and he’s also spent forty years of his time and money building up his impressive collection. All of it will be extremely valuable to collectors and fans, and it’s likely that some of what he sells will end up in places like eBay, so he’s entitled to take a cut of the profits before anybody else does.

This isn’t the only unusual money-making scheme we’ve seen Megadeth get involved in during recent times. Earlier on this year, we mentioned that they’d been working with a brewery to create their own officially-licensed Megadeth beer, Saison 13, which is made by Canada’s Unibroue. It’s actually the second beer to be brewed under the Megadeth name, following on from the success the band has had in the past with their previous year A Tout Le Monde. Just a you’d hope for from a heavy metal band, Saison 13 has been described as ‘strong and sharp,’ with an ABV of 6.1%.

Any of our readers who enjoy the occasional gamble may have seen Megadeth somewhere unexpected on their recent online travels, too; the band has their own mobile slots game available, which features a soundtrack of their best-loved songs. They aren’t the only rock legends to go down the mobile slots route; both KISS and Guns n Roses also have official UK slots available. Having companies wanting to come and use your work to sell their own products is a perk of a long career in the entertainment industry, and Megadeth is making the best of it.

One reason that the band might be trying to make money in from elsewhere at the moment is that work on their next album is behind schedule because of Mustaine‘s recovery from illness, and not every member of the band is able to weather the financial storm as well as he is. Speaking to Kerrang earlier this year, he mentioned that Dirk Verbeuren, in particular, received very little income from Megadeth‘s music because he was still so new to the band, and Kiko Loureiro also has to go and play with smaller bands in order to keep the bills paid. Presumably, all monies raised by licensing the band’s work to mobile slots developers, brewers, and whoever else wants to use it are split between the current members. In short, it’s just Dave looking after his flock.

Megadeth 2017

No matter how much equipment is sold during Mustaine‘s November Reverb sale, we hope he keeps enough back to make a success of his tour with Five Finger Death Punch, which looks set to be one of the early metal highlights of 2020. Given the year that the band has had – with the delay in releasing their new album and also having to miss out on the bulk of their own cruise – they deserve a year of positivity, and it would seem that they’re in a position to make sure it happens. The tour comes to an end on February 20th in Hungary, after which the band will presumably head back into the studio to put the finishing touches to the album.

Although there’s been no confirmation that there will be a second Megacruise in 2020, the 2019 version of the party on the waves was described as ‘inaugural,’ and has been described as a complete success. We wouldn’t be opposed to seeing it done again, and we’re sure none of the people who went on it would either. Hopefully, Mustaine can come along this time around!