Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth after his surprised departure from Metallica with the help of David Ellefson on Bass and Lee Rauch (drums) in 1983. The two Dave’s began writing and in 1983, Dave needed another guitarist in order cover everything he was writing so he asked friend Kerry King to join the band. At the time, Kerry was also in a band starting up called Slayer. In 1983 after a few shows with Megadeth, Kerry decided that he wanted to pursue his role in Slayer and left the band.
This lineup was extremely short-lived, and Mustaine added guitarist Chris Poland and drummer Gary C. “Gar” Samuelson (both accomplished jazz/ fusion session players) in the area (Gar passed away in 1999). Megadeth toured, signed with the indie underground label Combat Records in late 1984. The following year, the group released their debut, “Killing Is My Business…, And Business Is Good!” The album sold very well for an indie release. Major labels were calling, which at the time they all where biting at the bit to sign Thrash metal bands. By the end of that year, the group signed with Capitol Records. Megadeth’s Major-label debut was, “Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?”, in the fall of 1986. It eventually went platinum. After a long tour Dave with his somewhat erratic behavior he got into doing hard drugs, he fired both Poland and Samuelson before the recording of the band’s third album.
In 1988, he replaced them with guitarist Jeff Young and drummer Chuck Behler and released “So Far, So Good, So What”. This landed at # 28 on the Billboard charts. The album eventually went on to Platinum. The maniac Mustaine was getting more and more out of control. He was arrested in 1990 for driving under the influence, and then entered rehab. At the end of that year, he was sober and fired Jeff Young and Chuck Behler and replaced them with (Laurel, Maryland) native Marty Friedman on guitar (former Cacophony co-founder) and Nick Menza (Mick was offered to be the replacement for Dave Lombardo in Slayer) but decided to join Megadeth. This line up created the quinn-essential metal album called “Rust in Peace” in 1991 it peaked at #23 on the charts and went Platinum. As a result, Dave wanted more mainstream recognition but Metallica softening up a bit.
He released Countdown to Extinction in 1992 and it entered the charts at #2, the album went on to go double platinum. This totally baffled the critics who were grunge-eyed.
They pushed onward with the next release of “Youthanasia” in 1994, which went to #4 on the charts and too went Platinum.
In the middle of this year, the group released “Hidden Treasures” which was a collection of B-sides and rarities. At this point Dave was having more issues. The band took a long hiatus.
They returned in 1997 with Cryptic Writings, which pushed them in the mainstream of rock radio rotation. At this point, Nick discovered a tumor on his knee, and was forced to leave the tour to undergo surgery. He was replaced with ex-Ozzy Osborne/Alice Cooper/Lita Ford/Suicidal Tendencies drummer Jimmy DeGrasso in 1998 after said Dave Mustaine said that Nick lied to him about having cancer.
Following the tour, however, DeGrasso replaced Menza permanently and the band released the album Risk. The album did not sit well with diehard fans. Over frustration and wanting to do his own thing, Marty Freidman left the band while on tour for Risk because Dave told Marty they needed to go back to their roots in metal and Marty abruptly quit.
In late 2000, Megadeth released “Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years”. The album also featured two new tracks, “Kill the King”, and “Dread and the Fugitive Mind”, both of which displayed the band’s return to their metal roots following Risk. Dave and Capitol Records parted ways and he signed on with indie label “Sanctuary” a sub to BMG.
Megadeth released “The World needs a Hero” at this time, Dave recruited Al Pitrelli (ex-Savatage/Alice Cooper) as second guitarist. The tour starting in the summer of 2001, then was abruptly cut short due to the attack on 9/11. They performed 3 shows after 9/11, two of the shows were filmed in Arizona in November which was released as “Rude Awakening” Megadeth’s first official live DVD release and went Gold.
In 2002 Mustaine was admitted to a hospital to remove a kidney stone. While undergoing treatment with pain medication it triggered him to relapse and he immediately checked himself into a treatment center in Texas. While in Texas, Dave had somewhat of a freak injury that occurred from sleeping on his arm. It caused him to end up with radial neuropathy (a condition known as Saturday Night Palsy). This prevented him from playing guitar due to compressed nerves in his left arm and hand. Dave issued a press release in 2003 officially disbanding Megadeth. Dave had surgery on his arm then had to relearn how to play guitar. He took therapy lessons from a jazz instructor. The result, made him hold the guitar slightly higher on the body, giving less fatigue on his hand when playing. During this time, Dave Mustaine launched a campaign of remastered/reissues from the Capitol catalog with bonus material of older Megadeth albums. Some of the original recordings were so bad he had to re-record the vocal and guitar tracks that might have been altered without his knowledge in the initial mixing process. This proved to help him recover faster in order to revive Megadeth.
Then the surprise comeback in 2004 with the release of new material that was initially going to be a Dave Mustaine solo album but do to contractual obligations with EMI in Europe he was forced to release one more album under the Megadeth name. Dave contacted the original Rust in Peace members to contribute on the album but Marty and Dave Junior were both unable to come to an agreement with Mustaine. Nick Menza signed on initially. “The System has Failed”, was released and some of tracks featured none other than Chris Poland, which was a welcoming addition to the die-hard Megadeth fans. In an interview, Dave Mustaine said that Chris would not be touring in support of the album because he cannot remember what he recorded yesterday from what we recorded today and that it was too much of a risk to try to tour with him. Chris claims that it is because he has his jazz band OHM and he was too busy to tour. Sad as it was for the old-skool die-hard fans to hear they wanted to see Chris onstage with Dave again. While in rehearsals for the tour, Nick would once again leave the band because he was unable to physically do a full US tour. Dave enlisted Shawn Drover (Eidolon) on drums, Glen Drover (Eidolon/King Diamond/Iced Earth) on guitar and James MacDonough (Iced Earth) on bass.
In this same year, Dave Ellefson (co-founding member) filed an 18.5M lawsuit against Dave Mustaine in New York Federal Court, citing:
Ellefson and Mustaine had a severe disagreement over royalties and rights to Megadeth’s name and back catalog resulting in Ellefson filing an unsuccessful lawsuit. Mustaine shortchanged him on profits and backed out of a deal to turn Megadeth Inc. over to him when the band broke up in 2002. It also accuses Mustaine of locking him out of merchandise and publishing royalties.
In 2006, Dave and guitarist Glen Drover (Eidolon/King Diamond/Iced Earth) and his brother Shawn on drums along with (White Lion bassist) James Lomenzo and set out on tour. The Tour was a huge success and the fans loved Megadeth going back to its harder edge style. This fueled the fire and the following year Megadeth released “United Abominations” as a follow-up with all the touring members in check. Again, this album took off like a sub-machine gun. They toured the world and back again with “GIGANTOUR” which was a huge success.
In 2008 Glen and Dave were not seeing eye to eye so Glen left to pursue his own interests and Megadeth forged on by adding Chris Broderick on guitar from (Nevermore/Jag Panzer). Chris has a degree in Classical Guitar music performance at the University of Denver and the Lamont School of Music. “GIGANTOUR 2” was born and Megadeth was in full force to take over the metal world. Which featured another set of festivals with support acts: Lamb of God, Opeth, Arch Enemy, Over Kill, Into Eternity, The Smashup, and Sanctity.
Chris Broderick was the Marty that Dave needed and in 2009/2010 launched a new album “Endgame”, which is getting rave reviews from everyone and in comparison to Metallica’s “Death Magnetic”. Megadeth is in full-force warfare mode. As of March 2010 they’ve now come full circle and Megadeth will be heading a touring, then starting a second wave with Slayer on the “Carnage World Tour” then we will be performing for the first time in history a joint-venture tour with Metallica, Testament and Slayer dubbed as “The Big Four” Tour. Currently only European dates are issued but is rumored to be announced anytime now in the states.
Then February 8, 2010 fans get an email through the fan club and a press release that David (Junior) Ellefson is back in the band and will tour in support of the 20th Anniversary of “Rust in Peace”. The internet buzz went bezerk in 24 hours everyone was talking about this and fans cannot wait for the first night of the tour to being. Dave “Junior” stated in an interview that current Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover contacted him via text and told him “if ever there was a time for you and Dave to talk, now is it.” It looks like it worked and all their differences have been put aside and a new relationship has begun. Dave Mustaine recently said, “After being saved in my faith, I released that if I can be saved and forgiven for all I’ve done, then I need to do the same to other people. If I’m going to be forgiven, then so will others” with that began the healing process and the two Dave’s are one again.
Megadeth takes the stage in Washington, DC on March 15, 2010 at the 9:30club with Exodus and Testament as support acts and then again the next night in Baltimore, MD March 16,2010 at Rams Head Live. It is going to be an interesting year for Megadeth and we are all looking forward to it.
(Editors note: Please also see the Meet & Greet Information. Revolution will not only be at the Meet & Greet but we will also be covering both the DC and Baltimore shows!)
